Baltimore, MD – Mark Teixeira hit a go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh inning Monday night and the New York Yankees topped the Baltimore Orioles, 8-5, in the opener of a two-game series.
Curtis Granderson also homered and Alex Rodriguez had three hits in New York's fourth win in five games.
Derek Jeter grounded into two double plays but also passed Robin Yount for 16th place on the all-time hits list with a single in the third inning, his 3,143rd hit.
J.J. Hardy had a two-run homer for the Orioles, who have dropped two in a row.
The Yankees were just 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position but managed to plate seven runs between the fourth and seventh innings to take the lead.
They loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth to chase Orioles starter Jason Hammel. Robinson Cano led off with a double while Teixeira and Nick Swisher both drew walks. Two runs scored when Raul Ibanez, batting against Luis Ayala (1-1), hit the ball past first baseman Chris Davis, who was charged with an error.
Ayala stayed on for the seventh and took the loss after Rodriguez hit a leadoff single in front of Teixeira's one-out homer to right for a 7-5 Yankees lead.
The Yankees added a run in the ninth inning on Eric Chavez's bases-loaded sac fly off Dana Eveland and Rafael Soriano worked around a Chavez error -- he let Nick Markakis' pop up drop behind third base -- to earn his second save.
"That was a huge home run for us to put us ahead 7-5," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said about Teixeira's blast. "To get that two-run homer I thought was really important and then we tacked on one with some good at-bats late in the game."
Hammel allowed five runs -- four earned -- on seven hits and three walks while Yankees starter Ivan Nova gave up five runs on seven his and three walks in 5 1/3 innings.
David Phelps (1-1) earned the win with a scoreless inning.
Xavier Avery sparked Baltimore's two-run first inning with a leadoff double, his first major league hit, and scored on Hardy's single. Hardy went to second on a ground out and came home on Adam Jones' double.
Rodriguez and Cano hit back-to-back singles to start the fourth inning and both scored on Swisher's one-out double to the left-center field wall to tie the game at 2-2.
After Jeter grounded into a double play in the fifth, Granderson blasted his 12th homer of the season over the wall in right for a 3-2 lead.
The Orioles came back to take a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth, sparked by Robert Andino's leadoff walk and Avery's RBI triple. The big blast was Hardy's ninth homer of the season, a two-run shot to left-center field.
"We took the lead again. We just couldn't hold on to it," said Orioles manager Buck Showalter.
Game Notes
The Yankees are 5-2 against the Orioles this season...Major League Baseball suspended Orioles prospect Billy Rowell 50 games on Monday for a second violation of the league's drug prevention and treatment program. Rowell was the club's top selection in the 2006 first-year player draft...Ibanez left the game after being hit on the right elbow by Eveland in the ninth...Jeter had passed Tony Gwynn on Sunday. Paul Waner is 15th on the list with 3,152 hits...Nova's loss May 2 to the Orioles ended his 15-decision winning streak dating to last June.
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