BALTIMORE _ For one night, the Yankees' Sonny Gray crisis passed. The right-hander, who failed to make it through three innings in his previous two starts, produced one of his best outings as a Yankee, allowing three hits in six scoreless innings in a 9-0 rout of the Orioles Wednesday at Camden Yards.
Gray received plenty of support, which included Greg Bird's first career grand slam, Tyler Wade's first career homer and the sixth homer of the season from Austin Romine.
Giancarlo Stanton and Wade each had three hits.
"The last two have been a real struggle for him and not being able to get deep into the game at all," Aaron Boone said of Gray before the game. "It's on him to go out there and execute, and we've seen flashes of that this season. We feel like he's capable of going out there and pitching us a quality outing and getting us deep into the game. Hopefully, we start to see that."
Gray walked one and struck out eight, matching his season high and lowering his ERA to 5.46.
He retired 11 straight after walking Chris Davis with two outs in the second, a streak broken up by Caleb Joseph leading off the sixth. The Orioles put two on in the inning, but Gray struck out Mark Trumbo with his 90th pitch, a curveball, which he had working all night.
After the Yankees stranded Brett Gardner at second in the first, Gray needed 16 pitches in a perfect bottom half.
Gray struck out Trumbo looking at a fastball to start the second. The Orioles got their first hit a batter later. Jonathan Schoop, who singled in the winning run the night before, sliced a double to right on an 0-and-2 fastball, giving him a 10-game hitting streak. Gray walked Davis, who was hitting .160 with a .234 on-base percentage, on five pitches.
The pitcher got out of it, though not right away. He got ahead of Danny Valencia 1-and-2 but what appeared to be a cross-up on a fastball resulted in a passed ball that advanced the runners. Gray struck out Valencia with a full-count curve and got Joey Rickard to bounce to third for the final out.
The Yankees, thanks to Bird, provided Gray a substantial lead in the third.
Gardner walked with one out and went to third on Aaron Judge's single to left-center. Didi Gregorius fell behind 1-and-2 and banged one back to the pitcher. Gardner broke on contact and Dylan Bundy came home for an easy 1-2 putout. Stanton grounded a single sharply through the hole between third and short, making it 1-0 and improving him to 14 for his last 44.
Aaron Hicks walked to load the bases and Bird rifled a 2-and-2 curveball off the right-field foul pole, the grand slam giving him eight RBIs in the last two days. Bird hit a three-run homer Tuesday. He fouled off four straight two-strike pitches _ a fastball, slider, changeup and fastball _ before connecting off Bundy, who allowed five runs and five hits over four innings.
Gray, boosted to the 5-0 lead, quickly got his team back in the dugout, retiring the Orioles in order on 11 pitches.
Wade, who doubled earlier, led off the sixth against Mike Wright Jr. by driving a 2-and-2 fastball to right-center, making it 6-0. The 23-year-old received the silent treatment upon returning to the dugout, but after about 30 seconds his teammates surrounded him with congratulations.
