Bullpen trio slams door on Yanks’ win vs. O’s

NEW YORK — Alex Rodriguez hit his 696th home run, Ivan Nova hurled six solid innings and Aroldis Chapman wowed the crowd with a 105.1-mph fastball, leading the Yankees to a 2-1 victory over the Orioles on Monday at Yankee Stadium.

Rodriguez’s second-inning blast off Kevin Gausman soared into the left-field bleachers and marked his first home run since June 18, exactly one month prior. It was Rodriguez’s ninth home run of the season, and the slugger said that he has been working on hitting the ball in the air more often.

“I haven’t hit one in so long,” Rodriguez said. “Every game is so important right now, we definitely want to keep all the guys around and keep this team together. We feel like the best baseball is ahead of us, so we have to continue to play well.”

Brian McCann added a third-inning sacrifice fly and the bullpen trio of Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller and Chapman made it hold up, as New York sent Gausman to a tough-luck defeat despite his quality effort.

“I got off to kind of a slow start,” Gausman said. “I wish I could take back one pitch, that’s really it. Even McCann’s, he kind of got it just deep enough to get that run in. But I thought I kind of locked in and got better as the game went on.”

Nova appeared to be on the ropes early, throwing 42 pitches in the first two frames, but settled down after Jonathan Schoop’s home run to lead off the third inning. Nova completed six innings for the first time in five starts as the Yankees defeated Baltimore for the third time in seven meetings this year.

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDNo. 696: Rodriguez was on the field for early batting practice on Monday, working with the Yankees’ coaches on a drill to help him keep his hands …

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