Carlos Baltran and Brian McCann both went deep, and Michael Pineda mastered the Baltimore Orioles' (13-16) offense as the first-place New York Yankees (20-12) won 6-2 to take three of four in the weekend series at Yankee Stadium.

Pineda (W: 5-0, 2.72 ERA) struck out 16 Orioles in his seven innings pitched while allowing only one earned run. He threw 111 pitches on the afternoon, 81 of them for strikes. He walked no one and struck out an incredible 16 hitters out of the 21 outs he got. He fanned Ryan Flaherty to end the seventh for his final strikeout.

Pineda has allowed more than three runs only once in his seven starts this season, and his previous season-high in strikeouts was nine and career high was 10. He struck out the side in the second and fifth and had two in each of his other five innings.

Beltran, who is hitting just .210, led off the bottom of the fourth with his first home run (1) of the season, a solo shot into the right-field bleachers to tie the game at 1-1. The Yankees scored three more times in the inning on Didi Gregorius's RBI single to drive in Chase Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury's two-run double that scored Stephen Drew and Gregorius. 

One inning later, McCann found the right-field seats for a solo shot of his own (4) to give the Yankees a 5-1 lead.

Gregorius added a run-scoring double with two outs in the seventh. McCann scored on the play, and the Orioles got Gregorius trying to stretch his double into a triple. Manny Machado got the tag down just before Drew crossed the plate. Had Drew not slowed down, he would have beaten the tag.

Baltimore took the early lead on J.J. Hardy's one-out home run (1) off Pineda in the top of the second. They scored again in the eighth via Adam Jones's RBI single.

After Jones's single off Esmil Rogers, who got only one man out in the eighth, Dellin Betances came in to get the final five outs. Betances did not qualify for the save, but he still has not allowed a run so far.

Bud Norris (L: 1-4, 9.88) pitched 3 1/3 innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits, including Beltran's home run. He walked three and struck out two.

On Monday, the Yankees begin a four-game series at the Tampa Bay Rays while Baltimore hosts the Toronto Blue Jays for the next three days.