New York Yankees lose a close on on a blown call to end the game

The New York Yankees were defeated by the Baltimore Orioles by the score of 5-4 on Saturday night. The game took place at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland. CC Sabathia started for the Yankees and wasn’t good. He blew a lead for his third straight start and they have lost all three of those games. The bullpen was good and Derek Jeter and Ichiro Suzuki led the offense. Joe Saunders started for the Orioles and pitched pretty well, their bullpen struggled a little bit. The Orioles offense was led by J.J. Hardy and Lew Ford. 
Sabathia pitched 6 1/3 innings giving up eight hits and five runs with no walks and five strikeouts. Sabathia lost his fifth game of the season and Cody Eppley pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings giving up a walk and striking out one. Saunders won his eighth game of the season pitching 5 1/3 innings giving up five hits and two runs with two walks and two strikeouts. Darren O’Day pitched 1 2/3 perfect innings with three strikeouts, Pedro Strop pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and a run with a walk and a strikeout and Brian Matusz pitched to one batter and retired him. Jim Johnson picked up his 42^nd save of the season pitching one inning giving up three hits and a run.

Jeter had three hits, Nick Swisher had an RBI and Mark Teixeira had a hit and drew a walk. Alex Rodriguez had a hit and two RBI, Robinson Cano had a hit and drew a walk and Russell Martin had a hit and drew a walk. Suzuki had two hits and an RBI and Eric Chavez had a hit. Teixeira and Suzuki each hit a double and Rodriguez hit a homerun. The Yankees were 1-9 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.

Nick Markakis had a hit and was hit by a pitch ending his season. He broke his thumb and is out for six weeks which is a tough break for the Orioles. Nate McClouth had a hit, Hardy had two hits and two RBI and Adam Jones had a hit. Mark Reynolds had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk, Ford had two hits and two RBI and Hardy, Jones and McClouth each hit a double. Reynolds, Ford and Hardy each hit a homerun. The Orioles were 2-7 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base. Ford had a stolen base.

Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the first. In the second Suzuki hit an RBI double to make it a 2-0 Yankees lead. Reynolds and Ford hit back-to-back solo homeruns in the second to tie the game at two. The Orioles took a 3-2 lead on a Hardy double in the third inning. In the sixth the Orioles extended their lead to 5-2. Hardy hit a solo homerun and Ford hit an RBI single. Rodriguez hit a solo homerun in the eighth to cut the lead to 5-3. In the ninth the Yankees cut the lead to 5-4 after three straight singles and an RBI groundout. The final play of the game was a double play but Teixeira was clearly safe on all replays which would of tied the game and extended it. The Yankees were very peeved about the call and rightfully so but they did leave a lot of runners stranded and once again their ace blew a lead.

The Orioles have won two out of the first three games and the series finale is Sunday afternoon. The two teams have identical records at 78-61 as they are tied for first place. The AL East is hotly contested as the Tampa Bay Rays are only two games behind these two teams. The Yankees will have an off day on Monday and then finish their road trip with three games in Boston.