Another sweep for Yankees

The Yankees (57-37) brought out the brooms for the third time in four series, sweeping the Orioles (41-53) with a 6-4 win.

Quick ‘Cap:
The Yankees had the game won in the first inning when they rallied for four runs, highlighted by Nick Swisher’s two-out, two-run single. It was Swisher’s only hit of the game, but his presence came up big later on in the game.

The best chance for the Orioles to score against A.J. Burnett came in the third, when Swisher’s dropped fly ball allowed the lead man on. However, after some hard work from Burnett, Swisher made up for the error with a running grab to end the inning. Jorge Posada made it 5-0 when he launched one into the Yankees bullpen in the third.

The Orioles finally broke through against Burnett in his last inning of work, the seventh, on a sac fly and a wild pitch. Brian Bruney pitched for the first time since July 10, and it wasn’t pretty. He struck out the first two like he was Phil Hughes, but then surrendered back-to-back jacks, ending his night. Mariano Rivera did his thing for the final out and recorded his 28th save. Full box score here.

Thoughts:
I was counting on Bruney to give Mo a breather, but he had to make it interesting. To his credit, the homers came against Adam Jones and Nick Markakis, both very good hitters. But now Rivera has already been used in five games since the break, and is probably unusable for Thursday.

Line of the Day:
Alex Rodriguez: 2-for-4, RBI, R, SB. His second straight day with a steal, and boy do I love to see that batting average climb.

Up Next:
The Yankees finish up their homestand with a four-game, weekend series against the Oakland Athletics. I’ll post the full series preview tomorrow.