Baltimore, MD - Jeremy Guthrie hurled six solid innings, and Kevin Millar homered as Baltimore doubled up New York, 4-2, in the opener of a three-game set at Camden Yards.
It wasn’t all bad for the Yankees, however. Before the clubs began their regularly scheduled game, they finished a contest that was suspended on June 28 in the top of the eighth inning with the Yankees leading 8-6.
New York held on in that one for an 8-7 win when Mariano Rivera nailed things down despite a shaky ninth inning.
In the nightcap Guthrie (7-3) allowed just two runs on six hits to win his third straight start for the Orioles, who have beaten New York five of seven times this season.
“He [Guthrie] is a pretty good pitcher,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “We had men at third base with less than two out a couple of times, but we couldn’t bring them in. Unfortunately, that does happen throughout the course of the year. We’ve been doing all the right things in that regard, but we just couldn’t get it done today. He’s got a lot of confidence right now.”
Ramon Hernandez was 3-for-3 and drove in a pair of runs for Baltimore while Jay Gibbons was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
“Well this is what we’ve been doing, playing team baseball,” said O’s manager Dave Trembley. “Tonight was an example of that to the highest degree, team baseball; contributions from everybody and no one giving in.”
Alex Rodriguez, who was celebrating his 32nd birthday, finished 0-for-2 with a run scored and remained stuck on 499 career homers. Rodriguez is vying to become the youngest man in major league history to reach 500 home runs.
“He’s been great at keeping things in perspective for himself,” Torre said of Rodriguez. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalize on that stuff, but Alex is fine. He’s having a great year, and you just knock wood that he stays healthy and stays in the middle of our lineup because he’s so important for it.”
Melky Cabrera and Robinson Cano each drove in a run for New York.
Andy Pettitte (6-7) was the hard-luck loser for the Yankees, who are now eight games behind Boston in the AL East and five games behind Cleveland in the wild card race. The left-hander surrendered three runs on eight hits in seven innings.
Down 1-0, the Orioles bounced back and took control of the game with a three- run third. With runners at the corners and two down, Pettitte lost the strike zone. He walked Aubrey Huff to load the bases and was down 3-1 to Hernandez before the catcher grounded a two-run single through the left side. Gibbons capped the frame by ripping a long RBI single over Bobby Abreu’s head in right.
New York drew within a run in the sixth. Rodriguez drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on Hideki Matsui’s single and scored on Cano’s one-out single to right. Guthrie avoided any further damage by getting Andy Phillips to hit into a 4-6-3 twin-killing.
“We hit some balls hard,” Torre said. “The double play that Andy hit into, he hit the ball right on the button. It’s just one of those things. We’re having good at bats. We’re just not getting hits.”
Baltimore got an all-important insurance run in the eighth when Millar drilled a 1-0 Scott Proctor fastball over the wall in left-center for his 10th home run of the year.
“I saw a fastball down the middle and it went out of the ballpark,” Torre said of Proctor’s pitch. “It’s cause for concern. He’s had success against Millar in the past. He’s obviously not locating his pitches the way he needs to.”
Chad Bradford came on from there and threw a scoreless ninth to earn his first save of the season.
The Yankees jumped on top with a run in the second. Phillips drew a two-out walk and came around to score when Cabrera ripped a triple to the gap in left- center. It looked like Corey Patterson had a beat on the ball but pulled up early, thinking he was closer to the wall.
Game Notes
The Orioles activated star shortstop Miguel Tejada from the disabled list Friday. Tejada was shelved with a non-displaced fracture of the left radius, a move that ended the fifth longest consecutive-game playing streak in major league history at 1,152 games. Tejada finished the game 0-for-4 but made a number of nice plays in the field. To make room for Tejada on the roster, the Orioles optioned outfielder Jon Knott to Triple-A Norfolk…The Yankees demoted struggling starting pitcher Kei Igawa to Triple-A Scranton and recalled infielder Chris Basak…Patterson swiped his 24th base on the season.
