(Sports Network) - Having struggled in his most recent start, New York Yankees hurler A.J. Burnett must consider Camden Yards a welcome site. Too bad the Baltimore Orioles don't feel the same way.
Burnett hopes to remain undefeated at Baltimore's home park and pitch New York to its 11th straight victory over the O's in this evening's finale of a three- game series.
The 33-year-old Burnett has excellent career numbers against the Orioles, having gone 11-2 with a 4.41 earned run average in 15 starts against them. He has already picked up two victories versus them this year, allowing just one unearned run over 15 1/3 innings in those games.
Burnett held the Orioles to just three hits over eight shutout innings in his last trip to Baltimore on April 29, an outing in which he improved to 5-0 with a 3.89 ERA in seven career starts at Camden Yards.
The right-hander struggled in his most recent trip to the hill, allowing six runs on six hits in a loss to the Blue Jays on Friday that snapped a two-start winning streak. Burnett gave up three homers to Toronto, but wasn't totally discouraged by the outing that dropped him to 6-3 with a 3.72 ERA on the season.
"I thought I threw the ball decent besides [the home runs]," Burnett said. "That's the game in itself. ... Those balls don't (get left over the plate), it makes it a closer game."
Burnett is 2-3 with a 5.65 ERA over his last six starts since beginning the season 4-0 with a 1.99 ERA in six outings.
Teammate CC Sabathia helped extend New York's win streak over Baltimore on Wednesday, throwing seven innings of two-run ball in a 4-2 victory. The win improved Sabathia to 13-1 in his career versus the Orioles.
"You try to make adjustments. Facing a team back-to-back is tough. They came out aggressive tonight," Sabathia said of the Orioles.
Robinson Cano, who leads the majors with a .376 batting average, turned in his third three-hit game in a row for the Yankees, who have won three straight and eight of their last 10. Cano is batting .500 (22-for-44) with four homers and seven RBI versus the Orioles this year.
New York, which trails first-place Tampa Bay by two games in the American League East, hasn't lost to Baltimore since April 27 and has won an astonishing 30 of its last 36 versus the O's dating back to July 30, 2008.
Chris Tillman took the hard-luck loss after yielding three runs -- two earned -- on eight hits over six innings as last-place Baltimore lost for the 12th time in its last 13 games overall.
"It's a shame. [Tillman] was pitching so well," Orioles interim manager Juan Samuel said. "But he ended the game on a positive note. It's something to build on."
Baltimore will turn to a fresh face tonight in the hopes of reversing its fortunes versus New York, as Jake Arrieta will make his major league debut. A fifth-round pick of the 2007 draft, the 24-year-old was ranked the Orioles' fourth-best prospect by Baseball America prior to the start of the season.
"We feel that he's one of the big guys that we'll be counting on in the future," Samuel told Baltimore's website. "Why not bring him [up]? I know we're going to throw him in the fire against these guys, but hey, we don't get to pick who we play or who we face. It's a challenge for him. We'll see how he reacts."
Arrieta could be up the challenge. The right-hander allowed just two runs over his final three minor league starts, striking out 23 batters over 22 innings, and was 6-2 with a 1.85 ERA in 12 games this year with Triple-A Norfolk, all but one of those starts.