The Buck stopped there

             It was only fitting that the Baltimore Orioles defeated the Texas Rangers in Arlington in the new one-game Wild Card format, setting up a long-awaited standoff with the New York Yankees, the team they were hot on the trail for during the second half of the season. Both teams played each other evenly down the line at nine games a piece in the regular season, and the playoffs would follow suit, prompting one of the narrowing and exciting postseason match-ups in recent Yankee history.



             Also as part of these new playoff rules implemented by MLB to spice up baseball in 2012, the number one seeded team (Yankees) would have to start on the road for the divisional series, which means the first two games would take place at Camden Yards. CC Sabathia, who has been shaky in his last two playoff stints in pinstripes, was on the mound trying to get back into his 2009 mode when he was absolutely dominate. For the Orioles, Buck Showalter pulled Jason Hammel out of his hat to pitch, despite the fact he hadn't made a start in several weeks. The Yankees grabbed an early lead thanks to an Ichiro double, with Jeter running on a full-count, which made the score 1-0 Yankees and placed Ichiro on second base with no outs. Instead of a big rally with Alex Rodriguez at the plate, Ichiro attempted to steal third with no outs and was caught (a big no-no in baseball), then Hammel came back to strikeout Rodriguez. The Yanks would only get one run that inning when it looked like the inexperienced Hammel was about to be on the ropes. Sabathia cruised through the first two innings, and in wasn't until the 3rd that he experienced some issues. He would find himself in a bases loaded jam and facing Nate McLouth. Sabathia hung a slider and the hot-hitting McLouth smoked it into right to give the Orioles a 2-1 lead. The Yankees would tie it an inning later thanks to a RBI single from Mark Teixeira, and from there both starting pitchers locked in. The Orioles best chance against Sabathia came in the bottom of the 8th when JJ Hardy lead off with a double. Sabathia got tough; striking out Adam Jones next, getting Matt Wieters to pop up, and then finally retiring Mark Reynolds to end the threat. With the score tied 2-2 in the 9th inning, the home team Orioles brought out their mega closer, Jim Johnson, who had an amazing season with 51 saves, to pitch the inning. Apparently the Yankees weren't impressed with the closer's stats because Russell Martin greeting him with a solo homer to left that gave the Yanks a 3-2 and stunned the crowd at Camden Yards. Other Yankees joined the fun such as Raul Ibanez, Derek Jeter, and Robinson Cano's double off knocked Johnson out of the game and secured the Yanks with a mighty 6-2 lead. Girardi let Sabathia come out in the bottom of the 9th with a 7-2 lead, but after retiring two batters, but failing to get the third, Sabathia was lifted after a great 8.2 inning performance of two-run ball and David Robertson got the final out for the 7-2 Yankee win.



             The Yankees sent their other lefty, Andy Pettitte, to the hill for the second game in search of his 20th postseason win against the inexperienced Wei-Yin Chen. The Yankees, just like the night before, had a chance to do damage early, but only got one run out of it. Jeter and Ichiro lead off with singles, giving A-Rod an opportunity to finally make some noise in the postseason since 2009. He lined a shot up the middle that was looking to be a RBI single, but Oriole second baseman Robert Andino snared it in mid-air and toss it to second to double up Jeter. The next hitter, Robinson Cano, then smoked a double to right that scored Ichiro from first on a bizarre play at the plate in which Wieters tried to Ichiro twice around the plate, but missed and the Yanks were up 1-0. Like Sabathia, Pettitte was doing fine until a two-out rally surfaced in the bottom of the third. A bloop hit, followed by a solid single from McLouth, and then a walk to JJ Hardy, put Chris Davis at the plate with the bags juiced. Instead of getting out of the jam, which the crafty Pettitte usually does, Davis ripped a pitch into right and the Orioles took a 2-1 lead. The Yanks had their best chance to either tie it up or even take a lead an inning later in the 4th. With the bases loaded and only one out, Eduardo Nunez came to the plate and popped a weak fly ball to shortstop. Derek Jeter followed that up with a ground out to third and the rally was officially over. The Orioles padded up their lead in the 6th after a Matt Weiters double, Mark Reynolds hit a single to the opposite field in right which scored Wieters for a 3-1 Orioles lead. The Yankees struck back in the 7th, Nunez finally hit the ball, a bloop double, and Jeter got him home with a RBI single and the Yanks were only down 3-2. The bats for both teams took the rest of the  night off, allowing Pettitte to go 7 innings, taking the hard luck loss, while Chen went 6.1. Jim Johnson was back on the mound in the 9th for a save this time, looking to put the meltdown the night before behind him, and he did just that, sitting down Jeter and Ichiro very quickly, then getting (of course) A-Rod to strikeout (of course) to end it 3-2 in favor of the Orioles. The save by Johnson tied the series at a game a piece, heading into New York for the final three.


