Home-field Advantage at Stake as Yankees Lose to Orioles 9-2

It was a sad, long day at Camden Yards for the New York Yankees today as they took on the Baltimore Orioles and Wei-Yin Chen (11-8, 3.34 ERA) for the first game of a double header. The stakes were high as the Yankees were trying to seize home-field advantage for their first and maybe last game of the post season (AL Wild Card Game). An impromptu day off, courtesy of hurricane Joaquin and its accompanying rain, apparently wasn’t enough to help the Yankees to succeed, as they were handedly defeated 9-2 by the Baltimore Orioles.

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The trouble for the Yankees stated early for their starting pitcher, Ivan Nova (6-11, 5.07 ERA). During the first inning the first two batters (Nolan Reimold and Gerardo Parra) for the Orioles reached base safely. Luck was on briefly on Nova’s side as he was able to lure Manny Machado into hitting a double-play ground ball. However, by that time Reimold was already on third and easily scored the first run for the Orioles.

In the bottom of the third, Reimold once again approached the plate. This time around, a 2-seam fastball got away from Nova and drilled Reimold. Reimold retaliated by scoring the second run in the game to put the Orioeles up 2-0. The 3^rd run for the orioles came during the fifth inning as Manny Machado belted his 34^th home run of the season off Nova.

The game was still within reach when Nova took the hill to start the 6^th inning. Nova started the inning by getting Steve Clevenger to groundout. However, J.J. Hardy and Nolan Reimold managed to reach base. Afterwards,  Ryan Flaherty hit a grounder that resulted in J.J. Hardy being forced out at second. It was at that point that all hell broke loose for the Yankees. Fearing that Nova had run out of gas, he was replaced by Chasen Shreve. Shreve allowed 3 straight singles to Parra, Machado and Chris Davis with two outs, which allowed Flaherty and Reimold to score. After a mound visit, Shreve tried to settle down, but instead fired a wild pitch towards the plate, which resulted in Manny Machado scoring. When the dust settled, the Orioles were up 7-0 and the Yankees still hadn’t figured out the Orioles pitching.

The Yankees did their best to respond to the onslaught brought forward by the Orioles. In the seventh, they managed to score two runs courtesy of J.R. Murphy and Jose Pirela. However, the Orioles still weren’t done with the Yanks. In the bottom of the seventh, Gerardo Parra turned on an 86 MPH changeup that not only resulted in a double, but in two additional runs as Steve Clevenger and J.J. Hardy, who had walked and singled respectively to reach base, scored. The game ended with a final score of 9-2, as the Orioles crushed the Yankees.

All is not lost for the Yankees. They will have a second opportunity to earn home-field advantage tonight at 7:05 PM as Luis Severino (5-3, 2.77 ERA) takes on the Orioles’ Ubaldo Jimenez (12-10, 4.10 ERA).