In front of a crowd of 39,412 present to witness the Yankees stadium debut of Yankees pitching acquisition Masahiro Tanaka, the Baltimore Orioles (4-5) rallied for two runs in the ninth inning off of interim closer Shawn Kelly (0-1, 4.15) to defeat the New York Yankees (4-5), 5-4.

On a brisk night in the Bronx, Kelly's slider wasn't close to effective.  With the score tied 3-3 in the top of the ninth Ryan Flaherty doubled to center.  Johnathan Schoop singled to center, advancing Flaherty to third base.  Nick Markakis singled softly to center, scoring Flaherty with the go ahead run, 4-3.  After a Delmon Young single to load the bases, Chris Davis hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Schoop with the fifth Orioles run.

The Yankees attempted a ninth inning comeback against Tommy Hunter.  Alfonso Soriano began the inning with a double (2) to right field.  Kelly Johnson singled to advance Soriano to third base.  Brian Roberts hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Soriano.  Hunter was then able to get Yangervis Solarte to hit into a inning ending double play.

Tanaka pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on seven hits, striking out 10 and walking just one. 

Tanaka was shaky in the first two innings and the Orioles capitalized with three runs in the second inning.  Matt Weiters and Steve Lombardozzi both singled.  With two on and two out Schoop hit his major league homer in the left field seats.  That would be it for the Orioles against Tanaka.  The O's would only be able to get a man as far as second two more times against the Yankee right hander.

Baltimore starter Miguel Gonzalez (0-1, 18.90) pitched six innings, giving up three runs on seven hits, striking out three and walking one.  Gonzales gave up home runs to Carlos Beltran (1) and Kelly Johnson (2) to cut the Orioles lead to 3-2 in the second inning.  Beltran opened the fourth with a double (3) to right field.  Beltran advanced to third on a Brian McCann fly out to right field. Beltran then scored the third Yankees run on a Soriano ground out to short.

Post Game Brief:

Orioles hitters swung and missed 22 of Tanaka's 101 pitches. 11 were swung at his slider.

Yankees called up right hander Shane Greene from Triple-A Scranton-Wilkes/Barre

Orioles left hander Johan Santana (shoulder) will pitch BP in Sarasota, FL on Saturday.

Yankees RHP Dylan Bundy (recovering from Tommy John Surgery) threw 35 fastballs.


Coming Up Next:

The Baltimore Orioles go home to open up a three game series - Toronto Blue Jays.  Probable pitchers for game one are RHP Dustin McGowan - TBD.

The New York Yankees open up a four game series at Yankee Stadium - Boston Red Sox.  Probable pitchers for game one are RHP Clay Bucholz - RHP Michael Pineda


 


 


 

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