Dan Connolly

Orioles snap six-game losing streak with a win over Yankees in first game of Monday’s doubleheader

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Here’s a statistic to make you shake your head a little:

After the Orioles won in 5-4 in the first game of Monday’s doubleheader, they improved to 4-3 against the New York Yankees so far this year.

They are 21-62 against everyone else – including 6-20 against the remainder of the AL East.

Go figure.

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The Orioles’ victory Monday afternoon was their first home win on a day besides Sunday since May 12, which was Davis Hess’ debut. They also won on Mother’s Day (May 13), Father’s Day (June 17) and Sunday, July 1. They’ve lost their other 17 games at home during that stretch.

Yes, wins have been that few and far between – at Camden Yards and everywhere.

The Orioles (25-65) snapped a six-game losing streak and won for just the second time in 15 contests.

“You want to win every game, but it’s not been the case for us recently,” said Danny Valencia, whose three-run homer in the sixth was the difference in the game. “Coming out here, winning the first one, it feels good and hopefully we can put together another good game and come away on top in the second one.”

The Orioles won Monday’s first game thanks to a formula that they basically perfected during their good stretches over the years: They got a solid pitching performance from Jimmy Yacabonis (three earned runs in five innings), strong relief from Mike Wright, Mychal Givens and Zach Britton (one earned run in four innings) and scored all five runs on homers by Mark Trumbo and Valencia.

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Valencia hit his off lefty CC Sabathia to break a 0-for-25 skid.

“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves. We have family that’s always chirping in our ears, friends asking us ‘What’s wrong?’” Valencia said. “I’ve been in this game long enough to know that if you stick with your routine, if you have a good approach, you stay positive, that it tends to turn. Obviously, you want to do it sooner than later. But it felt good. It’s obviously been weighing on me. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t. I’m happy today that that hit put our team ahead and we were able to win the game.”

Dan Connolly

Dan Connolly has spent more than two decades as a print journalist in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The Baltimore native and Calvert Hall graduate first covered the Orioles as a beat writer for the York (Pennsylvania) Daily Record in 2001 before becoming The Baltimore Sun’s national baseball writer/Orioles reporter in 2005. He has won multiple state and national writing awards, including several from the Associated Press Sports Editors. In 2013 he was named Maryland Co-Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. And in 2015, he authored his first book, "100 Things Orioles Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die." He lives in York, with his wife, Karen, and three children, Alex, Annie, and Grace.

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