Yankees get sequel to Luke Voit Show, sweep Orioles | Rapid reaction

Hot-hitting Yankees first baseman Luke Voit was 3-for-3 with another homer and a walk on Sunday night in a 5-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

BALTIMORE — Greg Bird might be on the verge of being Wally Pipp-ed by that big fellow who had Lucas on the back of his Yankees Players’ Weekend jersey.

No, we’re not dubbing Luke Voit the next Lou Gehrig, but the Yankees might have found a new starting first baseman while they were sweeping a four-game series from the Baltimore Orioles.

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Voit was in the lineup for the third time in four games instead of the slumping Bird on Sunday night and was the ignition for a 5-3 Yankees win at Oriole Park.

Voit had a perfect night at the plate that included his third homer of the series, a two-run, opposite-field shot to right that staked the Yankees to a 2-0 second-inning lead that never was relinquished.

Luis Severino (17-6) allowed three runs, two earned over 5 2/3 innings to get closer to 20 wins and hot-hitting rookie third baseman Miguel Andujar contributed three more hits, but Voit stood out.

Traded from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Yankees on July 29 for relievers Chasen Shreve and Giovanny Gallegos, Voit finished the night 3-for-3 with a homer, two singles and walk to lift his average to .379 (11-for-29) in 10 games since he changed teams.

Before this weekend, Voit never had a three-hit game in 76 career big-league contests.

Now he has two in three days.

A 6-foot-3, 225-pound right-handed hitter, Voit clubbed his first two homers as a Yankee plus a single during Friday night’s 10-inning win over the O’s. He also started Game 1 of Saturday’s day-night doubleheader sweep and was 1-for-3 with a walk in a 10-3 Yankees romp.

Meantime, Bird rode the bench again on Sunday night sitting on an 0-for-17 that has his season average at .199.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone has been saying Voit can earn more playing time, and he surely will get it when the club returns home this week for three against the Chicago White Sox beginning Monday night and then four against the Detroit Tigers.

It was way back in 1925 when Pipp was a star first baseman for the Yankees and took a took a June game off due to a headache. He never got his job back as Gehrig went on to start the next 2,130 games in what became one of the greatest careers ever.

The Yanks happily would settle for consistent solid production from Voit, who joined them as a 27-year-old with just 153 career at-bats in the majors, all of them coming for St. Louis over the last two seasons.

As a Yankee, Voit didn’t show much initially, as he was 3-for-16 in his first five games and then optioned to Triple-A. He got hot playing for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, going 8-for-22 over seven games to earn another shot with the Yanks last Tuesday.

Voit first went 1-for-2 pinch-hitting during the Yanks’ two-game series in Miami, then surged starting three games at Oriole Park.

And now it’ll probably be Voit getting a lot more looks at first base for the Yankees, who by the way are still in the AL East chase.

With Boston being sweep in its weekend series at Tampa Bay, the Yanks pulled to within six games after being out 9 1/2 a week earlier.

— Rookie Gleyber Torres, who has moved from second base to shortstop with Didi Gregorius on the DL, has been error prone this season and he made another costly one with two outs and nobody on in the sixth inning with the Yanks leading 5-2. The Orioles wound up scoring a run and putting the tying runs in scoring position before Chad Green ended the threat. Torres now has four errors in six games at short in the last week plus 11 in 84 games at second base.

— Andujar was 3-for-5 and finished the series 9-for-18 with four consecutive multi-hit games to raise his average from .295 to .303.

— Giancarlo Stanton was 0-for-5 with three strikeouts and a popup to the catcher to finish the season 1-for-15 with eight whiffs and five walks. He’s been stuck on 299 career homers for seven games, as he hit his last (No. 32 for the season) on Aug. 18 against Toronto.

LOOKING AHEAD

Monday, Chicago White Sox at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., YES. LHP Carlos Rodon (5-3, 2.71) vs. RHP Masahiro Tanaka (9-4, 3.90).

Tuesday, Chicago White Sox at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., YES. RHP James Shields (5-15, 4.59) vs. RHP Lance Lynn (8-9, 4.84).

Wednesday, Chicago White Sox at Yankees, 7:05 p.m., YES. RHP Reynaldo Lopez (5-9, 4.66) vs. LHP CC Sabathia (8-9, 4.84).

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.