Brendan Ryan gets big hit in Yankees’ 3-2 win over Orioles

In what I described earlier as the biggest series for the New York Yankees this season, the team was able to secure the first of three games against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night.

Left-hander Wei-Yin Chen (2.78 ERA, 3-13 O/U) gets the start for the Orioles, while Nathan Eovaldi (4.50 ERA, 11-7 O/U) gets the call for the Yankees. Brett Gardner leads New York with 98 hits and 42 RBI while Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira have combined for 115 RBI.

After the Ryan tie-breaking hit in the sixth, the O’s put runners on base in the seventh and eighth with no success, and Andrew Miller closed out his 21st save with a flawless ninth.

What it means: New York (51-41) entered the day up four games in the division on the O’s. 229 and was 0-for-2, greeted Wilson with a single to right that plated Adam Jones and tied the score at 2. With his four-out night, Betances became just the second relief pitcher in baseball to eclipse 50 innings thus far in 2015. Baltimore is now in 2nd place in the AL East, 4 games behind the Yankees. Wieters was caught in a rundown for the final out.

After his first two at-bats, Brendan Ryan had Yankees fans wondering whether Stephen Drew might be a better option at second base.

Chen allowed three runs and 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings as the Orioles lost for the 12th time in 17 games.

New York Yankees’ Didi Gregorius slides safely across the plate ahead of the throw to Baltimore Orioles catcher Matt Wieters during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, July 21, 2015, in New York. He had not allowed more than two earned runs in seven straight starts. But the Yankees failed to bring another run home despite having runners at second and third and nobody out, wasting an opportunity to open up a healthy lead. McCann scored on Chase Headley’s double. The hard-throwing 25-year-old right-hander has been the beneficiary of excellent run support, but he’s held up his end of the bargain over his last five starts, going 4-1 with a 2.93 ERA.

Yankees: Ivan Nova (1-3) is set to make his fifth start since returning from Tommy John surgery on June 24. Gausman last started on Friday for Triple-A Norfolk and said he was pleased with the outing because he did not issue any walks.