Tejada's RBI Double In 10th Inning Helps Orioles Beat Yankees 6-3

NEW YORK (AP) _ The Baltimore Orioles are causing fits for the top teams in the AL East. <br/><br/>Miguel Tejada hit a tiebreaking double off suddenly struggling Mariano Rivera in the 10th inning, and

Wednesday, August 15th 2007, 10:01 pm

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ The Baltimore Orioles are causing fits for the top teams in the AL East.

Miguel Tejada hit a tiebreaking double off suddenly struggling Mariano Rivera in the 10th inning, and Aubrey Huff added a two-run homer to lead Baltimore past the New York Yankees 6-3 on Wednesday.

``As I told you when we took over here, we were never going to give up,'' said Orioles manager Dave Trembley, whose team is 27-23 since he replaced Sam Perlozzo on June 18. ``We keep our poise. Guys don't lose their composure.''

Shelley Duncan's three-run homer with two outs in the ninth sent the game to extra innings, but the Orioles bounced back quickly against Rivera (3-4), who blew a save in New York's 7-6 win in the series opener Monday night.

Rivera, who had some arm problems toward the end of last season, dismissed questions about his health.

``My arm is fine,'' he said. ``It was just one of those games.''

Nick Markakis and Tejada doubled with nobody out, putting the Orioles up 4-3. Rivera got Kevin Millar to ground out, but Huff drove a 1-2 pitch into the bleachers in right-center for his second homer in two games. Huff hit a grand slam and finished with five RBIs in Baltimore's 12-0 victory Tuesday night.

Huff improved to 6-for-15 (.400) in his career against Rivera with his first homer off the right-hander, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

``That's the first ball I've ever hit hard off him,'' Huff said. ``I finally barreled one. I thought it was going out when I hit it.''

Rivera has allowed nine hits and five runs in his last 3 1-3 innings. He had converted 19 straight save opportunities before Monday night.

``He takes this harder than we do, there's no question about it, because in his mind he's letting everybody down `` Yankees manager Joe Torre said. ``In our mind it was just one of those days he didn't have his best stuff.''

Alex Rodriguez went 4-for-4 for New York, which remained five games behind first-place Boston in the AL East. The Yankees are 4-8 this season against the Orioles, who also took two of three from the Red Sox last weekend.

New York was in danger of being shut out in consecutive games at home for the first time since 2000 when Duncan golfed a 1-0 pitch from Jamie Walker to left for his sixth homer of the season, tying it at 3. The rookie pumped his fist as he rounded first and the Yankee Stadium crowd roared.

Duncan, who hit five homers in his first six games in the Bronx, obliged the crowd with a curtain call after exchanging a couple of his customary forearm bashes with teammates in the dugout.

Baltimore's bullpen meltdown left Erik Bedard with a no-decision. Bedard struck out eight and allowed four hits in seven shutout innings. He is 8-0 in his last 12 starts and hasn't lost since June 10 against Colorado.

Bedard has thrown 20 straight scoreless innings against the Yankees and is 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA in three starts against them this year.

``Everybody knows they're good and you just try to keep the ball out of the middle of the plate,'' he said. ``I just mixed it up and threw different pitches for strikes.''

Bedard ran his big league-best strikeout total to 207, becoming the first Orioles pitcher to reach 200 in a season since Mike Mussina fanned 210 in 2000 _ his last season in Baltimore before joining the Yankees.

Jim Hoey followed Bedard with a scoreless eighth. Danys Baez entered in the ninth and allowed singles to Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui before striking out Jorge Posada.

Walker relieved and got pinch-hitter Bobby Abreu to ground out before Duncan went deep.

Chad Bradford (2-5) worked 1 1-3 scoreless innings for the win.

Phil Hughes allowed six hits and three runs, two earned, in five innings for New York. He struck out four and walked two over 94 pitches in his first career start against the Orioles.

``That just can't happen,'' Hughes said about his high pitch count. ``That's way too many _ especially the way _ with the walks and everything else.''

Rodriguez had two hits and a walk against Bedard, and was the only Yankees batter to reach third against the lefty. A-Rod is batting .417 (10-for-24) with two homers and six RBIs off him.

Markakis hit an RBI single in the third, and the Orioles pushed across two more runs in the fourth to extend their lead to 3-0.

Torre and a trainer came out to check on Derek Jeter in the fifth inning. Jeter said he turned his ankle stepping on a bat but would be fine.

Bedard hit Jeter with a pitch on the left leg in the first inning after Tejada and Markakis were plunked during Tuesday night's game.

Notes: The Yankees recalled relievers Edwar Ramirez and Sean Henn from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and optioned Jeff Karstens and Jim Brower to their top farm club. Henn pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings and Ramirez struck out three in 2 1-3 scoreless innings. ... The Orioles are 18-13 since the All-Star break.