As unlikely as the Baltimore Orioles-New York Yankees ALDS matchup is by itself, consider the pitching matchup in Monday’s Game 2. One lefthander was retired in 2011, and the other was pitching in Japan.
There was 40-year-old Andy Pettitte, the all-time leader with 19 postseason wins, facing Wei-Yin Chen, the only Orioles pitcher with a double-digit win total this season. Both pitched very well, but it was Chen who exited with a 3-2 lead in the seventh.
But it all came down to Orioles closer Jim Johnson, who allowed five earned runs in a disastrous ninth-inning meltdown in Game 1 and had to face the top of the Yankees’ order in the ninth in Game 2.
This time, Johnson recorded three uneventful outs for a bullpen that now has won all 76 games it has led after seven innings this season (postseason included), and for a team that now is 30-9 in one-run games.
Three strikes from the Orioles’ 3-2 win in Game 2:
1. Elusive Ichiro
In three of his five at-bats in Game 2, Yankees left fielder Ichiro Suzuki reached base despite not hitting the ball out of the infield.In the first inning, he reached on an error by Orioles first baseman Mark Reynolds. And that set up one of the wildest plays at the plate in … well, ever. Ichiro was waved home on a double into the right field corner by Robinson Cano and should have been out by at least 10 feet. But he twice eluded the tag of catcher Matt Wieters, first running around him and then diving over him to tag the plate. After he should have been out twice in the inning, Ichiro gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
In the third, Ichiro reached safely on a weak grounder toward second base. He was stranded, but the 38-year-old provided more proof that he still can be a pest this late in his career.
In the seventh, Ichiro beat out the back end of what appeared certain to be a double play. He then stole second base before advancing to third on a passed ball—again wreaking havoc after he should have been out on a ball that never left the infield. However, he again was stranded.
2. Hard-luck Hardy
While Ichiro was guilty of stealing a run in the first, the Orioles were guilty of giving one back in the third. After Baltimore mounted a two-out rally against Pettitte to take a 2-1 lead, Adam Jones hit a grounder that just eluded shortstop Derek Jeter. J.J. Hardy, who was on second base at the time, stopped at third despite third base coach DeMarlo Hale emphatically waving him home.Hardy, who would have scored easily, took his eye off the ball and off his third base coach. And it appeared that Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was responsible for the confusion, successfully deking Hardy. Hardy heard all about it from the crowd after was stranded at third when Wieters popped out in the next at-bat. He would have caught another earful if his sixth-inning error had led to any damage and if the Orioles had lost.
3. Home away from home
The first two games of this series were at Camden Yards, but the next three (if it goes the full five games) will be at Yankee Stadium. And that’s just fine with Baltimore, which went 6-3 there this season thanks in large part to Reynolds (.321-4-8), Hardy (.275-3-5) and Wieters (.364-2-4).In what now is a best-of-three series, there is reason to believe the Orioles can prevail. However, the Yankees won 10 of their final 11 home games in the regular season and haven’t lost a home series since Aug. 31-Sept. 2. That series was against—you guessed it—the Orioles.
source: aol.sportingnews.com
