Yankees Beat The Orioles

On Sunday the Yankees played baseball on a fresh new day thanks to the surprisingly warm weather.  Even though the chilly weather in the past hasn’t hurt the Yankees since they have been on an 11-6 start of the season.  Leading the AL East standings with the Baltimore Orioles struggling to stay at first place with their strong start but falling short at last place.  The Yankees have already faced the Orioles twice in May and had won one and lost the other.  There seems to be a pattern where the Yankees either lose big or win big as they did Saturday Night.  It really brought out the reason why the Yankees are also referred to as the “Bronx Bombers” as you can assume they were hitting homerun after homerun with the big blast coming from Alex Rodriguez.  Alex hit a grand slam making the game seem out of reach for the desperate Orioles.  Russell Martin had also shined bright in the game going 2 for 3 being that two of those hits were homeruns.  CC Sabathia gave a quality start going 8 innings and only allowing 3 earned runs.   The box score at the end of the game showed the Yankees winning 15 to 3.  On Easter the “Bronx Bombers” were back at it and were going for the sweep of the series, which would continue their hot streak they have been on.   At Camden yards the two starters were Freddy Garcia and Jake Arrieta both of which came into the game with at least one win under their belts.

To start the game out Derek Jeter hit the ball hard on the first pitch he saw inching ever closer to 3000 hits for his career.  Just as the crowd began to wonder weather it was going to be like Saturdays game, Granderson hits a homerun right into the right center field wall.  Arrieta seemed to be rattled right after because he had walked Teixeira and began to fall behind in the count against the always-dangerous A-Rod and so he walked him.  The crowd became even quieter when the pitching coach for the Orioles came up to have a talk with Arrieta.  The chat that they had seemed to be working, since Arrieta had more of an aggressive approach by striking out both Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher with early 90’s fastballs.  And to finally get out of the long top of the first inning Arrieta got Jorge Posada to groundout up the middle to the shortstop Izturis leaving the Yankees with only two runs and two hits.  A great start to the game with one out to the inning Teixeira delivers with his glove, making an astonishing play and then running to first base for the second out.  Garcia got out of the inning with no runs allowed and flawless pitching.  When it seemed like Arrieta would get out of the top of the second with no base runners he allowed another hit down the right field line.  The hustling Derek Jeter tried to make it into a double and succeeded beating the strong throwing Nick Markakis.  Though Derek Jeter was hoping for another repeat from Granderson or at least a hit, Curtis couldn’t come through ending the inning with a fly out to center.  The bottom of the second inning became intense with the bases loaded, two outs and the orioles fans cheering for Izturis to get a hit.  The heat was making Freddy Garcia sweat but that didn’t seem to bother him as he threw a breaking ball to see Izturis swing and miss as it bounced on the ground.  The calm Russell Martin picks up the ball and instead of going to first he touches home to get out of the inning with no harm done.  A-rod gets on base with a walk but nothing special happens since the rest of the Yankees up grounded or struck out leaving the score board at 2-0.  Another well pitched inning from Garcia at the bottom of the third striking out the first two and ending the inning with Derek lee grounding out to Mark Teixeira.  With a more confidant Arrieta you could see that he had really started to play how he expected himself to by having a one, two, three inning against this Yankees lineup.  Vladimir Guerrero gets up to bat at the bottom of the forth and hits a line drive to A-Rod who makes a high jump to catch the ball, landing with a grin of amazement.  Garcia runs into another base runner after he gives up a hit to Luke Scott yet, he began to pitch more with his breaking pitches like his splitter that Martin had to continuously block when it hit the ground.  Sometimes he would go to his fastball and put more heat on it going up to 91 mph striking out Jones.  With two outs the count ran full and Mark Reynolds lines out to Brett Gardner who seem to have trouble locating the ball and he makes a catch quickly right in front of him.  The sky in Baltimore became dark as Arrieta went into his fifth inning of work having thrown around 70 pitches gets Derek Jeter out trying to get to 2944 hits in his career.  Granderson and Teixeira both get on with solid hits.  Cutis hits a double to left just missing a homerun by a few feet and Teixeira with a single to right.  When it seemed like Arrieta would get out of the fifth with no runs allowed because of a ground ball hit by Alex.  The Orioles couldn’t complete the double play with Alex’s hustle down the line allowing Granderson to score making the game 3-0 Yankees.  Another great inning by Garcia who had no problem getting the heart of the Orioles lineup out.  On the top of the sixth Arrieta responds to Garcia’s outing by shutting the Yankees out with the help of Reynolds at third making a top play to get Martin out.  Off speed pitching was the name of the game for Freddy who struck out Derek Lee with an 82 mph pitch having him and many other batters like Guerrero ahead of the pitch looking like little leaguers swinging at nothing but the air.  Uehara comes into the top of the seventh for relief making quick work getting Granderson to fly out to left.  He was able to get Jeter to swing and miss at a ball high and away and also get Granderson to do the same.  Arrieta left the game pitching six innings and allowing three earned runs.  The Yankees also did the same as the Orioles and took Garcia out to allow Joba to come in and to start up that bullpen formula the Yankees have.  Garcia went six innings and allowed no runs and was set in line for the win.  Joba came into the bottom of the seventh with a dirty breaking ball striking out Luke Scott.  Yet, with Jones up he ripped a ball up the middle almost hitting Joba in the head.  Next at bat was Reynolds who hits a two run homerun towards the same spot that Granderson did in the top of the first making it into a one run game, 3-2.  With that shot the crowd started to become alive clapping and trying to rattle Joba into making more mistakes.  