             Being the top-seeded team in the AL was finally going to have some payoff with the next three games occurring at the homer-happy Yankee Stadium that benefits the pinstriped club. Hiroki Kuroda was picked to pitch game three and he was going to lock horns with the young Mike Gonzalez, who has had alot of success against the Yanks in 2012 going into this game. Unlike the previous two games, the Orioles struck first in the top of the 3rd from a Ryan Flaherty solo homer. That lead didn't last long, in the bottom of the frame with Russell Martin on base, Derek Jeter hit what looked like an ordinary fly ball to center, but Adam Jones took a step in and soon found himself trying to catch up (while blowing a bubble from his bubblegum). The ball dropped in at the warning track, allowing Martin to score to tie it up 1-1, and putting Jeter at third with two outs. Naturally the Yanks couldn't get a hit to get Jeter in, so it was left tied at 1. The Orioles second blow (as in homer) came in the 5th when 20-year old Manny Machado crushed a ball to left that made it 2-1 Orioles. Other than that, Kuroda was great, going 8.1 innings and only giving up the two runs. Unfortunately for the Yankees at the time, Gonzalez was even more stingy and the Yanks went into the bottom of the 9th trailing 2-1. The 51-save man Jim Johnson came out to pitch, and this is when a monumental substitution in Yankee history occurred. Manager Joe Girardi sat Alex Rodriguez down, who looked terrible trying to hit all night plus struck out against Johnson the night before, and brought up Raul Ibanez to pinch-hit. Ibanez had a number of key homeruns and hits during September, most of which came in a pinch-hitting role. Rodriguez had slumped in postseasons in the past and boos from the Yankee Stadium crowd is nothing new, but this is the first time its been admitted by the Yankee hierarchy that he's simply not a superstar anymore.



            The move paid off big time when Ibanez was clutch again and sent a Johnson pitch to right field, tying the game 2-2 with A-Rod watching from the bench. The Yankees couldn't win it in regulation, so it went into extra innings. Jeter too would see bench time, but this was injury related when he was taken out after limping around all night on his bad foot that he fouled pitches off of. In the bottom of the 12, that man again, Raul Ibanez lead off the inning against lefty Brian Matusz. On the first pitch he saw, Ibanez blasted it into the night and the ball went far over the right field wall for a dramatic walk-off 3-2 Yankees win!!



             With the dramatic win the night before and the old lefty Joe Saunders on the mound for the Orioles, the Yankees had to have felt the clinch at the tips of their fingers in this best of five series. Jeter was back on the field, sort of, taking the DH spot for the night to rest his aching foot. Girardi started A-Rod at third base and he finally delivered a hit, to the surprise of the crowd. The Yankee bats were quiet yet again in this game, and they failed to put a dent into the veteran Saunders. The Orioles got on the board against Phil Hughes in the 5th after the Yankee rightly danced a tight rope in the previous innings, Nate McLouth lined a solo homer to right that gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead. Cano came up in the 6th with runners on the corners, and his weak ground out to second was to too to turn a double-play, so Jeter scored to tie the score at 1. Cano, along with Swisher, Granderson, and A-Rod, were absolutely brutal in trying to make any sort of contact, and the Yankee crowd was letting them know it. There would be no Raul Ibanez magic this night, Girardi used him only once, with two outs as a substitute for Jayson Nix, and Ibanez came up empty. The move didn't make much sense since Nix was hitting the ball well all night and had two hits to show for it. The night before was a 12-inning affair, this one did one batter with the 13th. In the top of the inning, and with Girardi and Showalter unloading their bullpens, it was left up to Pedro Strop versus Davis Phelps. It would turn out Phelps being the one who would finally buckle. His double to JJ Hardy brought Machado home to score and the Orioles had a 2-1 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Showalter's last man standing, Jim Johnson came on for the save and didn't blow it this time. Girardi once again went to the bench for Alex Rodriguez again Johnson, this time selecting Eric Chavez, but he fared no better and Johnson was able to lock down the 2-1 Orioles win, pushing the series to decisive 5th game to move onto the next round to face the Detroit Tigers.



