Orioles Split The Difference O’S Forget Controversial Opener To Beat Yankees, Tie Series At 1
This time there were no helping hands reaching out from the stands and no wondrous comeback for the New York Yankees. The Baltimore Orioles got a gritty pitching effort by starter David Wells and two-run home runs from Todd Zeile and Rafael Palmeiro, and they survived some anxious moments in the late stages to beat the Yankees 5-3 Thursday before 56,432 at Yankee Stadium.
The Orioles rebounded from Wednesday’s gut-wrenching, 5-4 loss in 11 innings in which the Yankees got a disputed game-tying homer by Derek Jeter in the eighth inning - which should have been disallowed because of fan interference - and a game-winning home run from Bernie Williams off Randy Myers. The Orioles evened the best-of-7 American League Championship Series at one victory apiece, with Games 3, 4 and 5 scheduled for this weekend in Baltimore. The Yankees, 6-0 at Camden Yards during the regular season, plan to send Jimmy Key to the mound today to face Mike Mussina.
“We should be going home 2-0, but we’ll take a split,” said Palmeiro, who snapped a 2-2 tie with his seventh-inning, possibly wind-aided homer against reliever Jeff Nelson. “That was the goal coming in… . It was a total team effort. Wells kept us in the game.”
Said Orioles manager Davey Johnson: “We can take a tough loss. We know it’s not the end of the world.”
The Yankees raced to an early lead with a pair of first-inning runs off Wells, who has a 13-5 regular-season career record against the Yankees - including a 9-1 mark at Yankee Stadium. But Wells steadied himself en route to a 6-2/3-inning, eight-hit, three-run performance. Zeile got the Orioles even at 2 with a third-inning home run off starter David Cone, and Wells stranded Joe Girardi at third base following the catcher’s leadoff triple in the fifth.
The Yankees’ bullpen began Thursday having surrendered one earned run in 23-2/3 postseason innings. But setup man supreme Mariano Rivera was unavailable after pitching two innings on Wednesday, and Manager Joe Torre went to Nelson.
The Orioles added a run in the eighth off Nelson on Roberto Alomar’s sacrifice fly, and held on. Johnson yanked Wells with two outs and two runners aboard in the seventh after, he said, not seeing the left-hander’s usual defiant look when Johnson arrived at the mound. Cecil Fielder got an RBI single vs. Alan Mills, but Jesse Orosco pitched the Orioles out of trouble.
In the ninth, Johnson went to Myers, who surrendered a leadoff single by Jeter, struck out Tim Raines and walked Williams. Armando Benitez entered and got Fielder to pop out to first baseman Palmeiro and induced Tino Martinez to fly out to Tony Tarasco in right field to end the 4-hour, 13-minute game.
xxxx Orioles 5, Yankees 3 Baltimore New York ab r h bi ab r h bi ByAdsn cf 4 2 1 0 DJeter ss 5 1 2 0 Zeile 3b 4 1 2 2 Raines lf 4 1 1 0 RAlmr 2b 4 1 2 1 BeWms cf 3 0 2 1 RPmro 1b 4 1 1 2 Fielder dh 5 0 1 1 Bonilla rf 4 0 0 0 TMrtnz 1b 4 0 0 0 Trsco rf 0 0 0 0 Duncan 2b 4 0 1 0 CRpken ss 5 0 2 0 O’Neill rf 2 0 1 0 Murray dh 4 0 1 0 Leyritz rf 1 0 0 0 Surhoff lf 4 0 1 0 Hayes 3b 4 0 1 0 Dvraux lf 0 0 0 0 Girardi c 4 1 2 0 Hoiles c 3 0 0 0 Totals 36 5 10 5 Totals 36 3 11 2 Baltimore 002 000 210 - 5 New York 200 000 100 - 3 E-Duncan (1). DP-Baltimore 2, New York 1. LOBBaltimore 10, New York 11. 2B-RAlomar (1), Duncan (1). 3B-Girardi (1). HR- Zeile (1), RPalmeiro (2). SF-RAlomar. Baltimore IP H R ER BB SO DWells W,1-0 6-2/3 8 3 3 3 6 Mills 0 1 0 0 0 0 Orosco 1-1/3 1 0 0 0 1 RMyers 1/3 1 0 0 1 1 Benitez S,1 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 New York IP H R ER BB SO Cone 6 5 2 2 5 5 JNelson L,0-1 1-1/3 5 3 3 0 1 Lloyd 1-1/3 0 0 0 0 1 Weathers 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 Mills pitched to 1 batter in the 7th. HBPby DWells (TiMartinez). WP-Cone. T-4:13. A-56,432 (57,545).