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NEW YORK -- Nelson Cruz hit his major league-leading 40th home run and the Baltimore Orioles pushed Derek Jeter and the Yankees to the brink of playoff elimination, beating New York 5-4 Tuesday night. The Yankees fell five games behind for the second AL wild card with only five games left. Jeter extended his hitting streak to seven games, but struck out on three pitches with a runner on first to end it. The retiring captain has two more home dates scheduled. The AL East champion Orioles began the day 2 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Angels, who played later at Oakland, for the best record in the league and home-field advantage for the entire post-season. Cruz boosted his career high with a drive into the left-field seats to open the fifth inning, giving him 107 RBIs. He became the sixth Baltimore player to post a 40-homer season, topped by Chris Davis 53 last year. A day after getting shut out on one single, Baltimore broke loose. Nick Markakis, who got four of the Orioles 17 hits, and Kelly Johnson also homered for the team that tops the majors with 205. Cruz and Nick Hundley each had three hits. Ubaldo Jimenez (6-9) made his second start in more than a month, giving up three hits in five-plus innings. A disappointment since signing a four-year, $50 million free-agent deal, Jimenez isnt likely to start in the playoffs -- this outing came while manager Buck Showalter gave his other starters an extra day of rest heading into October. Zach Britton pitched the ninth for his 36th save in 40 chances. After Brett Gardner got an infield hit with two outs, Britton fanned a swinging Jeter with a 96 mph fastball for the final out. Brandon McCarthy (7-5) gave up 11 hits in 5 1-3 innings, including all three Baltimore home runs. Markakis led off the game with a single, hit an RBI single in the second, and his two-run homer in the fourth made it 4-0. He returned to the lineup Monday after missing four games with a bruised right shoulder. Brian McCann hit his 23rd homer, a two-run drive in the Yankees seventh off Andrew Miller. Ichiro Suzuki doubled for his 2,841st hit in the big leagues, moving into 47th place on the career list past Hall of Famer Charlie Gehringer. TRAINERS ROOM Orioles: 1B Steve Pearce missed his fourth straight game. He had a cortisone shot in his sore right wrist this week. Yankees: 1B Mark Teixeira returned to the lineup after missing two games because of his ailing right wrist. He recently had a third cortisone shot. The oft-injured Teixeira said he plans to take only a week off this winter, rather than a month. "I definitely need to get stronger. Full body, especially the wrist," he said. UP NEXT In Jeters next-to-last game scheduled at Yankee Stadium, Orioles RHP Bud Norris (14-8, 3.62 ERA) pitches against RHP Shane Greene (5-3, 3.24). The early start time of 1:05 p.m. is because of Rosh Hashana, which begins at dusk. Jace Sternberger Womens Jersey . Teams one through twenty competing in Englands top flight are each fatally flawed. A wide-open, highly competitive and mistake-filled season has followed. Bart Starr Womens Jersey . -- Cam Newton pranced into the end zone, placed his hands over his chest and did his familiar Superman pose. http://www.packersrookiestore.com/Packers-Elgton-Jenkins-Jersey/ .Then came December.Three straight losses, including a crushing 27-24 defeat to Washington (4-11) on Saturday, has the Eagles (9-6) on the brink of playoff elimination. Ray Nitschke Womens Jersey . Bradley is one of eight players selected to the team who also played in this years World Cup in Brazil. The MLS all-stars will compete against German giants Bayern Munich in Portland on Aug. Paul Hornung Youth Jersey . As if he had been rehearsing it, Vasquez looked around with a grimacing stare as he clinched two fists and flexed his muscles. What do you think of DeMar DeRozans face after he hits a big shot, he was asked moments earlier.CORTINA DAMPEZZO, Italy -- Overall World Cup leader Maria Hoefl-Riesch won a shortened downhill Friday and established herself as the favourite to take away two of Lindsey Vonns titles. Hoefl-Riesch took full command of the downhill standings that the injured Vonn dominated for the past six years and improved her status as the favourite for the womens downhill at the Sochi Olympics on Feb. 12 -- the race Vonn won at the 2010 Vancouver Games. "The downhill globe is a big goal for me," Hoefl-Riesch said. "The last years it was always impossible because Lindsey was so strong. I already was skiing strong in the last years