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Jones helps Orioles rout Yankees

Jul 29, 2008 - 4:06 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Jeremy Guthrie spent his All-Star break working on a different aspect of his delivery and, following a big win at Yankee Stadium, he was able to joke about it.

Guthrie scattered three hits over 6 1/3 sharp innings and Adam Jones hit his first career grand slam as the Orioles routed the New York Yankees, 13-4, in the opener of a three-game series Monday night.

The Orioles won their second in a row following a five-game losing streak. They also won for just the sixth time in 20 games while equaling a season high with 17 hits and scoring their most runs since August 19, 2006 against Toronto.

Jones fell a double shy of the cycle and drove in a career-high five runs, surpassing the four that he knocked in here on May 20 in a 12-2 win.

Kevin Millar and Ramon Hernandez also homered as Baltimore set the tone for the night with a four-run second inning off Mike Mussina (13-7). Aubrey Huff also homered as the Orioles reached double digits against New York for the third time this season.

"Those are fun games," Huff said. "It goes without saying, it's fun when you play games like that."

Xavier Nady and Johnny Damon homered for the Yankees, who lost for the second time in 24 hours following a season-high eight-game winning streak. The only consolation was that they did not lose any ground in the American League East race as Tampa Bay and Boston also lost.

The Orioles added two in the fifth and sent many for the exits with a five-run fifth off rookie reliever David Robertson.

That was plenty for Guthrie, who allowed seven baserunners all night. He retired the first nine hitters he faced, took a shutout in the seventh before Nady homered.

Guthrie improved to 4-1 in last eight starts and lowered his ERA to 3.10 in that span. He struck four, walked two, threw 62 of 102 pitches for strikes while also crediting a change in his wind-up inspired by Arizona All-Star Dan Haren.

"Dan Haren's the inspiration for it," Guthrie said. "That's just the way he pitches. I thought it would be a nice little wrinkle in the delivery. So, I worked on it during the All-Star break. I felt comfortable doing it so I continued to try to do it with my all pitches.

"I'm just hoping it adds a little wrinkle and makes it a little more deceptive when I deliver the pitch."

The new aspect of his delivery worked right from the outset as he needed just 36 pitches to breeze through the Yankees the first time through the order. He allowed a hit to Damon to start the fourth, but got Derek Jeter to bounce into a double play that killed a potential rally.

"It's just something I'm making up," Guthrie joked. "I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I'm just trying to do it every now and again."

Two innings later, Guthrie loaded the bases when he hit Alex Rodriguez with a pitch. He worked out of it by striking out Jason Giambi, highlighting an outing that manager Dave Trembley felt was coming.

"You could tell right from the first hitter that he had finish on his pitches," Trembley said. "He just could locate and his tempo was outstanding. He really had a gameplan coming in. He just attacked the guys, and that's the best I've seen him pitch in a long time."

The Yankees also had a 10-game home winning streak stopped and suffered their second straight blowout loss.

A night after seeing Sidney Ponson get pounded for seven runs over four innings, manager Joe Girardi saw Mussina allow six runs and eight hits over five frames.

"It wasn't awful stuff, but it wasn't good stuff," Mussina said. "It was a struggle from the beginning."

It was Mussina's first lost since June 30 to the Texas Rangers and his worst outing since recording just two outs and getting rocked for seven runs and five hits in a 12-2 loss to Baltimore on May 20.

The night did not start out well for Mussina as his outing started with a walk to Brian Roberts. He escaped the inning when the newly acquired Nady threw out Roberts trying to score from first on Nick Markakis' double.

The second did not go as well as Mussina allowed consecutive singles to Melvin Mora and Luke Scott. His next pitch was a cutter that Millar drove over the left-field wall for his 15th home run and a 3-0 lead.

"Mussina's pitched great obviously (this season), so those are four runs against really good pitcher," Guthrie said. "So, it was nice."

Just a few pitches later, Hernandez deposited a 3-2 fastball over the right-center field fence. It was Hernandez's 12th home run and 1,000th career hit.

Jones contributed in the fifth with an RBI triple and scored on Huff's sacrifice fly. The Orioles blew open the game and reached double digits for the eighth time when Jones sent Robertson's 3-2 pitch over the left-field wall.

"We hit balls hard, some right at them," Jones said. "It was one of the few days this year that a lot of balls we hit hard didn't find nobody."