• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Yankees-Orioles Preview

Jun 10, 2010 - 4:06 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

New York (36-22) at Baltimore (16-42), 7:05 p.m. EDT

Much like the rest of the New York Yankees, A.J. Burnett has taken advantage of the lowly Baltimore Orioles.

The right-hander hasn't allowed an earned run in two victories over Baltimore in 2010 and will try to lead the Yankees to a three-game sweep and an 11th straight win over the Orioles on Thursday night at Camden Yards.

New York (37-22) continued its mastery of Baltimore (16-43) with a 4-2 victory Wednesday as CC Sabathia pitched seven strong innings to improve to 13-1 in his career against the Orioles.

The Orioles will see another pitcher that has enjoyed success them in Burnett (6-3, 3.72 ERA), who is 11-2 with a 4.41 ERA in 15 career outings. He's yielded one unearned run and eight hits in 15 1-3 innings against them this year, and is 5-0 with a 3.89 ERA in seven career starts at Camden Yards.

Burnett's last outing, though, went poorly as he gave up six runs over six innings in Friday's 6-1 loss at Toronto.

Major league batting leader Robinson Cano has also enjoyed playing Baltimore this year, going 22 for 44 with four homers and seven RBIs. He has six hits in this series, and is 23 for 38 (.605) with five homers and nine RBIs in his last nine games at Camden Yards.

Cano is batting .376 for the season, and his .350 career average against Baltimore is his highest against any AL club.

Right fielder Nick Swisher has also done plenty of damage, going 18 for 46 with 12 RBIs against the Orioles after his five-RBI performance in Tuesday's 12-7 win.

The Yankees did not start left fielder Brett Gardner, who left Tuesday's game when he hurt his left thumb. Gardner appeared as a pinch-runner after X-rays were negative Wednesday.

New York has never won 11 straight over Baltimore. The 10-game win streak in the series matches runs from May 10-Sept. 2, 2009 and April 21-June 29, 1955.

A lone bright spot in this series for the Orioles is right fielder Nick Markakis, who has four hits in two games after being mired in a 7-for-39 slump over his previous nine games.

Baltimore is clearly looking toward the future and has long anticipated the major league debut for Jake Arrieta, who will make it against the defending World Series champions.

"I know we're going to throw him in the fire against these guys, but hey, we don't get to pick who we play or who we face," interim manager Juan Samuel said. "It's a challenge for him. We'll see how he reacts."

Arrieta, 24, was drafted by Baltimore in the fifth round of the 2007 draft. He was rated the Orioles' fourth-best prospect before the 2010 season by Baseball America.

The right-hander went 6-2 with a 1.85 ERA in 12 appearances with Triple-A Norfolk this season. Batters are hitting only .189 against him, and he has 64 strikeouts and 34 walks in 73 innings.

"We feel that he's one of the big guys that we'll be counting on in the future," Samuel said. "Why not bring him?"