Yankees 15 hits back Sabathia; Posada plunked

BALTIMORE - The last time Joe Girardi was unhappy with Jeremy Guthrie he expressed his frustration from the dugout.

Last night, the Yankees manager articulated that sentiment after the game, an 8-3 victory at Camden Yards in which Jorge Posada left the game shortly after Guthrie, the Orioles starter, hit him on the right knee to lead off the second inning.

"I really don't think you're trying to lead off an inning by hitting a guy," Girardi said last night. "I don't think he's doing it on purpose but he hits a lot of people and it's frustrating for us. We know he's going to pitch inside and I don't have a problem pitching inside but, what do you expect? Me to be happy our guys are getting plunked? I'm frustrated by it. I wish he had better command."

Posada, 38, stayed in the game, clearly laboring but still scored on Nick Swisher's two-run triple that highlighted the three-run inning that gave the Yankees and CC Sabathia (3-1) a 5-0 lead. But Posada did not come out to catch in the bottom half of the inning, leaving with a right knee contusion.

"I tried to stay in there but it was too painful," Posada said.

No X-rays were needed and Posada said the primary concern was to get the swelling down.

"No, I'm not going to have to go on the DL," he said. "Nothing's broken, nothing's damaged . . . get here tomorrow and see how it feels."

Ramiro Pena is the team's emergency catcher, though Girardi said if Posada under no circumstances can play Thursday night, he'll talk to general manager Brian Cashman about making some kind of roster move.

"I'll talk to Cash [tonight] and talk to him Friday and see if we have to do something," Girardi said.

Sabathia picked up the victory to improve to 10-1 with a 2.62 ERA in his career against the Orioles. He allowed 11 hits and three runs in 72/3 innings, walking two and striking out five. He was backed by a 15-hit attack, with Swisher collecting three hits and Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, Brett Gardner and Francisco Cervelli each adding two.

"I wanted to feel a little better but a win is a win," said Sabathia, who said he never felt comfortable with his command. "The guys scored a lot of runs and played some great defense."

Guthrie hit Mark Teixeira in the elbow in a spring training game March 29 that caused the first baseman to miss several games and later in the same game hit Cervelli, which prompted Girardi to shout at the pitcher from the dugout.

After Mariano Rivera hit the Oriole's Felix Pie in the Yankees' final spring game April 2, some chatter from the Baltimore dugout - amounting to "your pitchers hit guys, too" - caused Rivera to step off the mound.

Girardi felt the chatter was in response to his critical remarks about Guthrie after the March 29 game.

But if Girardi was concerned about irritating the Orioles in advance of tonight's series finale it didn't show, though he went a long way from tearing into Guthrie, a pitcher Jeter called "effectively wild."

"I'm not going to going to tell Guthrie how to pitch, he's going to pitch the way's he's going pitch and I respect him," Girardi said. "I like our guys to pitch inside but, as I said, when our guys are getting plunked I'm not going to be happy about it because we don't have Posada probably tomorrow."