             When Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman restructured CC Sabathia's deal after the pitcher opted out of his original deal before start the season, it was to come up big and wins important games such as a deciding Game 5 of the ALDS. The Yankees ace came up big in Game 1 with a strong 8.2 inning performance for a win, he would need to do the same in order to get the Orioles out of the Yankees' hair. Girardi, seeing the writing on the wall with his crop of slumping hitters in the middle and bottom of the lineup, sat Alex Rodriguez (and his $30 million a year contract) in favor of Eric Chavez for third base, and inserted new fan-favorite Raul Ibanez as the DH. Jeter was back at shortstop after his one day off as a DH. Sabathia and Hammel both picked up from where they left off in Game 1 and were stingy through the first four innings. It wasn't until the bottom of the 5th when the Yankees struck. Mark Teixeira innocently lead off with a single, then with the first baseman not holding him on, actually bad calf and all stole second base to get himself into scoring position. Raul Ibanez would bring Teixeira home on a bleeder up the middle for a 1-0 Yankee lead that seemed so huge for the fact runs were hard to come by during this series. In the top of the 6th, there was a little controversy thanks to a foul ball hit by Nate McLouth that seemed to possibly nick the right field foul pole. Replays weren't conclusive enough to show that the ball changed any direction as a result of it hitting the pole, so after going to check the Instant Replay, the umpires ruled it foul, and Sabathia finished off McLouth with a strikeout. The Yanks would strike again in the bottom of that inning, an Ichrio Suzuki double to the wall in front of the Yankee bullpen brought home Jeter and gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead. There would be more Yankee bat-awaking. Curtis Granderson, another candidate for worst Yankee hitter this postseason, finally connected on a pitch and blasted it to the second deck in right that now had the Yankees up 3-0 with CC Sabathia in complete control. The Orioles finally made it interesting in the top of the 8th after Matt Wieters lead off with a single. Manny Machado took a walk next, but Sabathia was able to come back from a 3-1 count to strikeout Mark Reynolds. The official Sabathia-killer, Lew Ford, came up next and singled under the diving glove of Jeter to bring home the first Oriole run of the night. Andino was next and he chopped an infield single that Sabathia wasn't able to field smoothly, and his throw to second to nail a runner was too late. So the bases were loaded and the Orioles trailing 3-1, with their best hitter of the series, Nate McLouth, batting. This is where Sabathia got into ace-mode; he struckout McLouth, then got Hardy to ground out to short on a fantastic running throw by Jeter. The threat was gone and Sabathia was back out on the mound for the 9th inning with Soriano taxed from the previous two nights, and Game 1 of the ALCS looming the next day. There was no threat this time from Baltimore and CC sat them down 1-2-3 in the 9th for a complete game 3-1 Yankees victory to send them into the next round.



            For two teams with big offensive weapons, it came down to very stingy pitching (with the help of batters on both sides being cold as the chilly October weather), but one team had CC Sabathia and the other team didn't. It was good to see Girardi/Cashman stand up and admit finally that A-Rod isn't a superstar  player anymore through the moves they made pinch-hitting for him, but A-Rod wasn't the only bat lacking; Cano, Swisher, Granderson, and Teixeira really need to wake up during the next round or else the Yankees will not be going to the World Series....

Fending off the birds

             For the first time since 1997 there was going to be meaningful baseball played at Camden Yards after Labor Day. The Orioles have been on a roll since the All-Star break and have caught up to the slow-footed Yankees to be only one game back in the AL East standings. Knowing the usual large groupies of Yankee fans would make their way down to Baltimore, the Orioles braintrust slipped in a special Cal Ripken Jr. celebration day for the first game in hopes their fans would remember how to get to Camden Yards.



