Taking two of three in New York

472px-Jonathan_Schoop_on_September_26,_2013Of course Orioles fans want their favorite team to beat all comers. However, there is something special about beating the Yankees.

Orioles history really started in 1954 after the move from St. Louis. And the Yankees used to blow the Birds away early in matchup. And then the Orioles caught up and actually passed the Yankees until we got bad in the late 80s.

Certainly I recall the crazy August in 1980 when the Orioles and Yankees met for 8 games and never played each other again. Those games in Baltimore and New York were all sell outs and the Birds jumped back in the pennant chase by taking 6 of 8 games.

So our slumping Birds headed to New York on Monday and dropped another game. No shame in losing to Hiroki Kuroda. He’s tough. Nellie Cruz and Matt Wieters both had 2 hits in the loss.

And then the Birds turned it around.

On Tuesday, the Yankees stood at 4-3 and looked ready to improve on that mark. Instead, the Birds routed the Yanks. Three three-run frames and one 4-run inning paved the way to a 14-5 romp. This is the game in which the bottom of the order had 8 hits. That’s Steve Lombardozzi, Ryan Flaherty and Jonathan Schoop. Wieters, Delmon Young and Adam Jones launched homers. Wei-Yin Chen wasn’t great but he didn’t need to be.

The rubber game came on Wednesday night. And on paper, it didn’t look good. Prized Japanese recruit, Masahiro Tanaka was on the mound for New York. Miguel Gonzalez, who was roughed up in his first start of the season was Tanaka’s mound foe.

And Mr. Schoop made an immediate impression. His three-run dinger, in the second inning gave Baltimore a 3-0 lead. By the home half of the fourth, this game was knotted at 3-3.

And it went to the ninth tied at 3-3. That’s when this game picked up in intensity. Flaherty doubled. Schoop and Nick Markakis lined hits and the Birds were up. Chris Davis brought in a big insurance run with a sacrifice fly.

And we needed it cause Tommy Hunter didn’t fan the side. A Brian Roberts’ sacrifice fly brought the Yankees closer. Yes, our Brian
Roberts. And we had our first series win of the season, 5-4.

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Brian Hradsky

The owner of MSB, I created this website while in college and it has never died.

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