Recap: Orioles 6, Yankees 2

Chase Whitley had a rare bad outing, surrendering five earned runs over 5 2/3 innings as the Yankees fell to the Orioles, 6-2, on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. 

Starter Struggles: Whitley allowed three home runs during his stint on the mound, giving up six hits in total for his first loss of the year. He served up a solo shot to Jimmy Paredes with two outs in the third, followed shortly by another solo blast from Chris Davis and a two-run bomb from Alejandro De Aza in the fourth. 

A Wasted Opportunity: The Yankees made Baltimore's Wei-Yin Chen throw more than 40 pitches to get out of the second, but couldn't push a run across to support the ill-fated Whitley. They actually scored just once in seven innings against Chen, crossing home in the fifth on a John Ryan Murphy sac fly.

Heating Up?: Batting with two on and two out in the eighth, Carlos Beltran laced a clutch RBI single to center -- his third ribbie in the last two days. It pulled the Yankees to within four at the time, raising Beltran's average on the season to .194.

It Was Close: The Yankees put two men in scoring position with two down in the ninth, and had a chance to make some noise with the surging Brett Gardner at the plate. Gardner chopped one to first, however, officially being ruled out after a challenge. 

All Good Things Have to End: Jacoby Ellsbury went 0-for-5 with a strikeout in this one, snapping his 11-game hitting streak. He lined a Tommy Hunter offering hard off the glove of Ryan Flaherty in the eighth, but it was scored an error. 

Next Up: The Yankees will look to win this series on Sunday when they meet the Orioles for the finale in the Bronx -- beginning at 1:05 p.m. ET and airing live on the YES Network. Michael Pineda (4-0, 2.97 ERA) will take the hill for the Yankees hoping to build off Tuesday's gem in Toronto, facing slumping O's right-hander Bud Norris (1-3, 9.75 ERA).

Recap: Yankees 4, Orioles 3

Alex Rodriguez went 2-for-3 with a milestone home run and the Yankees snuck past the Orioles, 4-3, on Thursday night at Yankee Stadium.

It's Gone: Rodriguez lined a Chris Tillman offering over the center-field wall in the third for his 661st career homer, passing Giants great Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time list. The solo blast came two innings after A-Rod was robbed of another long ball by the Orioles' Delmon Young, though Rodriguez was still credited with a run-scoring sac fly on the play.

Mini Tex Messages: It's been awhile since Mark Teixeira drove in a run with a normal base-hit, but the veteran infielder did just that in this one. In fact, he did it twice -- singling in Brett Gardner following Rodriguez's RBI in the first and recording the go-ahead double later in the fifth.

Eovaldi Okay: Nathan Eovaldi served up a pair of solo home runs to Jimmy Paredes and Caleb Joseph in the contest's early stages, and frankly wasn't very sharp on the evening. Nonetheless, he was able to hold the Orioles to just three earned runs in his 5 2/3 innings -- striking out three for his third victory of the year. 

This Bullpen, Wow: The Yankees' relief core continued its amazing start to the season with 3 1/3 innings of no-hit ball, allowing just one man to reach when Steve Pearce walked in the ninth. Justin Wilson logged the last out of the sixth as well as all three in the seventh, with Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller easily closing it out from there. 

An Interesting Escape: The Orioles had runners on the corners with one out against Eovaldi in the fifth, and with the red-hot Adam Jones at the plate, seemed bound to take the lead. Eovaldi stopped them from doing so, however, with a pick-off at first and a groundout from Jones -- keeping the game even despite an ugly performance in the frame.

Next Up: The Yankees will look to put together a winning streak on Friday when they battle the Orioles again in the Bronx -- beginning at 7:05 p.m. ET and airing live on the YES Network. Adam Warren (2-1, 4.78 ERA) will get the start for the Yankees hoping for a third straight quality outing, opposing always-dangerous O's right-hander Miguel Gonzalez (3-1, 2.59 ERA).

Young Homers Again, But Warren's Blown Save Gives Orioles 2-1 Win Over Yankees

Brandon McCarthy tossed 7 shutout innings and Chris Young hit a go-head solo home run in the top of the eleventh, but since that shot to left was all the bats would do in the contest and Adam Warren blew the save the Yankees crushingly lost the first game of today's doubleheader, 2-1, to the first-place Baltimore Orioles.

For the Yanks, unfortunately, the defeat was their first since Tuesday, snapping a mini-two game winning streak.

And no, it wasn't pleasant to watch.

To start off the day of disappointment, New York stranded two in the top of the fifth when Jacoby Ellsbury lined out to right, before also leaving the bases loaded in the seventh when John Ryan Murphy flew out in foul territory.

Still, due to the escape acts of Dellin Betances and David Robertson in the eighth and ninth things eventually went to extras, where Young would connect on the aforementioned homer off Brad Brach.

No, things weren't over at that point, but considering the O's had looked pretty bad prior to their final at-bat it seemed safe to say Warren would get the last three outs.

Instead, though, the usually-reliable Yanks' reliever had arguably his worst outing of the season, walking two and hitting one to set up a walk-off two-run single by PH Jimmy Paredes, one that heartbreakingly landed just inside the right-field line.

All Home Grown Yankees Team - The Bench

Continuing with our look at the Yankees all home grown team over the last 20 years or so we look at the prospects who did not quite make the cut for the starting nine and have been sent to the bench. On this team this is not necessarily something that should make you feel slighted as the Yankees have been pretty successful in bringing guys through their system and turning them into stars over the last couple of decades. 

Let's take a look at the Yankees bench they would send out with an all prospect team:

BN: Dioner Navarro

BN: David Adams

BN: Jimmy Paredes

BN: Jesus Montero

Dioner Navarro was signed as an amateur free agent by the New York Yankees back in 2000 and made it all the way to the major leagues in 2004. Navarro was sent to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2005 with Javier Vazquez and Brad Halsey for Randy Johnson. The same day Navarro was sent packing to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Shawn Greene. Navarro has spent the rest of his career playing behind the dish for the Dodgers twice, the Tampa Bay Rays, Reds, and the Cubs. 

David Adams was brought up and spent a huge chunk of the 2013 season playing with the big league New York Yankees. Adams spent most of his time at second base, and injured, in the minor league system before being primarily a third basemen this season. Adams also spent time at second base and first base this season making him my utility player for lack of a better word on this team.

The New York Yankees signed Jimmy Paredes as a amateur free agent as a short stop before the 2007 season. Jimmy spent the next three seasons in the Yankees system, including a minor league All Star appearance for the Staten Island Yankees before he was sent to the Houston Astros along with Mark Melancon for Lance Berkman. Paredes is now a jack of all trades making his major league debut for the Astros as a third basemen and now spending most of his time in right field. 

Jesus Montero is one guy that I felt compelled to add as that last option on the bench. If this was a real team he would not be on the team obviously because he would give us two DH only types, unless you still think that he can catch for some reason, but this is pure nostalgia here. I can remember drooling over the thought of Baby Jesus in pinstripes ever since he was signed as an international free agent in 2006. Montero was traded to the Seattle Mariners for Michael Pineda before the 2012 season and has since lost his starting catching job, sent to the minors, and is now working out as a first basemen. I still love Montero so he gets the last spot and always had the last spot as soon as I came up with this idea.