Following a 4:03 rain delay, the Yankees and the Orioles managed to get a full 9 innings of baseball in. The 3:07 game featured four home runs, instant replay, and more bags of drying agent than I have ever seen before. The Yankees won 5-3 with the power coming from unlikely sources.
In the 3rd inning, Jorge Posada hit his 13th home run of the season to give the Yankees the lead. Later, the rain and wind affected the game as a deep fly ball to left field caused chaos for Orioles outfielder Matt Angle. The ball appeared to be hit hard enough to be a home run but the wind blowing in from left field kept it in the ballpark, to the confusion of Angle. After his misplay, he stumbled on the wet grass as he tried to recover the ball and get it back in. The poor weather conditions allowed Posada to score again and give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
The game continued to have momentum sway as a 3-2 lead thanks to Mark Teixeira was erased by Nick Markakis’ run-scoring double to follow.
The Yankees ultimately took the lead as Francisco Cervelli launched another long fly ball to left field but this time instant replay would be requested by the Orioles manager as fans reached for this fly ball. With the instant replay, Francisco Cervelli was awarded the home run as the umpires determined that the ball would have gone over the wall if the fans had not been there. Brett Gardner followed Cervelli and made it a 5-3 game as he went back-to-back with his own home run off the right field foul pole.
Phil Hughes started tonight’s game and was very good through 6 innings. The only bad pitch was the home run by Matt Wieters. His curveball had good break and his fastball had good life to it as he struck out 5 and only walked 1 in his work tonight. Hector Noesi made his return to the majors amongst the September call-ups and ended up removing Hughes from factoring into the decision tonight with Boone Logan. In the end, Mariano Rivera shut the door as he got his 598th career save as he continues to go for the all-time record, held by Trevor Hoffman at 601.
In a game where the rain delay the Yankees waited through exceeded the length of the game that was eventually played, the short rest you get is better if you can get a hard-fought win. With the Yankees playing a day game this afternoon, exiting the stadium with a win will make this night’s work feel like it paid off as the Yankees maintain their lead atop the AL East.
Ryan Nakada
@adakannayr
