Losing their grip
Orioles squander lead, opportunity to clinch
NEW YORK — The Orioles entered Saturday’s game at Yankee Stadium having taken control of the American League wild-card race with two games left in the regular season. Revived by three straight road wins, they could have been in the playoffs by night’s end with a victory over the New York Yankees.
Instead, the Orioles will go into the regular season’s final day with their postseason fate undetermined after an ugly 7-3 loss to the Yankees, in which they blew a three-run lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning.
“It would have been a nice game to win,” catcher Matt Wieters said. “At the same point, we are playing for what we need to be playing for tomorrow. So we’ll forget about this one and move forward. And tomorrow’s what we’ve been playing the whole season for anyway. So it shouldn’t be hard to get ready for the game tomorrow.”
The Orioles (88-73) are still in control of whether they go to the postseason, and can’t be eliminated from playoff contention today because the Detroit Tigers lost Saturday night. If the Orioles win today, they’re in the postseason. They can also get in with a loss and help, but the specific scenarios hinged on the results of a late game involving the Seattle Mariners. There are also scenarios still alive involving three-way ties among the Orioles, Blue Jays and Tigers. And a Mariners win would keep four-way-tie scenarios in play. The Orioles can See Regular-season finale
secure home-field advantage for the wildcard game with a win today and a Blue Jays loss.
The Orioles game turned when manager Buck Showalter stuck with left-hander Wade Miley, who had thrown 99 pitches, in the seventh inning. Miley then allowed a leadoff game-tying home run to rookie Tyler Austin.
Showalter was hoping he could get Miley through the seventh, past the bottom two hitters in the Yankees lineup, and avoid left-handed hitters such as Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Didi Gregorius coming off the bench to pinch hit so early in the game. “You’re just picking your poison,” Showalter said.
Instead, Miley would never get to the top of the order, chased from the game after allowing the homer to Austin and a single to Ronald Torreyes.
The Orioles bullpen, which entered the day having not allowed an earned run in 102⁄3 innings four games into this final road trip of the season, picked a bad day to have a hiccup, allowing four runs in the eighth inning, all of them charged to right-hander Brad Brach (10-4).
“It seemed like we were in control there for six innings and then all of a sudden you look at the scoreboard, and it’s tied,” Brach said, “and I just went out there and got out of hand quick and didn’t turn around quick enough.”
The Orioles’ run to the playoffs has been boosted by their resurgence on the road, and they were on their way to securing their fifth straight road series win to put them on the cusp of a postseason berth when they took an early 3-0 lead.
Miley allowed just two hits over four scoreless innings to start his outing, but the Yankees scored single runs in the fifth and sixth innings before Austin’s homer to open the seventh tied the game at 3.
Miley entered the seventh inning at 99 pitches, but had allowed runs in his previous two innings, and each time had to strand two base runners to avoid further damage.
“I thought he pitched real well,” Showalter said of Miley. “May have gotten the ball up a little bit more than he had, but he was, I thought, really good again, especially with six days off. He was strong, rested. I think when he got some of the strongness out of him after the first inning, he was throwing a lot better after the first inning. He had a lot of quick innings and was throwing the ball real well.”
An Orioles offense that has struggled to find consistency in the second half of the season jumped on Yankees right-hander Luis Severino early.
Right fielder Michael Bourn continued to contribute since being acquired in an Aug. 31 trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Bourn hit a two-run single into the right-center-field gap with two outs in the second inning to give the Orioles a 2-0 lead.
Orioles third baseman Manny Machado added a solo homer with two outs in the third inning, taking an 0-2, 98-mph fastball the opposite way over the right-field fence.
Before giving up the tying homer to Austin in the seventh, Miley showed signs of wearing down but avoided a big inning.
Austin put the Yankees on the board with a one-out RBI single in the fifth, but Miley escaped further damage by striking out Torreyes and inducing an inning-ending groundout from Brett Gardner.
Chase Headley’s RBI double capped a two-out rally in the sixth, but Miley stranded two runners in scoring position by striking out Austin Romine to end the inning.
Austin’s tying homer came after Miley got ahead 1-2. Austin then hit a slider that crept over the heart of the plate into the Yankees bullpen in right-center field.
“He got two balls up over the plate,” Wieters said of Miley. “Maybe a little bit of fatigue.”
The Orioles dodged further damage in the seventh when Starlin Castro’s chopper up the middle off Mychal Givens found shortstop J.J. Hardy, who started an inningending 6-3 double play.
Romine ended up being the hero, hitting a looping two-run single to left off Brach to score two runs after Brach walked Jacoby Ellsbury and allowed a double down the right-field line to Headley. Gardner then hit a two-run double off Oliver Drake, scoring two inherited runners that were charged to Brach, to put the Yankees up 7-3.