New York Yankees Recap: Yankees Fall 2-1 to Baltimore

Tonight the New York Yankees squared off against the Baltimore Orioles in the middle game of a three game set, and boy was it a scorcher. At first pitch, the game time temperature was 97 degrees, making it the hottest night of the summer. It was a matchup that featured the Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka (11-6, 3.73 ERA) against Kevin Gausman (2-6, 4.59 ERA)

Masahiro Tanaka retired the first 12 Orioles batters he faced in order before giving up a leadoff walk to Chris Davis in the top of the fifth inning. He was able to regroup and get Jimmy Paredes and Jonathan Schoop to strike out swinging, and with two outs and Davis on first base, Matt Wieters hit a slow roller that was just out of the reach of Didi Gregorius. Unfortunately the play looked like an error, as it bounced off the tip of Greogrius’ glove, but the official score keeper awarded Wieters with a hit, ending Tanaka’s no-hit bid. With two outs and runners on the corners, Tanaka was able to get J.J. Hardy to pop out to Stephen Drew to end the inning without giving up a run.

One inning later Ryan Flaherty smoked a solo-home run to right field, giving the Orioles a 1-0 lead.

The Yankees answered back in a hurry in the bottom of the sixth when Alex Rodriguez launched a 3-2 pitch over over the left-field wall, tying the ball game up at one. It was A-Rod’s 30th home run of the season, and it chased Kevin Gausman from the game. Gausman’s final line on the day was 5.0 innings pitched, six hits, one earned run, one walk and five strikeouts. He was replaced by T.J. McFarland ‘USA’, who was able to get Greg Bird to strike out and Didi Gregorius to ground into an inning-ending double play.

After Tanaka allowed Jimmy Paredes to lead off the seventh with a hard hit single, Brendan Ryan made an absolute web gem of a play at third base to double up Paredes and Schoop. Look out for it on ESPN tomorrow during Sports Center’s top ten plays! Matt Wieters roped a two out double to the warning track, but again Masahiro Tanaka was able to escape further damager after getting Hardy to ground out to short to end the inning.

After getting the first two batters out in the top of the eighth, Gerrardo Parra recorded a two out single for the Baltimore Orioles. Up next was Manny Machado, who pulled what looked to be a hard hit single through the infield before Didi Gregorius nearly one-upped Brendan Ryan by flashing the leather and snagging it and firing onto first to get Machado out to end the inning.

T.J. McFarland was able to get Brian McCann to ground out to start the bottom of the eighth. Buck Showalter than handed the ball off to Darren O’Day, who was able to get A-Rod to pop out and Greg Bird to ground out to end the inning.

After 8.0 solid innings of one run baseball and six scattered hits with one walk and 10 strikeouts from Tanaka, skipper Joe Girardi handed the ball off to Chasen Shreve to start the ninth, and it just wasn’t his day.

Chris Davis lead off the ninth with a lead-off homer, putting the Orioles up 2-1. Paredes and Schoop followed up Davis with back-to-back singles, but Shreve was eventually able to get Wieters to pop out to center-field and end the inning on a strike-him-out-throw-him-out double play with Hardy striking out and McCann gunning down Paredes at third.

Zach Britton retired the Yankees in oder in the bottom of the ninth, and the Yankees wasted a great pitching performance from Masahiro Tanaka.

Davis’ go ahead homer in the top of the ninth was the difference maker, and to make matters worse, the Blue Jays won 5-1 in 10 innings over the Boston Red Sox, further distancing themselves from the Yankees in the A.L. East.

C.C. Sabathia will take the hill tomorrow for the Yankees in their rubber match.

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