With first place in the American League East on the line, Orioles pitcher Zach Britton struggled with control during Sunday's Orioles-Yankees showdown at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Orioles lost, 13-3, to the Yankees.

Oriole manager Buck Showalter pulled stars such as Adam Jones before the ninth inning, sending a message that the Birds would fight another day.

Derek Jeter, Russell Martin and Curits Granderson drove in runs during the eighth to give the Yankees a 10-3 lead. Curtis Granderson hit his 35th home run of the season when he pinch hit for Andruw Jones during the sixth inning to give the Yankees a 6-3 advantage. It was a solo shot to left-center field, which revealed many Yankees fans among the 40,346 people in attendance Sunday. Previous games during the series appeared to have more of a Baltimore flavor.

Granderson then drove in two runs on a single during the seventh and Jeter's two-run home run off Kevin Gregg in the eighth appeared to be the back-breaker.

Orioles designated hitter Wilson Betemit hit a two-RBI double during the fourth inning to cut New York's lead to 5-2. The lead was reduced further when Betemit scored on a Matt Wieters single to right.

Given the way the two teams have played one another this series, a 6-3 lead heading into the fifth inning hardly seemed safe. But, New York almost seemed determined to embarrass the Orioles on its way out of Baltimore.

Britton walked five -- including four in the fourth inning -- and gave up four runs before coming out of the game with the bases loaded. Britton walked home two runs during what was a four-run fourth inning. The patient Yankees schooled Britton, watching his pitches miss the strike zone badly.

Arrieta got the Orioles out of the jam, but the homer-happy Orioles had too much ground to make up to win the game.

Both teams were without stars, as Orioles leadoff hitter Nick Markakis broke his thumb last night. New York's Mark Teixeira was out with a calf injury and could miss significant time.

In the top of the first inning, the Yankees grabbed a 1-0 lead thanks to a Robinson Cano RBI single to left field.

Manny Machado missed badly on a throw to Mark Reynolds at first in an attempt to get Jeter out. The ball got past Reynolds, and Jeter later scored on Cano's hit.

Britton had control issues in the inning, having gone to full counts on each of the first two batters. He threw 24 pitches during the first, and walked the struggling Nick Swisher. Still, he was able to get Alex Rodriguez to ground into a double play, which moved Jeter over to third.

The Orioles went down in order during the first inning to Yankees starting pitcher Freddy Garcia, who struggled badly during the fourth inning and also just lasted 3.1 innings before manager Joe Girardi pulled him out.

During the second, Britton looked much sharper, throwing 13 pitches and striking out Jayson Nix in a 1-2-3 inning. But the Orioles didn't have much for Garcia in the bottom half of the inning, and the streaking Mark Reynolds struck out to end it.

Britton pitched well in the third, but took an ugly liner off his face from Nick Swisher to end the inning. It wasn't immediately clear how serious the hit was for Britton, who recovered enough to throw Swisher out at first.

Chris Davis led off the bottom of the third with a single to right field, but Robert Andino grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Posted Sept. 9, 2012 (updated at 4:57 p.m.)