BALTIMORE –The termites that feasted on Yankees bats in Toronto didn’t accompany the Bombers through customs.
The Yanks, after scoring seven runs in three games and having Monday to mull over their limp wood, spanked the Orioles 12-7 last night in front of 23,171 at Camden Yards.
And since the hitting orgy included a three hits, including a homer and two RBIs by Mark Teixeira, the ninth straight win over the brutal Birds added an ounce of sweetener.
Teixeira entered the game hitting .211 and riding an 0-for-12 slide. After singling in the first and third frames, Teixeira walked in the fifth and sixth and crushed a two-run homer in the seventh, when the Yankees scored six runs.
Hounded by reporters in Toronto about his slump, Teixeira last night chose to talk about others who contributed to the victory that kept the Yankees two games behind the AL East-leading Rays.
“It was a good game as a team. Curtis’ [Granderson] big home run got us all going,” Teixeira said of Granderson’s grand slam off Kevin Millwood in the third, when the Yankees copped a 6-0 lead.
As for himself, Teixeira said, “Any time you help the team win, it feels good. It’s all about winning games here.”
The Yankees won on a night Phil Hughes didn’t have his best stuff, and on a night Chad Gaudin’s shaky two innings of relief led to Mariano Rivera having to get up in the bullpen.
“The stuff wasn’t great, my command was off,” said Hughes, who improved to 8-1 by allowing three runs and nine hits in six innings.
“You are going to have those days. You hope you score some runs.”
Pitching against the Orioles for the third time this year and the second time in six days, Hughes noticed the hitters adjusting.
“They were more aggressive and didn’t let the counts get too deep,” Hughes said. “It’s great when you get cheap ones.”
Hughes didn’t need long to understand his best stuff wasn’t with him.
“I knew when I threw a fastball at [Matt] Wieters’ head and he laced it to right field,” Hughes said. “I made decent pitches when I had to and got a little help from the umpire, too.”
There was nothing cheap about any of the three Yankee homers — Nick Swisher, who tied a career high with five RBIs, clubbed a two-run blast in the first inning for an instant 2-0 lead.
“I was trying to battle with two outs and it paid off,” Granderson said of his fourth homer. “I got some good wood on it and it went out of the ballpark.”
The six-run seventh upped the lead to 12-3 and should have allowed the Yankees to cruise through the final three innings. But after David Robertson worked a scoreless seventh, Gaudin gave up two in the eighth and two in the ninth.
Halfway through the final frame, Rivera was throwing. But Gaudin didn’t force Rivera into the game, as he fanned Adam Jones and got Wieters on a grounder to finish the game with two runners on.
While Teixeira didn’t want to focus on his night, Swisher made a prediction about the batter who hits behind him.
“It’s coming, boys, it’s coming,” Swisher — who had a three-run double in the seventh and is hitting .405 (17-for-42) against the Orioles this year — said of Teixeira.