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Burres, Orioles hold down Rodriguez, Yankees

Jul 29, 2007 - 7:38 AM BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- Alex Rodriguez continues to struggle in his pursuit of 500 home runs. Brian Burres and the Baltimore Orioles made sure of it.

Burres tossed six solid innings and Miguel Tejada drove in four runs as the Orioles held down Rodriguez and the New York Yankees' stagnant offense in a 7-5 victory at Camden Yards on Saturday night.

Brian Roberts had two hits and three runs scored for Baltimore, which tied a season high with its sixth straight win.

After sweeping the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the Orioles have won the first two contests of a three-game set against the Yankees. The teams started off the weekend by finishing a suspended game from June 28.

"We're teaching team baseball," Oriole interim manager Dave Trembley said. "I think that's how you get everybody buying into what's going on and you get everybody playing the game all nine innings."

Rodriguez, who leads the major leagues in homers and RBI, belted his 499th career blast on Wednesday in Kansas City but has done little since. The slugger is 0-for-9 with four strikeouts since approaching the historic mark.

On Saturday, he went hitless in four at-bats, striking out three times. Rodriguez looked out of sync, swinging at many balls out of the strike zone - perhaps preoccupied with No. 500.

"They're being extremely careful. I'm kind of playing into their hands a little bit. There's not much I can do with the pitches I'm swinging at," Rodriguez said. "I got one pitch (to hit) in three games. They're being careful. I can't help it."

Rodriguez was not the only Yankee to struggle at the plate. The club has combined for eight runs in their last three games and continued to struggled Saturday against Burres, who yielded just one run and four hits, while striking out seven and walking three.

"I felt like I could throw the ball pretty much where I wanted to," Burres said. "I just concentrated on the glove."

"Runs are a premium, and for a few days there, it looked like we had no trouble scoring runs and we didn't put that much emphasis on pitching, but pitching is really the only way to control the game," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

John Parrish and Danys Baez each pitched clean frames, setting up the ninth for Cory Doyne, who allowed four runs and five hits before being pulled without recording an out.

"Obviously, his (Doyne) fastball was too much in the middle of the plate. They are a good hitting club," Trembley said. "They've got nothing to lose. They are behind in the game and they are not going to take pitches and he threw fastballs in locations where they can hit it."

Jamie Walker came on with the tying run at the plate and notched his third save. But it was not without drama.

The Yankees cut their deficit to 7-5 on Derek Jeter's RBI single, bringing up Bobby Abreu, who worked the count full before swinging through a hanging slider to end the game. Rodriguez was left on deck.

The Orioles got two quick runs in the first inning thanks to Brian Roberts, who led off the frame with a double off New York starter Roger Clemens (3-5). After Corey Patterson struck out, Nick Markakis walked, and Kevin Millar moved Roberts to third with a deep fly ball.

Miguel Tejada then doubled home both runners.

Roberts also started a rally in the fifth, walking to lead off the inning. Patterson sacrificed him to second, and Roberts then stole third, setting up Markakis' RBI single to make it 3-0.

Collecting just two hits through the first two innings, the Yankees finally broke through in the seventh. Hideki Matsui led off the inning with a solo shot into the right field seats, and Jorge Posada followed with a single to chase Burres (5-4).

But Parrish came on and worked out the jam, eventually retiring Johnny Damon, who represented the tying run, to end the threat. Damon also hit into a double play to help kill the ninth-inning rally.

Leading, 3-1, Baltimore added some insurance in the seventh. Tejada ripped a two-run single to give his club a four-run advantage.

"Winning is nice," Tejada said. "Good thing we scored many runs because we are playing one of the best teams in baseball."

Clemens allowed four runs and eight hits, while striking out six and walking three, in 6 1/3 innings for the Yankees, who have lost three in a row after winning 11 of 13 games.

"It was their day. We mounted a little charge late, but it wasn't enough," Clemens said.