Jeremy Guthrie Silences Yankees As Orioles Win 4-2
NEW YORK (AP) -- Jeremy Guthrie made one thing clear to any playoff contenders pondering a deal for him: He can help. The same could be said for Derrek Lee and Koji Uehara, too.
Guthrie shut down the New York Yankees for seven innings, perhaps driving up his price in a trade, and the Baltimore Orioles got homers from Lee and Mark Reynolds in a 4-2 victory Friday night.
"Jeremy needed it. Jeremy's pitched well enough to have some more Ws next to his name, so I'm real proud of him tonight," Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. "Everybody played well. There was a lot of intensity in a situation where some people may not have had it all the time."
Kevin Gregg held on in a shaky ninth, striking out Brett Gardner with runners at the corners to end it.
Reynolds and Lee each drove in two runs, lending some rare offensive support to the major league leader in losses. Guthrie (5-14) allowed just four hits, including Mark Teixeira's solo homer, and walked three in one of his best outings during a frustrating season.
"A real good win for us here against a quality team and a good pitcher," Guthrie said.
The right-hander outpitched A.J. Burnett (8-9) for his first win in four career starts at Yankee Stadium. Last-place Baltimore won for the second time in 11 road games, improving to 1-6 against New York this year, as Guthrie moved to 2-7 away from home.
A durable starter considered a prime trade candidate before Sunday's non-waiver deadline, Guthrie handcuffed New York's dangerous lineup by consistently keeping the ball down. He got 12 outs on grounders and four of his five strikeouts came in his last two innings.
"I don't anticipate anything happening," Guthrie said. "I've said it before, 99 percent of what goes on or is talked about
around trade deadline doesn't ever happen. So why would you ever worry about it or think about it?"
Guthrie, 32, has sharp-looking wins over the Red Sox and Yankees in his past three starts. In between, he pitched pretty well in a loss to the Angels.
"Jeremy Guthrie's worth a lot. You saw what he's capable of today against a lineup like the Yankees," Lee said. "There's not
a lot of great starting pitching that's available out there, so I'm sure he'd bring a good return."
Uehara, also potential trade bait, fanned two in a scoreless eighth for Baltimore -- extending his shutout streak to 15 innings.
He has not given up a run in 13 outings since June 19 at Washington. Gregg pitched the ninth for his 17th save.
Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher opened the inning with consecutive doubles to cut it to 4-2. One out later, Jorge Posada
walked and Russell Martin grounded into a force play. That brought up Gardner, who thought he walked on a close pitch before he went down swinging.
Gardner slammed his bat twice to the ground, smashing it into pieces.
"I didn't get any hits tonight, so it was time to retire it anyway," he said.
Burnett struck out 10 and yielded five hits in eight innings. He is 0-3 in five starts since beating Milwaukee on June 29.
"I gave all I could out there," Burnett said. "Where I'm at now, I feel fine. I can't wait to pitch the next game."
New York fell to 4-3 on a 10-game homestand against three of the AL's worst teams: Oakland, Seattle and Baltimore.
In the opener of a four-game series, the start was delayed by rain for 1 hour, 49 minutes. The teams play a day-night
doubleheader Saturday to make up an April 12 rainout.
Burnett walked Lee with one out in the second and Reynolds hit the next pitch into the New York bullpen in right-center.
The opposite-field shot was his 22nd homer of the season.
Vladimir Guerrero and Lee hit consecutive doubles to center in the fourth, making it 3-0.
Lee also homered to the opposite field on Burnett's first pitch with two outs in the sixth, sending a solo drive to the short porch in right.
Lee began the night 2 for 11 (.182) with four strikeouts and no extra-base hits in his career against Burnett. The slick-fielding first baseman also could be on the trading block after his recent resurgence at the plate.
"Well, I'm sure someone would look at my numbers now compared to a couple weeks ago, it probably looks a little better. So we'll see what happens. It's something that's out of my control," Lee said. "I need to do it a lot longer than a week or two, but I definitely feel better."
Teixeira connected for his 29th of the year on a full count in the bottom half of the sixth.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
