Bronx, NY – Nick Markakis drove in two runs among three hits, Wilson Betemit homered and the visiting Baltimore Orioles opened a three-game set against the New York Yankees with a 5-4 win Monday night.
Baltimore starter Miguel Gonzalez (3-2) gave up four runs on six hits, including a trio of solo home runs, in 6 2/3 innings. The rookie right-hander struck out eight and issued no walks.
Jim Johnson stranded two men in scoring position in the ninth to record his 31st save of the season. Johnson surrendered a leadoff double to Nick Swisher and walked Eric Chavez with one out. After Ichiro Suzuki grounded into a fielder's choice and stole second, Johnson fanned Russell Martin to end the game.
The Orioles, who closed to within 6 1/2 games of AL East-leading New York, arrived at Yankee Stadium having lost five of their last seven contests.
"Our hitting was great tonight," Gonzalez said. "(Matt) Wieters did a great job back there. Obviously, I kept the team in the game, a couple mistakes hurt me, but good thing we won it."
Chavez, Suzuki and Raul Ibanez homered for New York, which has dropped eight of 11. Chavez added an RBI single.
Freddy Garcia (4-5) allowed three runs on nine hits over six frames to absorb his 100th career loss.
New York first baseman Mark Teixeira left the game in the eighth with a left wrist injury. He suffered the injury diving for Hardy's seventh-inning single and will have an MRI Tuesday.
"I'm not crazy concerned because I've tried to play through it," Teixeira said. "It's one of those things if you really hurt yourself bad you're out and you can't do much. I was kind of nursing it today when I was swinging. Hopefully it's just a couple of days and I can get back out there."
Baltimore extended its lead to 5-2 in the seventh. Lefty Boone Logan struck out Betemit and Mark Reynolds, both of whom were batting right-handed, to begin the inning before walking Omar Quintanilla, who scored on a double to right-center by Markakis, another left-handed batter.
J.J. Hardy then recorded an RBI single off David Phelps to put the Orioles up by three.
The Yankees, however, trimmed the deficit to one in the home seventh when Chavez and Suzuki belted back-to-back two-out blasts to right field.
Suzuki's first home run as a Yankee was the 100th of his major league career.
New York opened the scoring in the second when Chavez singled home Ibanez, who had reached on a two-out base hit and advanced to second on a balk.
Betemit tied the game in the third with a leadoff shot to right, and the Orioles went ahead 3-1 in the fifth. Betemit started the rally with an infield single and Reynolds doubled before Quintanilla hit a sacrifice fly to center. Reynolds scampered to third on the play and came home on a sac fly by Markakis.
Ibanez led off the bottom of the fifth with a home run to right.
Game Notes
Suzuki has hit safely in each of his first seven games with the Yankees. He snapped a 188 at-bat homerless stretch...Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano is mired in an 0-for-14 slump...Yankees batters have homered in 18 straight home games, their second-longest such streak in the current Yankee Stadium's history, trailing only a 20-game stretch from the 2009 season...Gonzalez is 3-0 with a 2.93 ERA in five games (3 starts) on the road this season.
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