Gausman Returns With 10-Start Winless Streak
(AP) -- The New York Yankees have some ugly numbers at the plate against the Baltimore Orioles' Kevin Gausman.
The problem for Gausman is that he enters Wednesday night's outing mired in a winless stretch of 10 straight starts.
He'll return from the minors and try to help the Orioles even this three-game series against a Yankees team expected to make some lineup changes from their victory in the opener.
Gausman (1-1, 5.00 ERA) is 1-0 with a 1.59 ERA against the Yankees in three starts - all last year. He gave up two runs and recorded two outs in a relief appearance the lone time he saw them this year in a 4-3 victory April 14.
New York (51-41) is batting .217 against the right-hander. Jacoby Ellsbury is 1 for 10 against him, Stephen Drew is hitless in eight at-bats, Mark Teixeira is 1 for 8 and Brian McCann 1 for 7.
Gausman, though, is 0-4 with a 3.90 ERA in his 10-start winless streak, including 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA in three this year after getting drilled for a career-high eight runs in 3 2-3 innings July 7 in an 8-3 defeat at Minnesota. He was sent down to Triple-A Norfolk the next day and will be recalled to make this start.
Drew and Carlos Beltran will likely be back in the Yankees lineup after both sat out against left-hander Wei-Yin Chen in Tuesday's 3-2 victory. Beltran went 1 for 2 on Sunday in his first game since June 30 after a stint on the disabled list with a strained left oblique.
Drew's replacement at second base, Brendan Ryan, hit a tiebreaking RBI double in the sixth inning in New York's seventh win in nine games. Ryan spent two extended stints on the disabled list this season and has made just four starts, with an RBI in three of them.
"It's been very frustrating for me that I cannot prove my value," he said.
Teixeira doubled twice to improve to 7 for 12 in his last three games and 13 for 39 in the season series, with the Yankees taking six of 11.
Yankees starter Ivan Nova (1-3, 3.42) has posted a 4.76 ERA in dropping three straight starts for the first time in his career. He was charged with four runs in 6 2-3 innings in a 5-3 loss at Boston on July 11.
The right-hander is 5-3 with a 5.17 ERA in 12 career starts against the Orioles. Matt Wieters is 11 for 31 with four homers against him and Chris Davis is 8 for 24 with three while Manny Machado has struggled with a single in 14 at-bats.
Machado went 0 for 3 on Tuesday after batting .385 in the first 10 games against the Yankees. Wieters and J.J. Hardy had the club's RBIs.
Baltimore (46-46) was left lamenting the fact that Wieters was caught in a rundown for the final out in the sixth inning after Hardy tied the game and that Chris Parmelee's long fly ball in the seventh with a runner in scoring position was run down by center fielder Ellsbury.
"It's just a fine line against good teams like them," manager Buck Showalter said.
Davis is 8 for 42 with two homers and 21 strikeouts against New York.