Over the years, New York Yankee southpaw C.C. Sabathia has owned the Baltimore Orioles and it looked like on Friday night that the tall, burly left-hander would dominate again.
For five innings, he no-hit the Orioles; however, in the bottom of the sixth inning, Baltimore brought out the bats and score three runs in that frame.
That would start the beginning of the end of Sabathia and New York.
They would tie the score at 3. In that frame, Manny Machado – who is simply just amazing – hit his 30th double of the season to plate in two runs, and Adam Jones plated in a run with a weakly hit single.
Once again, the offense for Baltimore would come through when it was needed the most.
The Orioles knock out Sabathia and the Yankees for good in the seventh as Nate McLouth took Sabathia deep.
In the end, the Orioles would defeat the Yankees, 4-3.
Again and again, the Orioles are proving themselves to be quite resilient when their backs are against the wall.
Pitcher T.J. McFarland started the game for Baltimore, only lasted 2 1/3 innings and gave up three runs; however, rookie Kevin Gausman came through huge for the Orioles in his first relief appearance ever in the majors.
The young right would neutralize the Yankees and go 4 1/3 and win his first game for the Orioles and in the big leagues.
Tommy Hunter (and not Jim Johnson) closed out the game for Baltimore, getting his first save and securing the victory. A lot of eyes were raised when Hunter stayed in the game to finish up things; however, manager Buck Showalter did give Johnson the night off and I would think he would be the primary guy to still close out games.
Then again, it is nice to see that the Orioles do have options in the ‘pen to close out games.
Finally, I’m amazed at the Yankee lineup has come down to with their injuries.
Seriously, if you get a chance look at the box score for New York from last night’s game. It looks like a lineup you’d see in Spring Training – if they were going on the road and left their big bats at home.
It’s certainly not a lineup you’d expect to see out of a big market team. However, desperate times call for desperate measures, and I am shocked they are over .500.
Saturday’s game is a 7:05 start and will be featured on FOX; meanwhile, Sunday’s game will be an ESPN game will be an 8:00PM start.
Zach Britton takes the hill for Baltimore on Saturday. He will square off against David Phelps for New York.
