Bronx, NY (Sports Network) – Robinson Cano had a career night and the Yankees scored a franchise-record 12 runs in the first inning, on the way to 24 hits and a 17-3 rout of the Baltimore Orioles to sweep a day/night doubleheader.
Nick Swisher clubbed a two-run homer and Brett Gardner added a two-run single during an 8-3 Yankee win in the day contest.
In the night game, the Yankees pounded Orioles starter Zach Britton during a 40-minute bottom of the first inning. The 12 runs are the most scored in the first frame for the team and the most in any inning for the Yankees since a 13-run eighth against Tampa Bay on June 21, 2005.
Cano went 5-for-5 with five RBI, including a pair of run-scoring singles in the first inning. Swisher belted a two-run homer to cap the 10-hit frame, which saw 16 men come to the plate.
The beneficiary of the offense was Ivan Nova (9-4), who made his first major league appearance since July 1. The right-hander fanned six batters through seven innings and won his fifth straight decision.
“I thought he got better as the game went on,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “I thought he used his stuff better. I thought his slider helped him tonight.”
Britton (6-8), who dropped his fourth consecutive decision, didn’t make it out of the nightmare opening frame, as he was charged with seven hits and nine runs — six earned — while recording just one out. Jason Berken had just as much trouble over the next 2 2/3 innings, allowing eight hits and seven runs.
The offensive numbers were eye-popping for the Yankees, who went 12-for-25 with men in scoring position. Every starter in the lineup had at least one RBI, except for Curtis Granderson, who had four hits and scored three times. Andruw Jones hit a mammoth homer in the third inning.
Vladimir Guerrero went 4-for-4 with a homer and drove in two runs for the Orioles, who lost for the fourth time in five games.
Matt Wieters lined out to a sliding Brett Gardner in left field to end the top of the first, as the Orioles left the bases full.
The Yankees, winners in five of their last seven, then had a stretch of nine straight batters reaching base in the bottom of the inning after Derek Jeter struck out to open the frame.
Cano’s single to left plated Curtis Granderson and Swisher then reached safely when shortstop J.J. Hardy bobbled a bouncer. That plated Mark Teixeira. Jones smacked an RBI double high off the fence in left, Russell Martin singled to right for another run and Eduardo Nunez followed suit for a 5-0 cushion.
“I wasn’t able to make adjustments,” said Britton, who didn’t make it out of the first inning against Boston in his last start – July 8 at Fenway Park. In the two combined games Britton has given up 13 hits and 13 runs over one inning.
It only got worse for Britton, as Gardner legged out an infield hit on a high chop that the Orioles starter threw late to first base. Jeter followed with a two-run ground single to right field.
“I felt like I was getting ground balls, just not where I wanted to,” Britton said. “I just wasn’t able to mix any offspeed pitches enough to keep them off balance. It seemed like they were just sitting on the fastball.”
Berken then entered and fanned Granderson, but Teixeira doubled to the right field corner for a 9-0 lead. Cano singled him in and Swisher crushed a 1-0 pitch to the right field bleacher to finish the uprising which saw the Orioles throw 70 pitches.
Cano doubled in two runs during a three-run second and Jones smashed a ball off the back of the bullpen in left-center leading off the bottom of the third.
In between, Gurrero doubled in a run and he homered to right in the sixth.
Cano added an RBI double in the sixth before Mark Reynolds capped Baltimore’s scoring with a single to center in the eighth.