Joba managed to get out of the inning without any more runs.  Manager Buck Showlater decides to put in Jim Johnson for the top of the eighth and he puts up a scoreless inning.  Surprisingly Joe Girardi put in David Robertson instead of what Yankee fans are used to of Soriano in the eighth.  David made Brian Roberts ground out to Cano for the first out.  Robertson had a good breaking ball working for him but one that had a little bit to much of hang time that allowed the struggling Markakis to get a single to left.  With Vladimir up he hits a single up the middle past Jeter.  The alert Markakis running to second sees how far Granderson had to run towards that ball so Nick decides to go to third and makes it in with no problem. With runners on first and third the Yankees bring in Mariano Riviera to try to get the four out save.  The Orioles pinch run for Vladimir with Pie.  The Baltimore fans were excited to see their Orioles possibly take the lead with a hit by Luke Scott.  Mariano throws two pitches and then Scott hits it deep to left field where Brett Gardner with his speed just catches it over his head.  He runs towards the wall and pushes himself off of it with his feet sticking his tongue out to the fans and ran back to the dugout as the Yankees had escaped with the score kept the same.  The top of the ninth brought in the Orioles closer Kevin Greg who held the Yankees down to another scoreless inning.  At the bottom of ninth the Yankees keep in their legendary closer to face the five, six, and seven batters.  As the inning went on the Oriole’s fans in Camden Yards would yell, “Lets go O’s”, Adam Jones fought off Mariano to get a walk.  Next to bat was Reynolds as he swung the bat he hit his right kneecap and when he got back to bat Mariano went right back inside with his cutter that tailed in to strike out Reynolds looking.  With one out away Rivera faced Matt Wieters and struck him out swinging too with a cutter on the outside corner.  With the possible last out up Jake Fox hits a ball just pass Cano’s reach.  Showalter decides to pinch run for Fox bringing in Robert Andino.  Brian Roberts came up to bat with two runners on first and second and he hit the ball down the line past a diving Teixeira, with one run in Nick Swisher throws the ball in from left and it is cut off by Cano and thrown home to get Andino out by an eyelash.  Into extras as Mariano blew his save opportunity and a new pitcher for the Orioles came in named Jeremy Accardo.  Derek Jeter was first to bat and hits a slow roller to third that seemed like it would have gone foul if Reynolds didn’t touch it but he did and his throw was off line.  Jeter got a hit and went to first until Granderson walked that made it first and second with no outs for Mark Teixeira.  Mark hits a ball that had gone deep into center field where he had just missed hitting the ball on the sweet spot, so Derek Jeter tags up and goes to third as Granderson stays at first.  Next A-Rod came up to bat and he hit what seemed to be a sac fly to Adam Jones but a strong perfect throw from Jones and Wieters blocking home plate caused for an easy tag out to end the inning.  For the start of the Bottom of the tenth lighting appeared in the sky as the crowd was surprised.  The Yankees brought in Boone Logan who came to pitch and he gave a solid inning of work with no runs allowed.  At the top of the eleventh the rain began to slightly pour harder and get on the players helmets and bats quickly.  Because of the Lighting and the rain starting to pick up in intensity the umpires called the grounds crew to cover the field and the rain delay began. After about a half an hour of delay the Orioles began to warm up on the field with a new pitcher by the name of Jason Berken.  Cano began the inning and he hit a shot to the right fielder and he got a double.  As swisher try’s to bunt he pulls back and Wieters throws the ball to attempt to pick off Cano on second and Cano sees how the throw made Andino, the shortstop, reach away from second so he advances to third on a great instinct play.  Nick came up to bat with Cano on third and he struck out for the first out.  The Orioles decided to intentional walk the pinch hitter Eric Chavez to have a chance to get a double play.  Martin was up to bat and hit a hard ground ball towards the hole between Andino and Reynolds and Andino makes a great diving catch and from his knees throws off line to Roberts.  Cano scores and Chavez moves to third on the error as the Yankees then led 4-3.  Brett Gardener came up to bat trying to make it into a two run lead but struck out leaving Derek to bat with two outs.  Derek hits another ball at Reynolds in which he try’s to bare hand it on the wet grass causing him to make an error on the throw.  Another run scores and allows Derek to move to second since the ball went into the stands.  Granderson came up to bat and he hits the ball to the second baseman Roberts yet he couldn’t make the diving play cleanly.  Chavez scores as Derek Jeter moved to third and Granderson stayed at first.  To end the inning Teixeira fly’s out to Center.  The Yankees in the bottom of the eleventh left in Boone Logan to get Luke Scott out which he did and the Yankees brought in the righty Buddy Carlyle to get the final two batters in which he got both batters to pop out.  The Yankees began their handshakes on the field as they sweep the Orioles in the two game series winning 6-3 in extras. 

            Overall the game between the Yankees and the Orioles was a battle till the end where it seemed like it would be dominated by hitting with the Yankees gaining an early 3-0 lead.  But pitching seemed to be more of a factor where the two starters came out and pitched well.  Garcia had more command of his pitches and did not seem to get rattled in critical parts of the game.  He put up zeros in the runs column and allowed only a few hits.  The top of the lineup really produced the RBI’s and runs in the game with Derek Jeter going 4-6 and Cutis Granderson 3-5.  Even though the bullpen for the Yankees didn’t do its job as well as they would have liked with Mariano giving up another blown save they got help from amazing defensive plays.  Defense played a huge part on who won the game both teams had their share of impact plays.  Yet, it was also great managing by Joe Girardi in deciding who to put in to pitch since their set up man Soriano was out due to a stiff lower back.  This was a great win for the Yankees as they go back home to New York to try to win more games with the home crowd on their side.