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New York Yankees Recap: Yankees Get Home Field, Fall 9-4 To O’s

By Harrison Marder

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Despite losing 9-4 to the Baltimore Orioles (81-81) on Sunday afternoon, the New York Yankees (87-75) will host the AL Wild Card Game on Tuesday night against the Houston Astros.

Houston’s 5-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks helped solidify the Yankees’ position as the home team in Tuesday’s win-or-go-home postseason contest.

As for Sunday, the Orioles were led by first baseman Chris Davis, who hit a pair of home runs and had four RBIs. The first home run came off Yankee reliever Bryan Mitchell in the fifth inning, while the second home run came in the eighth inning off Caleb Cotham.

The Yankees were down just 2-1 after two innings. Then, the Orioles offense came alive.

A two-out RBI single by J.J. Hardy chased Yankees starter Michael Pineda from the game in the bottom of the fourth inning. Pineda was replaced by Chris Capuano, who gave up a double to Ryan Flaherty and intentionally walked Nolan Reimold before serving up a two-RBI base hit to Gerardo Parra. Parra’s hit extended the Orioles lead to 5-1.

Davis’ first home run then put Baltimore on top 7-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Pineda lasted only 3.2 innings for the Bronx Bombers, surrendering four runs on six hits while striking out five. His record dropped to 12-10 following the loss.

Eight pitchers were needed to relieve Pineda, including Capuano, Mitchell, James Pazos, Andrew Bailey, Branden Pinder, Justin Wilson, Andrew Miller and Cotham.

Things got interesting for the Yankees late in the game. RBIs by Didi Gregorius in the sixth inning, and by Gregory Bird and Dustin Ackley in the seventh inning, cut the Orioles lead to 7-4.

However, Davis’ second home run, which increased Baltimore’s lead to 9-4, put the game out of reach.

Chris Tillman gave up two runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings of work for the Orioles. He picked up his 11th win of the season and finished 2015 with an even 11-11 record.

Baltimore took all three games of this weekend’s series, and the Yankees finished the regular season losing six of their last seven games.

Hitting with runners in scoring position was a problem for the Yankees all series long. The team went 4-31 with runners in scoring position on the weekend, including a 1-12 effort on Sunday. They also left 11 runners on base in Sunday’s game alone.

With the regular season now officially in the books, the Yankees will send Masahiro Tanaka (12-7, 3.51 ERA) to the mound against the Astros’ Dallas Keuchel (20-8, 2.48 ERA) in Tuesday’s AL Wild Card Game at Yankee Stadium. The winner will advance to the AL Division Series to take on the Kansas City Royals. Tuesday night’s game will mark the Yankees first appearance in the postseason since 2012.

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