The Yankees entered this week's four-game series against the Orioles with a prime opportunity to cut into Baltimore's lead for second in the AL East, and New York took a big first step Monday.

"Those guys are really good over there, so that's a big win for us," said Yankees CF Harrison Bader, whose three-run homer in the eighth-inning broke a 3-3 tie and completed a 6-3 comeback.

New York (47-38) handed the Orioles (49-34) their fifth loss in six games and trimmed the divisional gap to three ahead of Tuesday's 1:05 p.m. rematch at Yankee Stadium.

The result was especially welcomed after a 4-3 road trip to the lowly Oakland Athletics and well-below-.500 St. Louis Cardinals, the latter of whom outscored the Yankees 18-7 in this past weekend's three-game series.

"I don't know," said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, when asked Monday's series-opening triumph felt like a bigger win than usual for the team. "I mean, it feels like a good win -- summer, hot, Fourth of July (eve), energetic, awesome crowd, falling behind and the way we've been grinding, to see us have those kind of at-bats, the bullpen really doing their thing. I don't know (about) bigger or whatever.

"It was a good win. A lot of good things happened. Love when a lot of people contribute, have a hand in it, and that was one of those tonight. It does, momentarily, make you feel better when everyone's kind of in on the act."

With six games until the All-Star break, the Yankees see a chance to keep chipping away -- just as they did Monday against the Orioles -- and show that this past weekend's series loss at the St. Louis Cardinals was an outlier.

"The Bronx showed up tonight with the energy," said Bader, whose 2-for-4 line included a second-inning single as he raised his batting average to .261 through 38 games. "We're right in the middle of the season. We're in the thick of it. So to get a win for 'em is great. ... Everyone just did a really good job tonight, especially after a long road trip, coming back without a day in between.

"So it's a big win for us and and we're just going to continue to move forward with that energy."

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