Tillman gets 14th win, Orioles avert 4-game sweep vs Yankees

Wieters had caught Tillman in each of his first 20 starts.

The Orioles went into Thursday afternoon’s series finale having lost four straight and having fallen out of first place for the first time since June 4. The loss snapped a four-game Yankees win streak, and provided an extra dose of reality for a team that still finds itself in fourth place in the AL East with a little more than a week until the August 1 non-waiver trade deadline.

New York Yankees starting pitcher CC Sabathia looks at the ball after allowing a seventh-inning, two-run double to Baltimore Orioles Jonathan Schoop (6) in a baseball game in New York, Thursday, July 21, 2016. Baltimore will try to avoid a sweep behind ace Chris Tillman, who is attempting to win his fourth straight start and tie Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox for the major-league lead in victories (14). “He’s our ace and that’s what they do”. It was big for him to throw like he did.

More importantly, Tillman has been the stopper when the Orioles have struggled.

The Phillies and Pirates meet for the first time this season and the all-Pennsylvania matchup has Philadephia’s Zach Eflin facing Pittsburgh’s Gerrit Cole.

The O’s are 8-3 in their last 11 against the AL East, 11-1 in Tillman’s last 12 against the AL East, and 7-0 in his last seven starts against a team with a winning record while the Yanks are 4-1 in their last five against a righty, 5-2 in their last seven overall, and 41-16 in their last 57 games during game four of a series.

Tillman struck out seven and walked two. “There’s been ups and downs”, Showalter said. “It’s the time of the year when you get quality pitching”.

Not only were the Orioles slumping heading into Thursday’s series finale in NY, but their roster was ravaged by a flu bug and sudden series of injuries.

A stomach bug has been ravaging Baltimore’s clubhouse and claimed two more victims Wednesday: third baseman Manny Machado and manager Buck Showalter.

Tillman shrugged off the mention of the stopper label.

“Team wins are important”, Tillman said. Go home with a win.

In New York, he is 3-4 with a 7.30 ERA in eight outings. “I should be able to get four more (hits) in seven years”.

Sabathia has been hit hard during a five-start winless drought but will look to continue a strong run by New York’s pitching staff, which has yielded three runs during the winning streak.

Second baseman Jonathan Schoop provided the Orioles with a big late-inning hit, looping a two-run double to right field to extend the Orioles’ lead to 4-1 and chase Sabathia from the game in the seventh.

The Yankees’ only run came on an RBI single by Starlin Castro in the second inning.

As for Wieters and Machado, acting manager John Russell said both are day to day. “He’s had some good ones, too. With no Dellin today and Swarzak limited, we felt we needed a right-handed reliever who could give us distance if needed”, Girardi said. That gave NY (48-47) its only run.

“You’ve got to go out there and play every day, and it doesn’t matter who’s going to be here or who’s not going to be here because that’s all out of our control”, he had said before adding: “We obviously want to make a run together as a team”. He allowed one run on four hits over seven innings, with two walks and seven strikeouts. He has held opposing hitters to a.170 batting average this month. “Just trying to get Schoop to hit the ball at somebody or make weak contact”, Sabathia said. “San Francisco is going to be no easy task”.

That’s as good of a four-pitch mix as he’s had.

“I made the pitch to Reimold and got two outs”.