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Orioles-Yankees Preview

Jun 3, 2010 - 4:05 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Baltimore (15-37) at New York (32-20), 1:05 p.m. EDT

The New York Yankees have seven straight wins over the Baltimore Orioles while ace CC Sabathia has won six straight starts against baseball's worst team.

The Yankees hope both those streaks continue Thursday when they seek to complete a three-game home sweep of their stumbling AL East rivals.

New York (33-20) will try to stretch its overall win streak to five and hand Baltimore (15-38) its eighth straight loss. Speculation has been rampant that Orioles manager Dave Trembley will be fired as he endures a terrible season in which his club has never recovered from a 2-16 start.

"We're not hitting with men in scoring position right now," third baseman Miguel Tejada said. "Maybe we need to concentrate more. We need to do something to pick it up."

The Yankees fell 5-4 at Baltimore on April 27 before winning every meeting since. New York has outscored the Orioles 39-12 during its win streak in the season series, with Robinson Cano playing a major role.

Cano is 15 for 33 (.455) with four homers against Baltimore this year. He went 3 for 4 with a homer in Wednesday's 9-1 rout, and is batting .471 during a 16-game hitting streak - including eight straight multihit efforts.

Sabathia (4-3, 4.16 ERA), meanwhile, is 0-2 with a 6.28 ERA in his last five starts as he tries to bounce back against an opponent he has dominated. Since losing his Yankees debut to the Orioles on April 6, 2009, he's 6-0 with a 1.77 ERA in the next six outings against them.

That's of little concern to the left-hander, who looks to avoid his first six-start winless streak since he went 0-2 with a 3.79 ERA from March 31-April 27, 2003. Sabathia gave up five runs over six innings Saturday and did not get a decision in a 13-11 loss to Cleveland.

"We scored 11 runs," Sabathia told the Yankees' official website. "I should have been able to shut them down and keep the game under control."

Sabathia won't be throwing to Jorge Posada, who could again serve as the designated hitter after going 1 for 3 on Wednesday in his first action since May 16. Posada was out due to a broken foot that has healed quicker than expected, but he hasn't been cleared yet to catch.

"Everything felt fine," Posada said.

Manager Joe Girardi has not committed to Posada as a full-time DH at this point, saying he wants to rotate players at that spot. Posada said he'll be 100 percent in two to three weeks, and Francisco Cervelli remains the everyday catcher.

Baltimore starter Kevin Millwood (0-5, 3.89) will try again to end his worst career start to a season. He gave up five runs over six innings last Friday in a 5-0 loss at Toronto.

Millwood's teams, however, have won his last four outings against the Yankees. The veteran right-hander gave up two runs over 5 1-3 innings in the victory April 27.

Cano (.381), Nick Swisher (.355) and Alex Rodriguez (.375) have all enjoyed success against Millwood.

Swisher had three hits and three RBIs Wednesday, and is 13 for 32 against Baltimore this year.