Baltimore Orioles 5 — New York Yankees 4
The first night game in Yankee Stadium of the 2014 regular season also had extra hype as Masahiro Tanaka made his Yankee Stadium debut.
After a relatively simple first inning, Masahiro Tanaka made a costly mistake in the second. Tanaka would give up a pair of singles along with getting a pair of outs but third baseman Jonathan Schoop would get some two-out success. On a 1-0 pitch, Schoop would hook the Tanaka pitch to deep left field and it would fall just inside the foul pole for a three-run home run that put the Orioles ahead with some instant offense.
But the Yankees are still the “Bronx Bombers.”
Carlos Beltran would hit his first short porch home run as a Yankee when he put his first home run into the second deck to leadoff the bottom half of the second inning. Two outs later, Kelly Johnson would hit his second home run in as many at-bats and the Yankees made the deficit just one with two swings of the bat.
In the fourth inning, the Yankees would get the tying run across the plate with some small ball. Carlos Beltran would start with a double and he advanced to third on a fly out to right field by Brian McCann. Alfonso Soriano, recognizing the scenario, swung at the first pitch and productively grounded out as Beltran came across the plate.
Tanaka pitched like a veteran and bounced back from his difficult second inning. He would allow a single and a walk (the first walk by a Yankees starter in 33 innings) but it would be sandwiched inside three strikeouts. He would have a perfect fourth inning and would strikeout two more Orioles in the fifth inning as he kept the Yankees in the game. In a gritty, dream starting pitcher effort, Tanaka was at 85 pitches entering the sixth inning, seemingly coming up on his finish line. But, he pulled out the tortoise shell on his pitch count with a perfect, four-pitch sixth inning. He would cap off his seven innings with a perfect inning that included two strikeouts.
In seven innings, Masahiro Tanaka allowed three runs on seven hits with one walk and 10 strikeouts. Considering that all the runs came on the home run by Schoop, a really good outing on a big stage.
After a scoreless inning by Matt Thornton and Adam Warren in the eighth, the Yankees would fall a little short against reliever Evan Meek in his second inning of work. Brett Gardner would open with a double down the right field line and Derek Jeter does what Derek Jeter always does, bunts to move Gardner to third base. With the tying run on third, lefty Brian Matusz is brought in to get Jacoby Ellsbury, one of the hotter bats on the Yankees lineup. He would get Ellsbury to pop out and the Orioles would make the smart decision to walk Carlos Beltran, who would fall a triple short of the cycle, to face Brian McCann. The Yankees catcher would fly out to center field and the go-ahead run would be stranded on third.
With David Robertson hurt, the veteran of the bullpen would be Shawn Kelley. He would be called on to pitch the ninth inning with the game tied. Unfortunately for Kelley and the Yankees, this was a night worth forgetting. Ryan Flaherty would drill a double into right center field, Jonathan Schoop would hit a single to right center to put runners on the corners. Nick Markakis would hit the go-ahead run on the third consecutive line drive of the inning. Delmon Young would hit a single that reloaded the bases and Chris Davis would hit a sacrifice fly for some insurance. Shawn Kelley would get a strikeout and a ground out to finish the nightmare inning.
In the ninth inning, the Orioles turned to Tommy Hunter for the save with a two-run lead. Alfonso Soriano would hit a double to right field to get the offense in good shape. Kelly Johnson would hit a single that eats up Chris Davis at first base to put runners on the corners with no one out. Brian Roberts would bring in one run on a sacrifice fly to right field but the game would end on a double play hit by Yangervis Solarte to squash all hopes for a comeback.
Despite seven good innings from Tanaka and home runs by Beltran and Johnson, the strong points of a slightly damaged bullpen finally showed weakness.
Win – Brian Matusz (1-0)
Loss – Shawn Kelley (0-1)
Save – Tommy Hunter (3)
Notables
Orioles
*Jonathan Schoop – 2 for 4, 2 R, Three-Run Home Run (1) in the 2nd, 3 RBI (5)
*Nick Markakis – 1 for 5, RBI (3)
Yankees
*Carlos Beltran – 3 for 3, 2 R, BB, 2B, Solo Home Run (1) in the 2nd, RBI (4)
*Kelly Johnson – 2 for 4, R, Solo Home Run (2) in the 2nd, RBI (5)
Current Yankees Record: 4-5
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