              With a large crowd behind them, mostly with orange shirts this time, the home team didn't disappoint and jumped all over Yankee starter David Phelps for 4 runs in the bottom of the 1st, with the big blow a 3-run opposite field homerun from Matt Wieters. Phelps was only able to go 4 innings, meanwhile the Yankees were only able to scratch one measly run off of Jason Hammel. Joba Chamberlain allowed a homerun to Mark Reynolds, who has destroyed the Yankees these past two months, in the 6th that pushed the score to 6-1 and it was looking like the Orioles were winning the game easily. It wasn't until the top of the 8th that the Yankees made their bats heard. With two outs, Nick Swisher walked and Alex Rodriguez brought him in with a RBI double. After that, a barrage of singles and walks, mixed in with a passed ball, ended up bringing four more Yankees across home plate and amazingly, the game was tied!! Then in the bottom of the 8th, something else amazing happened; David Robertson of all relievers, was knocked around for three runs from two homeruns. Boone Logan would be responsible for another Baltimore run in the inning and the home team had their big lead back at 10-6, which is where the score ended. Four runs cometh, four runs goeth, and both teams were tied for first place in the AL East.



             Remembering what offense was like from the 8th inning the night before, the Yankees got to their style of baseball once they reached the 4th inning of a scoreless game. Phil Hughes and Wei-Yin Chen put up zeros through the first three innings, but the the Bombers finally struck soon after. Russell Martin got it started with a 3-run homer, then newcomer Steve Pearce touched off on a 2-run. In the for good measure in the 5th inning, A-Rod crushed a 2-run shot of his own and the Yanks were up big 7-0. Big leads mean nothing in Camden Yards and the Orioles were back in it in the 6th when they finally got to Hughes on a 3-run homer from Alex Jones that cut it to 7-3. Hughes would finish the 6th and earn his 14th win of the season. The Orioles poked two more homers, the last coming from Manny Machado in the bottom of the 9th which put it at 8-5 Yankees, but Rafael Soriano kept it there and put the Yankees back up by a game in the standings. There was no save for Soriano since he entered the game when the score was 8-4.



            The Yankees had their slumbering ace, CC Sabathia, on the mound trying to build upon the one game lead they had on the Orioles. Also back in action was first baseman Mark Teixeira, back from his calf injury that had him sidelined for a few weeks. The Yanks' bats kept on rolling early with runs scored in the 1st and 2nd inning that gave CC a 2-0 lead to work with. In the bottom of the 4th, CC turned it back on over; giving up solo homers to Mark Reynolds (why do they keep pitching to this guy?) and Lew Ford (what a disgrace!). The Yankees weren't able to get to Joe Saunders beyond the 2nd inning and the Orioles would eventually take the lead in the 3rd thanks to a RBI double from JJ Hardy that made it 3-2. Sabathia wore down as the game went on and was tagged for a homer from Hardy in the 6th, and then a RBI single from the scrapheap Lew Ford which had the O's up 5-2. The one Oriole reliever the Yankees have been able to get to has been Pedro Strop, and Buck Showalter put him out there in the 8th. Alex Rodriguez greeted him with a monstrous  homerun to deep center that made it 5-3. The Yanks continued to walk and hit their way that set up a bases loaded situation for Curtis Granderson, but the struggling Yankee center fielder popped up on a pitch from the next O's reliever, Brian Matusz. The closer for the Orioles, Jim Johnson, has been one of the game's best in 2012, but the Yanks didn't go quietly against him. In fact, two singles, and a bunt for a single made the bases loaded again with no outs. Under normal circumstances this should've been an inning to tie the game and even take the lead. With the way the Yankees hit with runners on, this was to be expected. A weak groundout to shortstop from Nick Swisher cut the score to 5-4 Orioles, and the very next hitter, Mark Teixeira, also hit an infield grounder that was turned for a game-ending double-play. Not only did Teixeira run hard down the line to beat out the play which caused him to re-injure his calf that'll sideline him now for another couple of weeks, but video replay shows he was safe at first by a large margin. The game should've been tied at 5 at that point with Alex Rodriguez coming to the plate with a runner on base.



