With Hurricane Irene fast approaching, the Orioles decided to make their own storm putting up 12 runs against the Yankees.

AJ Burnett again wasn’t able to locate his pitches and he got rocked.  He threw three wild pitches and let up two homeruns before the fifth inning.  Burnett hasn’t let up less than three runs in any of his starts since June 29.

Burnett‘s struggles started early. Mark Reynolds hit his 30th homerun of the season to score the Orioles’ first run.  Burnett then let up four straight doubles to score three more runs. They weren’t done yet.  Shortstop JJ Hardy hit his 25th homer of the year, driving in Robert Andino. Those runs gave the Orioles an early 6-0 lead after two innings.

Jorge Posada gave the Yankees their first run. In the fifth inning he took a Tommy Hunter fastball out of the park for his 12th homer of the year.

AJ Burnett
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In the bottom of the fifth inning Matt Wieters lined a double to right field with Vladimir Guerrero on first.  Guerrero was waved home.  Nick Swisher fired the ball to Robinson Cano for the cut off. Cano threw a one-hopper to the plate and Russell Martin applied the tag to save a run. However, the Orioles still managed to put up two more runs in the fifth playing small ball bringing the lead to 9-1.

Luis Ayala took the mound in the sixth inning. Burnett ended his night pitching five innings, giving up nine earned runs on nine hits (eight of which were for extra bases). Wieters stepped up with two outs and two men on. He hit one over the left field fence, his 15th homer of the year, right after Cano bobbled what should have been the inning ending out. That error cost the Yankees three runs, expanding the Orioles lead to 12-1

Alex Rodriguez led off the bottom of the sixth breaking his homerless streak, going back to June 11, drilling one to deep center.  Nick Swisher added another two runs with a homerun, his fourth in four games, with Cano on base shrinking the deficit to eight runs.  Then the “Lets go Yankees” cheers started in what some call Yankee Stadium South in hopes of a repeat performance of yesterday’s offensive explosion.

Hunter would stay in the game through the seventh inning.  He pitched well, not quite a quality start, but with the Orioles offense producing like they did he didn’t need one.  Hunter let up four earned runs on five hits earning his third win of the season.

The Yankees were able to add one more run in the eighth making the final score 12-5. Tomorrow’s doubleheader has been cancelled due to the arrival of Hurricane Irene.  They have been rescheduled for Sunday August 28 at 7:35pm, 7:00pm pre-game, and September 8 (game time TBA).

The Yankees play next on Sunday with a doubleheader starting at 1:35pm, pre-game at 1:00pm. You can catch all your New York Yankees action on 104.5 "The Team" ESPN Radio!

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