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Hiroki Kuroda went all nine innings, allowing no runs on five hits, striking out five (walking none), looking brilliant as the Yankees beat the Orioles 3-0 in the finale of a three game set.
Coming into the game, there were still some concerns about Kuroda's health, despite a decent outing against the Indians, but he quelled all of those tonight. Only one Oriole baserunner made it past first base. All of the Oriole hits were singles, and either never made it to second, or were the lead runner in a double play. The lone Oriole in scoring position came in the ninth inning. With one out in the inning, Jayson Nix made an error on a Nick Markakis grounder, misplaying the hop. Next batter Adam Jones grounded out, advancing Markakis to second. But Kuroda struck out Chris Davis to end the game, sealing the complete game and the shutout.
All the runs in the game came in bottom of the fifth inning. Brennan Boesch and Francisco Cervelli led off the inning with singles. Lyle Overbay hit a deep fly out to right field, which allowed Boesch to tag up and go to third. And after his struggles with runners in scoring position yesterday, Jayson Nix somewhat made up for it, flying out to right deep enough to score Boesch. But next up was Brett Gardner, who hit a towering shot off the right field foul pole to add another two runs, making it 3-0.
Overall. the Yankees had seven hits on the day, but those three runs were all they needed, because HIROK. Kuroda was absolutely brilliant, giving the Yankees the starting effort they needed after Phil Hughes' disaster of a start yesterday.
After a day off tomorrow, the Diamondbacks come to Yankee Stadium, as the Yankees get their first taste of year long Interleague. I'm sure Greg is thrilled. First pitch is at 7:05 eastern.
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