              Perhaps testy after the way they lost and the blown call from the ump on Teixeira's game-ending out, Yankees manager Joe Girardi had a screaming match in his office with New York Post reporter Joel Sherman concerning Girardi's favorite subject to discuss: Yankee injuries. The spark was ignited after Sherman asked regarding Sabathia's health as a reason for his lower velocity and poor control lately, unknowing the question was already asked twice before and Girardi insisted his ace was fine health-wise. Girardi took it as Sherman wasn't buying his original answer on Sabathia, but it was just a case Sherman didn't know Girardi already spoke about it. Things got hot tempered on both sides, and this is just week after Girardi made a loud tirade against a fan heckling him in Chicago while he was trying to have his press conference. Needless to say, the way the Yankees have looked like anything else but a playoff club must be getting to #28.



             Back tied for first in the AL East, the Yankees needed Freddy Garcia (add name to list of terrible Yankees in recent weeks) to get them out of Baltimore with a lead in the standings. Up against Garcia was Zach Britton, who unlike Garcia, has been good lately for the Orioles, but Britton would blink first. Already down 1-0 in the 4th, Britton would himself with the bases loaded and would walk Steven Pearce to bring in the second run of the game for a 2-0 Yankee lead. More hits would come and by the end of the inning, Britton was gone and the Yanks were up 5-0. As usual, Garcia was good early, but ran out of gas by the 4th as well and gave three runs back to the Orioles. Joba Chamberlain came out of the bullpen to clean Garcia's mess and keep the score at 5-3 for the Yankees. After a scoreless inning from Chamberlain, the Yankees started to pour it on. Curtis Granderson launched a solo homer in the 6th, his first of three hits on the day. Another homerun ball went out in the 8th from Derek Jeter, his 15th jack of the season, which also scored Ichiro. With the Yankees still batting, Granderson doubled in two more runs and the score was convincingly 13-3. The win went to Joba to put his record at 1-0, and it was his best performance to date as he continues to work his way back from the surgery. He also slipped in a tiny fist-pump for old times sake. Plus, Cory Wade made an appearance with two scoreless innings that brought him three strikeouts.



              The Yankees left Baltimore the same way they came, ahead one game in the AL East. Despite the split of a four-game series, the Yankees had opportunities to win all four game (including the blown call on Teixeira) against the hottest team in baseball in their own ballpark. Ivan Nova is officially back with the team and available for long-relief for the moment, and Andy Pettitte is one more simulated game away from rejoining the club. A-Rod has his power strong and number of the hitters woke up at Camden Yards. Next stop is up at Fenway for a last time in 2012 to face who knows what type of Red Sox team is left.....

Can't beat Buck

             The Orioles hopped over the Rays in the standings and came into New York looking to bite at the heels of the AL East-leading Yankees. Only three games ahead, the Yankees were looking push the O's further down in the pack, but Buck Showalter's troops for the third time this season, came into the Yankees' backyard and took two of the three games and narrowed their deficit to a tiny two games.



             Licking their wounds from the miserable Blue Jays series, the Yanks were hoping Hiroki Kuroda could get them started in the right direction. For the first inning he did, but in the second frame after a sacrifice fly to Chris Davis, the strikeout-prone Mark Reynolds connected on a 2-run homer to increase the early lead to 3-0 Orioles. Their starter, Miguel Gonzalez, chewed through the exposed and decimated Yankees line-up as if he was Sandy Koufax. He would go seven full innings for the win and only give away four measly hits while striking out 9. Kuroda received no run support for the second straight game, but at least pitched into the 9th inning to give the bullpen a longer break after the off-day Thursday. Derek Lowe came into the 9th and gave up a hit and a homer, as he is looking less-reliable lately, that gave the O's a 6-0 lead. In the bottom of the 9th, Curtis Granderson gave some sign he's alive by popping a solo homer, but that was all for the Yanks as they fell 6-1.



