A Mets and Yankees game plus the Orioles's stay in first place
I remarked to my boys that this was my third Mets Stadium. Of course, I’m an Orioles fan for life but took a trip when small to Old Polo Grounds to see the Mets play in 1963 or so. All I recall was Pirates outfielder Donn Clendenon hit a homer that hit a woman in the stands.
And so I went to Shea sometime in the early 1980s and on Sunday it was Citi Field so see Bartolo Colon take on the visiting Giants. Sure, it’s a nice stadium and both Colon and Madison Baumgarten were pitching well. That was the good news for the Mets. After that, the Giants went to crush the Mets. We saw homers fly out of the place. Hunter Pence hit two shots. Baumgarner cruised.
The next day, it was a subway ride to Yankees Stadium. Ran into only one crazy nut on the train. This game was better. Max Scherzer pitched for the visiting Tigers. And the former White Sox hurler, Brandon McCarthy pitched for the Yanks. It was tight the whole way. I was rooting for the Tigers but they couldn’t touch McCarthy. Detroit fell 2-1.
So back with my favorite club. It seems like we have only played teams from the West lately. So Seattle at least came to the East Coast. On Friday night, sudden star, Wei-Yin Chen put together another brilliant start.
Neither team budged until the third. Delmon Young’s double got us started. Nick Markakis kept the rally going with two outs and Manny Machado got the game’s first run in with a hit. It was 1-1 entering the O’s sixth. Machado’s double opened the frame. JJ Hardy drove in what proved to be the game-winner. Britton picked up another save in the 2-1 win.
On Saturday, the Mariners got a 3-run dinger from Robinson Cano and went back to their hotel after a 6-3 win. Machado had 3 hits in the loss. Caleb Joseph homered for the Birds.
Sunday, Nick Markakis homers to lead off the game vs. the Mariners. So we are off and running. And that’s the offensive report for the day. Chris Tillman, newly-acquired Andrew Miller and closer Zach Britton put this game away 1-0 and it’s Orioles history.
What? First time an Orioles hitter led off a game with a homer and no one else scored the rest of the way. Come on now, Don Buford never led off a game off with a homer (1969 World Series) and it wasn’t a 1-0 game. How about Al Bumbry? And finally how bout Brady Anderson. During his 50-homer season. Not one of them was a 1-0 game? Pretty cool history.
