Yankees rack up 15 hits to back CC; Posada hit on knee

BALTIMORE — CC Sabathia beat the Orioles — as he always seems to — and Yankees hitters came back strong after a quiet Tuesday. It all looked good last night in the Yankees’ 8-3 victory at Camden Yards, though that could change depending on what kind of prognosis Jorge Posada gets today.

Posada, 38, left the game with a right knee contusion in the bottom of the second inning after getting hit by Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie in the top half of the inning. Guthrie also hit Mark Teixeira in the elbow in a spring training game March 29 that caused the first baseman to miss several games and manager Joe Girardi to shout at the pitcher from the dugout after he hit Francisco Cervelli later in that same game.

Last night, Guthrie hit Posada on the inside of his right knee, just below the kneecap, to start the inning. Curtis Granderson then snapped his 0-for-17 skid with a single to center. Nick Swisher followed with a two-run triple off the wall in left-center to make it 4-0 and Derek Jeter’s sacrifice fly brought in Swisher to make it 5-0.

But Posada clearly was laboring as he scored from second on Swisher’s triple and he did not come out for the bottom of the second, replaced by Francisco Cervelli.

The Yankees announced Posada had a right knee contusion (bruise) and that no tests were scheduled for last night, though there could be some today.

“He's probably not a player for us tomorrow,” Girardi said. “We’ll have to wait and see how he is when we get here tomorrow.”

Ramiro Pena is the team’s emergency catcher, but if Posada cannot play today, even in an emergency circumstance, it’s unlikely the Yankees would have Pena as Cervelli’s backup.

“No, I’m not going to have to go on the DL,” Posada said. “Nothing's broken, nothing’s damaged . . . Get here tomorrow and see how it feels.”

Sabathia, who came in 9-1 with a 2.55 ERA in his career against the Orioles, allowed three runs and 11 hits in 7 2/3 innings. Sabathia struck out five and walked two, throwing 111 pitches.

The Yankees, who came in having lost four of five, had 15 hits, three by Swisher and two apiece by Jeter, Robinson Cano, Granderson, Cervelli and Brett Gardner. Jeter and Swisher each had two RBIs.

The Yankees gave Sabathia a 2-0 lead in the first as Jeter led off by slapping a double over the bag at first, the 442nd double of his career, tying him with Don Mattingly for third place on the franchise’s all-time list.

Nick Johnson lined a single to left that leftfielder Lou Montanez misplayed, allowing Jeter to score for a 1-0 lead and Johnson to pull into second. Teixeira’s groundout to first moved Johnson to third and Johnson came in for a 2-0 lead on Alex Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly to center.

After the Yankees’ three-run second made it 5-0, Cano, swinging at the first pitch, increased the Yankees’ lead to 6-0 in the third with a solo homer, his sixth of the season, with two outs.

The Orioles made it 6-1 in the bottom of the third but the Yankees scored single runs in the fifth, on Cervelli’s single up the middle, and in the sixth, on Jeter’s RBI single. The Orioles scored once in the sixth and added a run in the seventh on a solo shot by Nick Markakis that made it 8-3.