(Sports Network) - The New York Yankees and CC Sabathia try to continue their dominance over the Baltimore Orioles this evening, when the American League East rivals continue a three-game series at Camden Yards.
Sabathia has beaten the Orioles the last seven times he has faced them and notched his third win of the season against Baltimore on Thursday. The big left-hander won for the first time in six starts in that one, as he held the O's to three runs and three hits in seven innings. He also struck out seven as he improved to 5-3 on the year while lowering his earned run average to 4.14.
Sabathia has just owned the Orioles over the course of his career, having gone 12-1 with a 2.60 ERA in 17 starts.
It hasn't just been Sabathia who has had the Orioles number of late, as the Yankees have beaten them nine straight times. New York's latest victory came in Tuesday's opener, as Nick Swisher homered and matched a career high with five RBI while Curtis Granderson added a grand slam to lead the Yanks to a 12-7 win.
Mark Teixeira also went 3-for-4 with a two-run shot, his first homer since May 30. He had batted 4-for-28 with no RBI in his previous seven games.
"It's kind of like a bounce-back game, after you lose a tough game or you're in a little streak, you want to bounce back as soon as you can," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Teixeira's performance. "I think it is important. Tex is a professional, he's not going to let it affect him either way. But as a player, you still want to have those bounce-back games."
New York provided plenty of run support for Phil Hughes (8-1), who picked up the win after allowing three runs on nine hits in six innings.
Adam Jones hit a two-run homer for Baltimore, which has dropped 11 of its last 12 games overall and is 4-22 in its last 26 against the Yanks.
Kevin Millwood (0-7) had given up six runs in 5 2/3 innings to New York last Thursday, and had an eerily similar outing on Tuesday, allowing six runs in 5 2/3 innings. The right-hander gave up 10 hits and walked five, and those baserunners came back to hurt him.
"Obviously I didn't want all of [the walks], but a couple of them I didn't really care about," Millwood said. "I needed to make the pitches after that to get the guys out and just wasn't able to do that."
Tonight Baltimore will pin its hopes on 22-year-old right-hander Chris Tillman, who was roughed up in his last start on Friday against Boston. Making just his second start of the season, Tillman failed to get out of the second inning, as he allowed four runs and five hits in just 1 1/3 frames.
Tillman, who is 0-1 with a 7.71 ERA on the year, beat the Yankees the only other time he faced them, back on September 11 of last season.
The Yanks took two of three from the O's at Camden Yards from April 27-29.