Kathy Willens/Associated Press
The Yankees' Hiroki Kuroda allowed only five hits and no walks while striking out five.
It has been six months since the Yankees edged the Baltimore Orioles in the American League division series, although in many respects, for the winners, it has felt like six awfully long years.
The team is slowly returning to full health, in piecemeal fashion, and only one player (Robinson Cano) who started in last season's Game 5 for the Yankees in the A.L.D.S. was in the lineup Sunday night.
But with this cast of fill-ins — a Band-Aid unit in a patchwork lineup — the Yankees have managed to stay above .500 through the first 11 games of the season, at 6-5. The offense has looked reliable, just productive enough. And with a 3-0 win over the Orioles at Yankee Stadium, they showed they could still pitch the way they did in early October.
Baltimore returned largely the same lineup from their postseason run, which ended on a damp and windswept afternoon with a shutdown performance from the Yankees ace C. C. Sabathia. The result Sunday — if not the temperature, which was chillier — was remarkably reminiscent.
Instead of Sabathia, it was Hiroki Kuroda who blanked the Orioles with a complete-game shutout, the fifth of his career. Kuroda allowed only five hits and no walks while striking out five — a masterly performance that quelled any lingering questions about how he might fare in a second full season in the Bronx.
Kuroda, a 38-year-old right-hander, left his first start of the season in the second inning, after injuring his hand, and lasted only five and a third innings in his second. But on Sunday, Kuroda was almost untouchable, not letting an Orioles runner reach second base until the ninth inning, allowing only seven base runners in all.
"He's fun to catch," catcher Francisco Cervelli said. "He's able to throw any pitch whenever he wants in the place he wants."
Kuroda said, "Against righties and lefties, I was really able to get my sinker going."
In the Orioles' first nationally televised Sunday night game since Sept. 21, 2008 — the final regular-season game at the old Yankee Stadium — they looked as if they were ready to just get out of the cold weather.
The middle of Baltimore's order — Nick Markakis, Adam Jones and Chris Davis — combined to go 2 for 12 with 4 strikeouts. The Orioles grounded out 18 times, and the final 17 batters to face Kuroda got just one hit.
The Yankees got on the board in the fifth inning against Wei-Yin Chen, with a sacrifice fly by Jayson Nix scoring Brennan Boesch, who had singled to lead off the inning. Brett Gardner then drilled a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. The bottom of the Yankees' order, which is not all that different from the top or the middle, went 5 for 10 and scored two runs.
And somehow, some way, the Yankees are third in the American League with 60 runs and second with 18 home runs. Entering Sunday, the six players who joined the Yankees this off-season — five of whom were in the lineup — were batting .306 with 10 of the team's 17 home runs and 27 of the team's 51 runs driven in.
"They've shown their character," Manager Joe Girardi said. "Guys have stepped up and done a good job in people's absences."
One of the team's mainstays, Curtis Granderson, was in the clubhouse before the game, and tentatively said that he expects to return to the lineup from a fractured right forearm by early May.
Granderson, who has been recovering in Tampa, Fla., has begun throwing and fielding but has yet to swing a bat. He is likely to need a long rehabilitation assignment as well, considering he was injured during his first at-bat of spring training in February.
But his appearance in front of his locker in the deep left corner of the Yankees' clubhouse was an uplifting sight. So were his comments on Derek Jeter, who is also rehabilitating in Tampa and who, according to Granderson, has been spraying the ball "all over the place" during batting practices.
The crew may be rounding into shape, piece by piece. After a 1-4 start, the Yankees have managed to fight back to respectability. There was even a hint of some hopefulness in the Bronx on Sunday night, not really felt since October.
"Our guys have done very well and have responded very well to a slow start," Girardi said. "I'm happy with what these guys have done so far."
INSIDE PITCH
The Yankees left-hander ANDY PETTITTE had his start pushed back a second time to Friday because of back spasms. Pettitte was originally scheduled to pitch Tuesday. Infielder EDUARDO NUNEZ (right wrist contusion) said he would swing a bat Monday in hopes of returning to the lineup Tuesday after missing two games.
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