Pitchers set for season debuts as Yanks face Orioles

The Yankees dropped two of the first three to the Orioles last year, then took 16 head-to-head matchups in a row. New York rolled to a 9-3 victory in Baltimore on Wednesday in the teams' first meeting of the season, running the streak to 17 games ahead of the series finale on Thursday.

Simply put, the New York Yankees have the Baltimore Orioles' number. The Yankees dropped two of the first three to the Orioles last year, then took 16 head-to-head matchups in a row.

New York rolled to a 9-3 victory in Baltimore on Wednesday in the teams' first meeting of the season, running the streak to 17 games ahead of the series finale on Thursday. Orioles left-hander John Means is scheduled to come off the 10-day injured list to make his first start of the season. He would have drawn the Opening Day assignment were it not for arm fatigue.

The Orioles will need to make a pregame move to get Means on the active roster. Means was a big surprise for the Orioles last season, making the All-Star Game and finishing 12-11 with a 3.60 ERA. He is 1-2 with a 7.62 career ERA versus the Yankees in five games (two starts).

Means was one of the two Orioles pitchers to get victories against the Yankees in 2019. He was the last, in fact, earning a 7-5 decision on March 31, when he allowed one run in 3 1/3 innings of relief. The losing pitcher that day was J.A. Happ, who coincidentally will start for New York on Thursday, also in his first game of 2020. Happ had his first turn in the rotation skipped when the Yankees' series against the Phillies was scrapped earlier this week. Philadelphia had been the site of Miami's first series of the season before the Marlins were overrun with a coronavirus outbreak.

Happ has a 9-7 record with a 3.60 ERA in 25 career appearances (24 starts) against the Orioles. With the Orioles also idled because they were due to play the Marlins, Major League Baseball revised the schedule to have the Yankees visit Baltimore for two games.

The result, at least through the first outing, was more of the same in a matchup of the hard-hitting Yankees and the rebuilding Orioles. New York got homers Wednesday from DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks. Baltimore helped a bit with two catcher's interference calls in the first inning that led to an extra run. Now, the Yankees want to continue with their success against the Orioles.

"I thought our mindset was really good," New York manager Aaron Boone said, according to the New York Post. "We think we have a special team and can have a special season. It has been easy to get those guys all in and committed to everything." The Orioles, meanwhile, had to deal with a bit more adversity when slugger Chris Davis sat out Wednesday, when he didn't report to the stadium. The team won't talk about players dealing with COVID-19, but no mention was made of anything regarding Davis other than the fact that he wasn't present.

Newly acquired shortstop Jose Iglesias, who is batting .500 through four games, was pulled after six innings Wednesday as Orioles manager Brandon Hyde is taking the cautious route. "He's just battling some soreness in his quad," Hyde said. "I just wanted to give (him a break)."

--Field Level Media

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