• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

A-Rod supports Rasner as Yankees rout Orioles

May 22, 2008 - 3:32 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- On Tuesday, it took the New York Yankees 15 minutes to fall behind. One night later, they grabbed control in a little over an hour.

Alex Rodriguez homered and Darrell Rasner pitched seven scoreless innings as the Yankees snapped a four-game losing streak with an 8-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night.

In his second contest back from a 17-game stint on the disabled list with a right quadriceps injury, Rodriguez had three of New York's 13 hits and two RBI.

Robinson Cano added an RBI double and Johnny Damon contributed a two-run single for the Yankees, who won for just the fourth time in 10 games and scored more than five runs for the first time since May 8 vs. the Cleveland Indians.

"I think we have a good offense," Rodriguez said. "We're very confident. Our goal is to dominate every game."

The game was a complete reversal of Tuesday's ugly 12-2 loss.

"It was nice walking out on the field and shaking hands, that's for sure," New York manager Joe Girardi said. "We haven't done that in a long time. You get the big performance out of Rasner and the offense comes alive, it's a good feeling."

On Tuesday, the Yankees allowed eight unearned runs for the first time since 1990, fell behind by seven runs before their first turn at-bat, lost captain Derek Jeter to a hand injury and then reliever LaTroy Hawkins to an ejection for nearly triggering a benches-clearing brawl.

Jeter, who suffered a contusion on his left hand was in the lineup Wednesday, and the rest of his teammates also showed up.

The Yankees had a pair of three-run innings off Orioles starter Garrett Olson and cruised the rest of the way to their third shutout of the season.

One night after Mike Mussina allowed seven runs and only recorded two outs, Rasner made the support stand up in the longest outing of his career. He scattered five hits en route to his third win in as many starts this season.

"It did (give me extra confidence), especially with that kind of run support," Rasner said. "It gave me a little extra confidence that's for sure. I credit the (lineup) for that."

Pitching for the first time since May 10, the righthander set a career high with six strikeouts and issued just one walk while throwing 61 of 95 pitches for strikes. Joba Chamberlain hurled the final two frames, yielding one hits while walking two and striking out three.

Chamberlain threw 35 pitches, and after the game, the Yankees revealed that it was part of the transition to turn him into a starter, which is something that co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner has wanted to happen.

"This is the timetable that we had set," Girardi said. "It's going to get him a while to where he's going be, a hundred pitches. But this is what we had planned all along and we're sticking to our plan that we talked about over the winter and in spring training."

"I'm excited," Chamberlain said. "It's just another opportunity to help the team win."

After getting 7 2/3 effective innings from Daniel Cabrera on Tuesday, the Orioles lost for just the third time in 11 games.

Baltimore's starters had pitched into the fifth inning and not allowed more than four earned runs in 10 straight games, but those trends ended as Olson (3-1) lasted just 2 2/3 innings and was reached for six runs and eight hits.

It was the shortest start of Olson's career and the shortest by an Orioles starting pitcher since Adam Loewen also lasted 2 2/3 frames April 24 at Seattle.

"He didn't show any confidence in his fastball," Baltimore manager Dave Trembley said. "He kept going away from using the fastball and was pitching up. He just didn't locate anything."

New York got to Olson with one out in the second as they put together four straight hits and a walk.

Cano drove in Shelley Duncan with a double to right-center field and scored on Chad Moeller's base hit to left. After Melky Cabrera singled and Damon walked to load the bases, the Yankees took a three-run lead on Jeter's groundout.

They continued in the third as Rodriguez led off with his sixth home run and second since returning from the DL on Tuesday. New York loaded the bases again and took a six-run edge on Damon's two-run double which ended Olson's night.

Rodriguez almost hit another home run, smacking a long drive that went off the yellow staircase beyond the right-center field wall, but the umpires ruled it an RBI double. Rodriguez eventually scored New York's eighth run on Duncan's groundout.