Tanaka Dazzles, But Yankees Bats Fall Back To Sleep in 1-0 Loss to O’s

The Yankees season long hitting troubles reached an even louder crescendo in an extra innings loss by the score of 1-0 in the deciding rubber game versus the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night.

Pedro Alvarez’s sac fly off of Andrew Miller scored pinch runner Nolan Reimold to give the O’s the win in the bottom of the tenth inning and handed the Yanks their seventh loss in their last eight games.

The Bombers squandered a brilliant outing by Masahiro Tanaka , who was masterful in his sixth start of the year allowing only five hits in eight innings, coupled with seven strikeouts and surrendering zero runs.  Singles were the only hits allowed by the right-hander in his best start of the season.  That’s back to back quality games from Yankees starters after a dominant outing from CC Sabathia on Wednesday night.

But, if you don’t score runs it doesn’t matter who the wizard on the mound is.

Baltimore starter Kevin Gausman had the Yankees off-balance all night, giving up three hits in eight innings with zero walks and seven strikeouts.  At one point, the right-hander retired ten Yankees in a row until Mark Teixeira  singled in the 7th inning.

Yankee manager Joe Girardi was ejected in the fourth inning by third base umpire Chris Guccione for arguing a potential balk on Gausman.  Unfortunately,the dismissal failed to ignite any real sparks in the Yankee bats.

However in the top of the ninth, the Bombers showed some signs of life after Starlin Castro  reached on a base hit and advanced to second on a wild pitch.  But, Castro was picked off second by Baltimore catcher Matt Wieters in a play that left Yankee fans scratching their heads in a one run game.

In the bottom of the ninth, the fans at Camden Yard thought the aforementioned Matt Wieters had won the game with a long drive.  But, Dustin Ackley made a sensational catch in just his second start in right field and then doubled up pinch runner Joey Rickard to get out of the inning.

In a questionable move, Johnny Barbado started the 10th inning for the Yankees and surrendered an infield hit to Hyun Soo Kim.  Kim advanced to third on a base hit by Jonathan Schoop and was then pinch run for by Nolan Reimold.

At this point, closer Andrew Miller entered the game with men at first and third with no outs and conceded the sac fly, which led to Reimold’s game winning score.