            The rookie David Phelps was asked to hold off the surging Orioles for the following game and had perhaps his sloppiest outing since moving back into the starting rotation. Thanks to walks, hits, and even a hit-batsman, Phelps found himself down 2-0 after the 2nd inning and it actually could've been alot worse. Matt Wieters homered to lead off the 4th to make it 3-0 Orioles, and it was looking like another lethargic effort out of the Yankee lineup that has been injured and unable to score in recent weeks. It didn't help either when Curtis Granderson had to exit the game with tightness in his hamstring, but tests came back negative. Robinson Cano finally got something started with an opposite field homer off of lefty starter Wei-Yin Chen that cut the lead to 3-1. Phelps couldn't finish the 5th inning and needed to be lifted after only going 4.2 innings and giving up 3 earned runs with a terrible six walks allowed. Luckily the for the Yankees, the rosters were expanded with September call-ups from the minors and a familiar face, Eduardo Nunez, delivered with a RBI hit in the middle of a 7th inning rally that ended up eventually tying the game on a Jeter walk. The Orioles made their one big mistake of the weekend a batter later when JJ Hardy mishandled Nick Swisher groundball up the middle that let the Yankees seize a gift 4-3 lead. David Robertson looked sharp in a 1-2-3 8th inning, and Rafael Soriano helped push the Yankees AL East lead back to 3 games by closing out the 9th for this 35th save for the 4-3 Yankees win.



            With Hiroki Kuroda coming back to Earth a little, it has been Phil Hughes lately (and surprisingly) who has served as the Yankees best starter during the segment of the season. He backed it up by taking a 2-0 Yankees lead into the 5th inning, both runs coming from a Chris Dickerson 2-Run shot earlier on, and gave up to his first run from a Mark Reynolds solo homer. The Yankees would get that run back in the bottom of the 5th, but then that was it as far as Yankee scoring was for the rest of the afternoon. Randy Wolf, picked up by the O's recently from the recycling can, was inserted to start the 4th after Chris Tillman needed to leave the game with shoulder discomfort. The Yankees never got to Wolf, but the Orioles finally got to Hughes. In the top of the 6th, Hughes would get smashed for four runs, including a 3-Run bomb from Reynolds, his fourth homer of the series, and Hughes wasn't able to record one out in the inning. Joba Chamberlain made an appearance in the top of the 7th with two outs and facing Adam Jones. Jones hit what looked to be a sure homerun with a runner on, but Chris Dickerson, playing center for the hamstrung Granderson, leaped up against the wall and caught the ball, saving Joba from giving up a 2-run homer. In the top of the inning the Yankees put two runners on with one out and trailing 5-3, but O's reliever Luis Ayala got Derek Jeter to ground into the inning-ending double play. The Yankee bullpen totally fell apart in the 8th and a mix of Derek Lowe and Boone Logan would help three more Orioles to cross the plate and the game was put away at 8-3 Orioles.



           The Yankees lead in the AL East has shriveled down to 2 games and now the Baltimore Orioles have been given a dangerous vote of confidence that they're for real in 2012. Heading out on a long road trip starting in Tampa Bay, the Yankees lost their 20-games over .500 mark at 76-57, but will gain the return of Alex Rodriguez who is sorely needed in the lineup that has struggled to score runs....

Splitsville in Baltimore

             For whatever reason Major League Baseball continues to schedule two-game series, so the Yanks had no choice to pack lightly and head down to Baltimore to have a couple of swings with the Orioles.



             The Monday night game pitted Ivan Nova against Jason Hammel, both sporting 4-1 records for the season. Nova was rather sloppy on the mound, and wasn't helped out by suffering a contusion on his foot from a line drive hit by Nick Markakis. Later on, Nova twisted his ankle coming off the mound to field a chopper hit back to him, which now puts his next start in jeopardy.



            The offense bailed Nova out of a 2-0 hole, and even took the lead when Curtis Granderson blasted a homerun deep off of Hammel. The Bombers fell behind again 5-3, but were able to rally to load the bases in the 6th and tie the score 5-5, then in the 7th the struggling Mark Teixeira hit his biggest homerun of the season. The two-run shot put the Yanks ahead 7-5 and they added on another run in the 9th for good measure. Eric Chavez did his best impression of Luis Castillo by not fielding a routine pop up to third base to end the game and forced Rafael Soriano to throw a few more pitches to save the 8-5 win.



            After the game Yankees manager Joe Girardi gave the excellent news that the new closer David Robertson had been experiencing discomfort in his shoulder and the next day was placed on the 15-day DL. This makes Rafael Soriano the third official closer within the week and places more responsibility on the shoulders of Clay Rapada and Cody Eppley.




