Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Ryan's Double Gives Yanks Hope & Win

William Nathaniel Showalter III -- you may know him as Buck -- took the Baltimore Orioles into Yankee Stadium II to start a series last night.

The Yankees seemed to be taking care of business early. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a double, was bunted over to 3rd by Brett Gardner, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Rodriguez. In the 2nd, singles by Brian McCann and Chris Young were followed by an RBI double by Chase Headley.

But the Yankees stranded Young on 3rd and Headley on 2nd. For a while, that looked like it might be costly.

Nathan Eovaldi allowed only 1 hit (albeit also 3 walks) through the 1st 5 innings, but he allowed 3 hits in the 6th to make it 2-1 Yankees. Joe Girardi brought in Justin Wilson, and he allowed a single to make it a tie game.

When a guy blows a save, but has not yet been replaced when his team regains the lead, he doesn't deserve to be credited with the win. And yet, that's what happened with Wilson. Then again, the 2nd Oriole run, which he allowed, was rightly charged to Eovaldi.

Sometimes, baseball doesn't make much sense. Or, as the great American philosopher Lawrence P. Berra put it, "In baseball, you don't know nothin'."

With 2 out in the bottom of the 6th, Didi Gregorius singled to left, and Brendan Ryan doubled to left to bring him home. That made a winner out of Wilson.

Yankees 3, Orioles 2. WP: Wilson (3-0). SV: Andrew Miller (21). LP: Wei-Yin Chen (4-6), who normally gives the Yankees a hard time. Not hard enough this time!

The Yankees now lead the O's by 5 games, the Toronto Blue Jays by 4 1/2 (but 6 in the loss column), the Tampa Bay Rays by 5 (but 7 in the loss column), and the Boston Red Sox by 10 (but 11 in the loss column).

The series continues tonight. Ivan Nova starts for the Yanks. Kevin Gasuman starts for the Birds. The Yankees have had trouble with him, but he's winless in his last 10 starts, so something's gotta give.

Come on you Pinstripes!

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