CC Sabathia got the Yankees to the ninth inning with the game tied and Russell Martin provided the go ahead blast en route to a 7-2 victory over the Orioles to go ahead 1-0 in the ALDS in Baltimore Sunday night.
They had to wait through a nearly three hour rain delay, but it was worth it as Sabathia shutdown the Orioles holding them to two runs over 8.2 innings. The two runs came on a Nate McLouth two-RBI double in the third inning that gave the O’s a 2-1 lead at the time.
The Yankees tied it in the very next inning when Mark Teixeira nearly hit a ball out of the park, but it hit the very top of the right field wall for a RBI-single.
The score was then 2-2 until the top of the ninth inning when Martin homered to left field off Orioles closer Jim Johnson to make it 3-2. The Yankees then added insurance runs on an Ichiro Suzuki RBI bunt single, a Robinson Cano double that scored two more and finally a sac fly off the bat of Nick Swisher.
It’s obviously a huge win that gives the Yankees a 1-0 series lead, but there is still plenty of work to be done as the second game of a five game series can often be as important or even more important than Game 1. Game 2 is tomorrow night in Baltimore where Andy Pettitte will take on the Taiwanese rookie Wei-Yin Chen.
It was looking like one of those games where the O's squeeze a close win. Huge performance by C.C. Nice also to see October Swish taking pitches and making good contact (for one night, anyway).
I thought the same thing, Matt DC – that we were headed for a close game and that the Os pull it out.
Two trends bode well for us now – 1) they used, I think, 5 pitchers yesterday and we used one and one-third. I like them going to their bullpen so early and 2) all we had to do was win one in Baltimore and the last three games are in NYC.
We'll see