but there was never a chance, because I was not consistent enough on every single track like Lindsey. "And of course I would love to win the Olympic downhill," Hoefl-Riesch said. "Thats the biggest race in skiing." Julia Roth of Waterloo, Ont., was 44th. Larisa Yurkiw of Owen Sound, Ont., did not start the first run. With her parents and husband in attendance, Hoefl-Riesch won in 1 minute, 17.84 seconds on the Olympia delle Tofane course for the 27th World Cup victory of her career. "I knew that I had to attack a lot with a shortened course and that it would be very tight," Hoefl-Riesch said. "It was really flat light and tricky in a few turns where some girls had big problems. But not me." Hoefl-Riesch said that she tweaked her left knee while landing a jump and that she felt some pain but was not overly concerned. Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein finished second, 0.31 seconds behind, and Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria was third with the No. 39 bib, 0.75 behind. Lara Gut of Switzerland was fourth and Stacey Cook of the United States was fifth as the pair missed out on the podium by 0.01 and 0.03 seconds, respectively. It was the best result this season for Cook, who finished second in two downhills in Lake Louise, Alberta, last season. The victory gave Hoefl-Riesch an 85-point lead over Weirather in the downhill standings after six of eight races, with wins worth 100 points each. In the overall standings, Hoefl-Riesch leads Weirather by 158 points. Hoefl-Rieschs other two wins this season also came in downhill, in Lake Louise. She also has podium results in slalom, super-combined and super-G and credits part of her all-around success to Hermann Maiers former physical trainer, Heinrich Bergmueller, who she began working with in the off-season. "I was also training hard the summers before but its a new way with a new coach and some things are different," she said. "I feel much stronger this year and with my recovery for all disciplines.&" Vonn ended her season recently to tend to her right knee, which she first injured in a horrific crash at last years world championships in Schladming, Austria.dddddddddddd Hoefl-Riesch is friendly with Vonn but she wasnt about to take anything away from her own success just because her rival is out now. "Thats skiing," said Hoefl-Riesch, who had four serious injuries in 2005. "I was not at the Olympic Games in 2006 and no one was asking the winner of the medals there if they miss me. So a medal is a medal and a title is a title, no matter who is competing and who is not." Vonn used to spend Christmas at Hoefl-Rieschs home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and they remain in contact. "We were just writing a little on WhatsApp a little bit," Hoefl-Riesch said. "I think shes doing OK and I hope that we can talk on the phone before I go to Sochi." Due to overnight snow and difficulty preparing the course, the start was delayed for half an hour and the course was shortened slightly -- chopping off about 20 seconds of racing. With softer snow and flat light, it was a sharp change in conditions from Wednesdays only training run, which was held under bright sunshine. Conditions improved for later starters as a tailwind moved in. The wind helped Schmidhofer, whose only other podium finish also came in Cortina, having finished second in a super-G last year. "I was hoping for a tailwind," Schmidhofer said, before she addressed her chances of being selected for Sochi. "I hope the coaches look at my result." The revised start put skiers directly into the courses best-known section, the Tofane schuss -- a long straightaway between two high rock outcroppings. "I generally do OK when there are straight shots out of the gate like that," Cook said. "So that was a little confidence booster to kick out of the gate, get on my skis and not have to do too much and then get into it. And then I just tried to not ski a perfect line but ski perfect body position and really attacking. And it seems to have been fast." Elisabeth Goergl, the Austrian who won a super-G on Thursday, lost control after hitting a gate and slammed into the safety padding at full speed. But she got right back up, skied down and said she was not injured. Another downhill is scheduled for Saturday, followed by a second super-G on Sunday to round out a series of four races in four days. Two of the races were originally scheduled for last weekend in Cortina but were wiped out due to heavy snowfall. The other two were moved from Garmisch due to a lack of snow in the German resort. ' ' '