First pitch: Wednesday, 7:05 p.m. ET
Line: Baltimore -125, New York +115, Total: 8

After being postponed due to rain on Tuesday night, the Yankees and Orioles do battle on Wednesday to wrap up a two-game series.

Despite the Yankees’ record not being what they are used to, being four games over .500 with four of their five Opening Day starters on the disabled list is quite impressive. They are 14-10 since the All-Star break but come into this contest as losers in their past three games played. The first meeting of this series came on Monday when the Orioles steamrolled New York by a score of 11-3. Despite three stolen bases, the offense was a putrid 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Much of the issues facing the Yankees right now have come from the top of the order where OF Brett Gardner (.278 BA) and SS Derek Jeter (.273) have gone 4-for-25 (.160) with five strikeouts during the current losing skid. Baltimore has taken the AL East by storm and has now opened up a 6.5-game lead over the Blue Jays for first place, while the Yankees are in third place sitting seven games back. Since the All-Star break, the Orioles are 16-8, which includes an 8-3 record so far in August. Much of their offense has come from home runs as they lead the league with 150 bombs on the year. In Monday’s victory, they tallied 14 hits with three leaving the park, and also added five doubles while going 5-for-9 with runners in scoring position. OF Nelson Cruz (.263 BA) has slowed down since his amazing start to the season, but has found his stroke again by going 7-for-18 (.389) with two homers and 6 RBI during a five-game hitting streak. The pitching matchup for this game is highlighted by the return of RHP Michael Pineda (2-2, 1.83 ERA) for the Yankees who has not pitched in the majors since April 23. Facing him will be RHP Chris Tillman (9-5, 3.73 ERA) who has not allowed more than three earned runs in any of his outings since June 5, which is a span of 12 starts. New York has actually been better on the road (32-28) than at home (29-29), but the Orioles are 33-26 (.559, T-7th in MLB) at Camden Yards. These two clubs have been nearly even against each other over the past three seasons with Baltimore holding a slight 27-25 edge, which includes a 13-12 mark at home. This year, the Orioles have been the much better team, taking victories in seven of the first 10 games so far. Bettors should know that the Yanks are 13-1 in road games after batting .240 or worse over a 10-game span this season, but Baltimore is 16-5 when Tillman is pitching and the total is 7 to 8.5 this year. On the injury front, New York will be without C Brian McCann (concussion) for this game, while the Orioles will not have SS J.J. Hardy (thumb) or 3B Manny Machado (knee).

Michael Pineda missed the entire 2012 season due to injuries and spent what time he was pitching at the minor-league level last year. So his return to the majors at the beginning of 2014 was that much more impressive, as he allowed just four runs in his first four starts (19.2 IP). Then the combination of the pine-tar incident suspension and injuries prevented the 25-year-old from pitching at the highest level for more than three months. He has made two impressive starts at Triple-A leading up to his return in which he has struck out 11 batters in 7.2 frames while giving up a single run. Pineda has not faced the Orioles since 2011 as a member of the Mariners when he took them on twice, going 0-0 (0-2 team record) with a 2.77 ERA and 1.15 WHIP, and had a 13:2 K/BB ratio over 13 innings of work. The righty will be happy that Hardy is out for this game since he has two homers in six at-bats against him, while OF Adam Jones (3-for-6, 2 RBI) has performed well in the matchup too. On the other hand, OFs Nelson Cruz and Delmon Young have combined to go 1-for-8 when facing Pineda. The Yankees’ bullpen is 17-20 this year with a 3.89 ERA and 1.27 WHIP, and is 39-for-52 (75%) in save chances. Closer David Robertson (2.62 ERA, 31 saves) has struck out 14.3 batters per nine innings on the year while blowing a mere two saves.

Chris Tillman is once again putting together a big season for the Orioles while limiting home runs (0.90 HR/9) and benefiting from batters hitting .267 BABIP. It may seem like he is getting lucky with such a low BABIP, but it looks to be more of a norm for him as the mark was .269 last year and .221 in 2012. As mentioned previously, Tillman has not allowed more than three runs in any of his past dozen starts where he's dropped his ERA from 5.20 to his current 3.73 in that time. His most recent outing came against a tough Cardinals team and he earned a win after going 6.2 innings while allowing two runs on a paltry four hits with seven strikeouts and one walk. Tillman has plenty of experience against New York over his career with a 5-5 record (7-5 team record) while posting a 5.64 ERA and 1.70 WHIP, but has allowed only three runs on 11 hits in two starts (13.2 IP) this season. OF Jacoby Ellsbury (7-for-25, 2 doubles, 1 HR) and SS Derek Jeter (8-for-20, 3 RBI) have never had any issues against the Baltimore starter while OF Ichiro Suzuki is a meager 4-for-24 (.167) with a pair of strikeouts. The relievers on the Orioles have done well this season, pitching to a 20-16 record with a 3.24 ERA and 1.20 WHIP while converting 37-of-53 (70%) saves. Zach Britton (1.99 ERA, 24 saves) has been great in his transition to the closer role and has benefited from batters hitting .223 BABIP while harnessing his control to the tune of 2.5 BB/9.