News » Triple-A Omaha this season

NEW YORK — The New York Yankees are inching closer toward clinching a wild-card spot for the second straight season. They also want to be the home team for the one-game playoff while giving certain players some rest.With those things in mind http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-greg-holland-jersey , the Yankees continue a three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.“Our guys know what time it is,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said. “Not that they’ve ever slacked off or cut back. We know all eyes are on us — always — and at the end of the day, it’s postseason baseball in front of us and we’ve got to secure that first and foremost, and we want to host the wild-card game if at all possible.”Article continues below ...The Yankees (94-59) enter with a magic number of two to clinch their second straight wild-card spot. They hold a 1 1/2-game lead over Oakland (93-61) for home field.“We want to play here. We feel like we have a home-field advantage, but I also don’t want to get caught up in driving that home so much,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We feel like we can beat anybody, anyplace.”Mindful of keeping players rested for the wild-card game, the Yankees opened the series by holding on for a 10-8 victory on a night when Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez and Miguel Andujar rested. Didi Gregorius and Aaron Hicks homered and Aaron Judge contributed an RBI double in his fourth game back in the starting lineup from a fractured right wrist.“Just trying to be wise here down the stretch,” Boone said. “Obviously, these games are really important and now that we’re whole we feel like we have really good options every day to keep guys in the fold.”The Yankees will be looking to add to the major league home run total as well. They are up to 249 — and 14 games from the major league record set by the Seattle Mariners in 1997.The Orioles (44-109) own 15 losses in their last 19 games after dropping their fifth straight to the Yankees. They nearly erased deficits of 6-0 and 9-4 by getting homers from rookies Austin Wynns, Renato Nunez and DJ Stewart but were done in by allowing at least 10 runs for the 20th time this year.“A lot of young players did some good things, but it’s just the pitching is not quite, I don’t know if you want to say mature enough,” Baltimore manager Buck Showalter said. “We did some good things, but we can’t put together a lot of sequences.”Chris Davis went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts and is hitless in his last 16 at-bats. He is batting .170 with 189 strikeouts.“He can’t string it together consistently,” Showalter said. “It’s been a challenge for him most of the season.”The Orioles are two losses from matching the franchise record set by the 1939 St. Louis Browns, who finished 64 1/2 games out of first place. They are playing the rest of the season against the Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros.After getting six solid innings from CC Sabathia on Friday, Lance Lynn makes his ninth start and 10th appearance with the Yankees. He last pitched in Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Toronto when he allowed one run and three hits in five innings.Lynn is 2-1 with a 4.37 ERA in five career appearances (three starts) against the Orioles.David Hess, making his 18th start and 20th appearance for the Orioles, owns a 5.20 ERA. Since getting his last win on Aug. 27 vs. Toronto, Hess is 0-2 with a 6.08 ERA.Hess last pitched in an 8-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday when he allowed four runs and six hits in 4 1/3 innings.Hess is facing the Yankees for the first time. KANSAS CITY David Dahl Jersey , Mo. (AP) — Jason Kipnis had been mired in such a batting slump that the Indians second baseman had resorted to watching old film of himself, trying to discover what had changed in the past couple years.He finally noticed a subtle, almost imperceptible difference in his hand position, so he rolled up a magazine and began mimicking his old swing in his hotel room. And while it felt a bit odd, and looked just as goofy, Kipnis nevertheless went to sleep feeling as if something had finally clicked.Did it ever.Kipnis proceeded to club four hits and drive in four runs Sunday, the big shot an inside-the-park homer in the ninth inning, to lead Cleveland’s 12-5 rout of the Kansas City Royals.“Obviously every day I’ve been working to snap out of it. It’s been ugly to watch and worse to go out there,” said Kipnis, who is still hitting just .223 this season. “I came in with better spirits and said, ‘Let’s see where it goes from here.'”Kipnis nearly went 5 for 5, but a baserunning mix-up by Melky Cabrera on his flyball in the second resulted in a fielder’s choice. Kipnis later had a pair of singles and a double before the homer.“He swung the bat very well,” Indians manager Terry Francona said, “and I’ll tell you what, what a lift that would give us. He’s showed flashes, but if he could get hot, what a lift it would be.”Shane Bieber (8-2) allowed four runs for Cleveland — on homers by Whit Merrifield, Salvador Perez and Lucas Duda. He departed after allowing six hits and striking out seven in 5 1/3 innings, but it was still enough for the AL Central-leading Indians to improve to 10-1 when facing a series sweep.Right-hander Jorge Lopez (0-4) allowed five runs, all in the fourth inning, on five hits and three walks for Kansas City. He was lifted after throwing 79 pitches in just four innings.“You give a chance to your guys when you go deep in a game and I couldn’t do it today. I need to get better for sure,” Lopez said. “We’ll see about going forward from this start.”The Royals, who had snapped their own five-game skid Friday night http://www.rockiesfanproshop.com/authentic-bryan-shaw-jersey , looked as if they’d keep their momentum going when Merrifield took Bieber deep to left field leading off the game.It was his fifth career leadoff homer and second this year.But the Indians answered with their big fourth inning, when six consecutive batters reached on four hits and a pair of walks. And after Perez went deep in the bottom half, the Indians added two more runs on Francisco Lindor’s two-out single in the sixth to add to their cushion.Edwin Encarnacion continued the offensive outburst — which came after the Indians were held to one run on five hits on Saturday night — when he took Royals reliever Jake Newberry deep in the eighth.“It’s been a tough trip for a lot of guys, but they’re going to be OK,” Francona said. “We needed to find a way today, whether it was ugly or whatever, and we did that.”O’HEARN IN LFRoyals 1B/DH Ryan O’Hearn got the start in left field, the first time he’s played the outfield in the big leagues. O’Hearn played 13 games there at Triple-A Omaha this season, and manager Ned Yost said the move was designed to “find a way to keep his bat in there.”TRAINER’S ROOMIndians: RHP Cody Anderson (Tommy John surgery) struck out two in a scoreless inning Saturday night for the club’s Arizona League team. It was his first game since September 2016. “No red flags or anything,” Francona said. … OF Brandon Guyer is getting a couple days off after getting hit where the foot meets the ankle, or as Francona called it, the “fankle.”Royals: RHP Ian Kennedy (left oblique strain) threw 60 pitches last Friday without any problems and expects to make a rehab start Wednesday, Yost said. … OF Jorge Soler (fractured left toe) will begin a rehab assignment in the next couple of days, but even then he is unlikely to play in the outfield. “I don’t think so,” Yost said. “DH him some, give him some at-bats, make sure he’s ready to go for spring training, which he will be.”UP NEXTThe Indians and Royals will both take Monday off before beginning their next series. Cleveland is back home to face Minnesota with Carlos Carrasco (15-7, 3.55 ERA) on the mound, and Kansas City begins a five-game trip to Detroit and Baltimore with Jakob Junis (6-12, 4.70 ERA) getting the first start.