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Cabrera sharp as Orioles hold off Yankees

Jul 30, 2008 - 3:34 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Daniel Cabrera gave the Baltimore Orioles the length they had been lacking from their starting pitchers before things became eventful in the late innings.

Cabrera pitched effectively into the eighth before getting ejected for hitting Alex Rodriguez as the Orioles hung on for a 7-6 victory over the New York Yankees on Tuesday.

Aubrey Huff tied a career high with four hits, including a three-run double and solo homer for the Orioles, who have won three in a row for the first time in over a month and have won seven of the last 11 games with the Yankees.

Kevin Millar homered for the second straight night and Melvin Mora added two RBI for Baltimore, which had lost five in a row before Sunday.

While the offense has scored 20 runs in the first two games of this series, the night belonged to Cabrera, who allowed just Rodriguez's 540th career home run among eight hits.

"He's been dominant against us in the past and tonight was no different," Rodriguez said.

Cabrera (7-6) struck out two, issued just two walks and threw 63 of 103 pitches for strikes. The righthander won for the first time in five starts since his seven-hitter on July 2 against the Kansas City Royals.

Cabrera improved to 3-0 against the Yankees this season and has held New York to seven runs and 18 hits in 20 innings in those three starts. In his latest win over New York, he was able to utilize his sinking fastball to get 10 groundball outs and did so just five days after getting pounded for seven runs and 11 hits against Toronto.

"Last couple of days, I didn't try to work too much, try to put too many things in my mind," Cabrera said. "So I just relaxed."

"His sinker was like it was earlier in the season," Baltimore catcher Ramon Hernandez said. "It was pretty good. He was getting a lot of groundball outs tonight. That's a good pitch and he can get a lot of hitters out."

His outing also represented just the second time in 23 games that manager Dave Trembley had seen his starting pitcher last at least seven frames. The other instance was Jeremy Guthrie on July 10 in Toronto.

"Cabrera pitched a great game," Trembley said. "I thought he got stronger as the game went on. In fact, after he allowed the home run to Rodriguez, I thought he really bore down and reached back and pitched better after that."

Since Cabrera's complete game, the Orioles had lost 15 times as their pitchers posted a 7.11 ERA over that span. Cabrera followed a strong 6 1/3-inning performance from Guthrie on Monday and, for most of this night, had just a two-run lead with which to work.

Cabrera lost his shutout bid in the sixth when Rodriguez homered to center field. He put the tying run on base when Jason Giambi lined a single to right but escaped the jam by retiring Robinson Cano on a double play, and Wilson Betemit on a groundout.

Moments after Cabrera worked out of trouble, his teammates put together a four-run inning off Darrell Rasner and lefthanded reliever Damaso Marte.

Cabrera started the eighth but put the first two Yankees on when he hit Rodriguez in the elbow. He was ejected by plate umpire Chad Fairchild without a warning, and Jim Johnson came on.

"It was tough," Cabrera said. "Everybody in the whole stadium, they know that I'm not trying to hit A-Rod. He took me out. There's nothing I can do."

"He was basing his decision on A-Rod's previous at-bat when he hit the home run," Trembley said. "I said, 'Chad you just did exactly what we have been trying to avoid - you just let 54,000 people back into this game. We can agree to disagree, that's baseball, but I'd bet the farm that Cabrera wasn't throwing at him in that situation."

While Cabrera said he wasn't trying to hit Rodriguez, Fairchild felt he had to act when the first pitch got away.

"There had been no warnings given to that point in the game, but my thinking with the ejection is, when Alex came to bat the prior time, he had hit a home run, and the very first pitch his next at-bat was up towards the head area. I deemed that pitch intentional and I removed (Cabrera) from the game."

It was the second time in less than a week that Rodriguez had been plunked in the late innings. On Saturday, he was hit by Craig Hansen in Fenway Park a night after Joba Chamberlain threw behind Kevin Youkilis.

"I didn't see it (the ejection)," Rodriguez said. "I was over by their dugout getting out of the way. I don't get involved in that stuff."

While Rodriguez downplayed it, manager Joe Girardi did not sound pleased.

"This has happened a few times," Girardi said. "He's been kind of wild. I'm not going to get into it that much. I'm just going to say I didn't like it."

Johnson loaded the bases and gave up Cano's two-run single. Facing the tying run in Betemit, Johnson got a strikeout, retired Melky Cabrera on a lineout to center and fanned pinch hitter Xavier Nady.

After Johnson escaped trouble, Huff capped the scoring with a solo home run in the ninth off Mariano Rivera.

Despite it not being a save situation anymore, George Sherrill worked the ninth and struggled to finish it. He gave up Bobby Abreu's RBI double to left and elected to pitch to Rodriguez with first base open.

Sherrill struck out Rodriguez, but Giambi hit a two-run single that deflected off the lefthander's ankle and into left field. After pinch runner Justin Christian stole second, he fanned Cano and Betemit to end it.

"The last three outs are the toughest outs to get at Yankee Stadium," Trembley said. "I'm real proud of our team, and they just played tremendous baseball."

Rasner pitched six-plus innings and allowed four runs and eight hits. He was lifted after hitting Adam Jones with a pitch, and Marte gave up three straight hits, including a three-run double to Huff, who just missed a grand slam on the previous pitch.

"I guess we play a little bit better against playoff-contending teams," said Huff, who is batting .500 (17-for-34) in his last eight games. "It seems like we step it up a little more."