            The Yankees ace CC Sabathia took his 5-0 record to the mound and the fact he has gone 8 innings in basically all his starts this season might've taken its toll. The big guy wasn't sharp at all and fell behind to the Orioles by a 4-0 score. Facing the Yanks was a lefty with the last name Chen, and since Bruce Chen is still with the Royals, it has to have been Wei-Yin Chen. The Yankee offensive was completely powerless until the 7th inning when Curtis Granderson hit an opposite field homer which barely got over the wall (and likely interfered with by a Yankees fan in the stands) and cut the Orioles lead 4-2.



            With a somewhat diminished bullpen, Girardi went with Freddy Garcia, who hadn't pitched in weeks, and a key moment occurred when Adam Jones went to steal second and even though the replay showed him out, the ump called him safe. Jones came in to score on a passed ball that Chris Steward wasn't able to catch (his second of the game) which made a Yankee comeback even more difficult at 5-3. With that, the Yanks started the 8th inning with a golden chance to accomplish the feat. Orioles reliever Pedro Strop walked the first two batters he faced which put two runners on with no outs and the number two, three, and four hitters due up to bat. With a night of bad ump calls, inept offense, poor defense, the 8th inning wouldn't be any better for the Yanks. Swisher grounded out and Cano followed with a doubleplay that got Strop out of the jam. Jim Johnson came on in the 9th for the Orioles to get the save and build a 2.5 game lead over the Yanks in the AL East standings.



              At 20-16 the Yankees cross the border to go to Toronto for another all-important two game set before the first round of interleague play begins...


     

For the birds

            The Baltimore Orioles came to Yankees Stadium looking for revenge after getting swept in Camden Yards a few weeks ago and made the Yanks look like a feeble group of old ladies.



             Monday night's first game was the only bright spot for the Yankees as they inched out a 2-1 victory thanks to a number of highlight reel plays on defense and a solid 7 innings of pitching from Hiroki Kuroda. After being down 1-0, Eric Chavez sent a 2-run homer deep into the Yankees bullpen which took care of all the scoring for the night. Plenty of leather was flashed by the Yanks defense; including diving plays in left field from Eduardo Nunez, line drives snagged by Jeter and Teixeira, and a nifty doubleplay turned by Jeter to end the game. With Mariano Rivera on to close it out, it was a rarity to see a hard enough hit ball that could be used to turn two with. With Nick Swisher out from a hamstring pull and Brett Gardner still not back from the DL, manager Joe Girardi was forced to play Nunez in left; a move that would come back to haunt him the next night.



            To say Phil Hughes hasn't had a good start to the 2012 season is an understatement, so before entering his next start he reviewed film of himself from 2009 when he came out of the bullpen and was considered the best set-up man in baseball.




          For the first time in a long time Hughes looked 2009-ish as he reached upwards to 95 mph with his fastball and looked crisp early on. Curtis Granderson hit an absolute bomb off of Orioles starter Brian Matusz to give Hughes a 1-0 lead, but Hughes later gave up a homer of his own to Chris Davis to tie the score. Later on, Hughes gave up a 2-run shot to J.J. Hardy to put the Yanks in a 3-1 hole. All in all, without those two homers, Hughes was semi-decent for a change. With runner of base and having to face Chris Davis again, who homered earlier, Girardi opted to bring in Boone Logan who surrendered a hit to make it 4-1, and then for the cherry on top Eduardo Nunez (playing an unfamiliar position due to the injuries and current lack of roster depth) misplayed a routine fly ball to make it 6-1 in favor of the O's.



            The Yankees bats were pathetic, especially with runners in scoring position and the heart of the order, alla Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano, swinging at first pitches and doing absolutely nothing with it. A usual laughing stock, Brian Matusz earned his first major league win since the Stone Age in a 7-1 victory.



            The final game of the set was no better for the Yankee offense as Orioles starter Jake Arrieta was untouchable. Ivan Nova had his streak of being undefeated in his last 15 regular season starts ended with no help from the bats in a 5-0 loss. Both Matt Wieters and Nick Markakis went deep on Nova, who left in the 7th inning. The most bizarre occurrence of the night was Eric Chavez who had to be taken out of the game due to a whip-lash he felt in the middle of an at-bat. Earlier in the game, Chavez made a diving attempt at a line drive hit by J.J Hardy which caused the sensation.



             Now with another injured Yankee player (who was actually hitting), the team limps into Kansas City with a 13-11 record....