YANKGAMEDAY

BALTIMORE – For once, Sonny Gray delivered. So did a suddenly emerging Greg Bird. It was in fact Bizarro World inside Camden Yards on Wednesday night.

Gray pitched six shutout innings, Bird provided his first career grand slam, and the Yankees defeated the Orioles, 9-0.

Gray, who had allowed 11 runs over 4.1 innings in his previous two starts combined, allowed three hits, walked one and struck out a season-high tying eight. At one point, he retired 11 in a row.

Gray will need to string together a bunch of these and actually pitch well against better competition to make believers out of everyone again. Still, this was at the very least a small step in the right direction against a team that came in ranked second-to-last in runs.

Bird, who has been swinging the bat better of late, had his second consecutive career-high tying four RBI evening. He has four homers and 13 RBI in his last 12 games.

After going 2-2 in Baltimore, the Bombers are 5-5 against the Orioles this season.