Sidney Ponson, 1998 Upper Deck #594

2013 marks the 60th season in Orioles history. Over these last six decades, there have been 46 complete-game shutouts thrown by 22 different O's pitchers against the Yankees. As follows general trends in pitcher usage (and team trends in pitcher quality), only five of those shutouts have come in the last 30 years. You can find the full list here. Some interesting notes:

-As you might expect, Jim Palmer leads the way with seven whitewashes of the New Yorkers. He is followed by Dave McNally (six), Mike Cuellar (five), and ex-Yankee farmhand Scott McGregor (four, though one was a rain-shortened six-inning game).

-Charlie Beamon had only three career victories, and one of them was a wild four-hit, seven-walk, nine-strikeout blanking of Whitey Ford and the Yanks on September 26, 1956. The Birds did not turn a single double play and caught one runner stealing (Joe Collins in the first inning), but the Yankees went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10.

-The highest Game Score was 93, for Hoyt Wilhelm's 1958 no-hitter.

-Mike Mussina never blanked the Bronx Bombers, but Bob Milacki did it twice! Baseball, man.

-Sidney Ponson is the only O's pitcher to shut out the Yankees from 1993 to the present day. On September 4, 2004, he needed 109 pitches to beat them 7-0. All New York could muster were a pair of hits and a walk. Mike Mussina was the tough-luck loser (2 ER in 7 IP), and Mariano Rivera was blasted for four runs in one-third of an inning in a non-save situation. See note on Bob Milacki.

I'm telling you all of this because the Orioles have hit their first truly ugly stretch on the year, losing five in a row to the Padres and Rays. This is not the best time to be facing the Yankees, especially when tonight's pitching matchup is CC Sabathia (17-3 career vs. the O's) against Freddy Garcia (eight runs allowed in his last nine and two-thirds innings pitched). We need something weird to happen to snap out of this funk.