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Baltimore Orioles vs. New York Yankees Series Preview: Big Series in The Bronx

By Mike Smith

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The Baltimore Orioles head to The Bronx on Tuesday, as they get set to begin a huge three-game series with the division-leading New York Yankees.

Baltimore enters this series in second place in the AL East, four games behind the Yankees, and only four games in front of the last place Boston Red Sox. It’s still early enough that the Orioles could come back from a rough series this week, but this is the kind of series that sets the tone as the season heads toward the trade deadline, and then down the stretch.

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    • With the big three-game series ahead, we are going to give you the three biggest things to watch as these games unfold:

    Orioles All-Stars

    Not to downgrade Zach Britton and Darren O’Day, because they will both play a huge role coming out of the bullpen, as they always do for Buck Showalter, but this is more about Adam Jones and Manny Machado.

    While the Orioles haven’t had severe struggles for offense, as they do currently sit at eighth in the majors in team batting average and fifth in team home runs, their offense has, at times, exclusively run through Jones and Machado. Without their two offensive All-Stars, Baltimore would not be sitting in second place in the division right now.

    In their ten games against the Yankees this year, Machado and Jones have each homered twice. Machado has a .385 batting average and has driven in seven runs in that time. While Jones has had less success with .286 batting average, that is good enough for 12 hits which have produced six RBI’s and have led to him scoring six runs.

    The offense runs on Jones and Machado, and if the Orioles are going to slay the Yankees, it is going to be on their back.

    Mark Teixeira

    Mark Teixeira is having himself a year. He’s only hitting .249, but that is pretty comparable to the rest of his Yankee career, in fact, the last time that Teixeira even threatened .300 was his first year in New York, when he hit .292.

    That being said, as we near the end of July, Teixeira has 23 home runs and 63 RBI’s, both good enough to be more than he could muster in 123 games in 2014.

    Though Teixeira has hit .314 against Baltimore this year, his games against the Orioles have only accounted for one of his home runs and six of his RBI’s. If the Orioles can continue to limit the damage caused by Teixeira, they keep a big part of the Yankee lineup in check.

    Ubaldo Jimenez vs. Masahiro Tanaka

    In what very well could be the rubber game of the series, Ubaldo Jimenez will meet Masahiro Tanaka on Thursday afternoon.

    Jimenez has been pretty good all year. Going into the All-Star break, he had put together a 2.81 ERA, never having given up more than four runs in a start, and always keeping his team in the game. He finished the first half very positively, in his last three starts, he went 20 innings, giving up only one run, while racking up 16 strikeouts.

    However, Jimenez opened up the second half by giving up seven runs on seven hits, three of which were home runs, as he failed to get out of the fifth inning against the Detroit Tigers.

    As for Tanaka, he struggled to open the year, but started to put things together, before an untimely trip to the DL at the end of April. He returned in June and didn’t skip a beat, but he too ran into the Tigers, and had two bad starts at the end of the month, which brought up the injury concerns that always seem to follow him. He then quieted those concerns by having two good starts before the break, and another right after it.

    These two pitchers both have ace potential, Tanaka more than Jimenez, but they both can dominate a game. However, they both have certainly had their struggles. No matter how the first two games go, these two teams are going to turn to this Thursday matchup and look to finish the series strong.

    Next: Orioles Interested in Upton?

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