New York Yankees 2 — Baltimore Orioles 3
The Yankees couldn’t find the big hit in tonight’s 3-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
The veteran postseason starter Andy Pettitte took the mound tonight and gave the Yankees a quality outing. Despite receiving an early lead, difficulty finding the 3rd out of the 3rd inning erased the lead. With 2 soft singles and a walk, the bases were loaded despite starting the inning with 2 quick outs to start the inning. Chris Davis would cash-in on a single to right field to bring in 2 runs and give them the lead. The Orioles would put a valuable run on the scoreboard in the 6th inning off of Pettitte. After catcher Matt Wieters hit a double, Mark Reynolds hit a ball past Robinson Cano, who likely could have gotten on the ground to keep the ball from getting to the outfield, that would bring in Wieters and give the Orioles a 2-run lead. Through 7 innings, Pettitte gave up just the 3 runs as he gave the Yankees more than enough of an effort to get a win. After a leadoff single in the 8th, David Robertson would relieve Andy Pettitte and keep the deficit to 1 but there was nout enough offense to help the pitching.
The 1st inning for the Yankees looked to swing with momentum and had a bit of dance to it too. A single and an error gave the Yankees a good start to the inning but Alex Rodriguez lined into a double play as Jeter was doubled off of 2nd and made the inning appear like it would be put to an end. But Robinson Cano continues to swing a hot bat when he hit a double into the right field corner that would bring Ichiro Suzuki to a fancy move around catcher Matt Wieters. With the throw to home in front of the plate, Wieters stabbed at Ichiro in an attempt to tag him but Ichiro avoided it, and as he was directed away from the plate, he would have to dodge Wieters a second time as he lunged over Wieters towards a creative first run of the game. Despite this early offense, it would nearly be all that was generated. In the 3rd inning, 2 would reach base but a Cano groundout ended the inning. Two singles around a walk would load the bases with just 1 out in the 4th inning but Eduardo Nunez would pop out and Derek Jeter would ground out to end another opportunity. The Yankees would cut their 2-run deficit in half in the 7th inning when Nunez led off with a hustle double. Derek Jeter would hit a single to bring in Nunez and after Ichiro reached on a force out at 2nd, the bullpen was brought in to help Wei-Yin Chen. Darren O’Day would come in to face Alex Rodriguez and would get him to strike out while Ichro stole 2nd base. Brian Matusz would come in after O’Day and walked Cano intentionally to face a struggling Nick Swisher. Matusz would get Swisher to fly out to left field and keep the lead. After getting hit around in yesterday’s 9th inning, Jim Johnson came in for the save and would get the 3 outs including a strikeout of Alex Rodriguez to end the game and tie the series. The Yankees went 2 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left a total of 10 on the bases as they clearly could not take advantage of ideal opportunities to return to the Bronx with the 2-0 lead in the series.
Win – Wei-Yin Chen (1-0)
Loss – Andy Pettitte (0-1)
Save – Jim Johnson (1)
Notables
Yankees
*Robinson Cano – 1 for 3, 2B, BB, RBI (3)
*Derek Jeter – 2 for 5, RBI (1)
Orioles
*Mark Reynolds – 1 for 4, RBI (1)
*Chris Davis – 2 for 4, 2 RBI (2)
Current series: Tied 1-1
