Álvarez’s slam ends marathon
Former resident of Bronx delivers late bomb for Orioles
NEW YORK — In a game rife with tension and full of controversial gamechanging plays, the decider left nothing to doubt.
In the 14th inning, more than five hours after the game began, Pedro Álvarez broke a 3-3 deadlock with a grand slam to help the Orioles to a 7-3 win over the New York Yankees.
They could have lost Friday night as many times leading up to that as they could have won it, but in a game of missed opportunities and game-saving defensive plays, it was the Orioles' bench bat that decided it.
The way the Orioles (3-5) jumped to a 1-0 lead — a Manny Machado home run in the first — wasn't exactly tense. It got out in a hurry, and was thrown back onto the field from the second level of the left-field seats just as quickly.
But from the very first pitch Kevin Gausman threw — and it took him four before one was a strike — Friday felt like anything but April. The Yankees only managed one run in that first inning, despite Gausman hitting Aaron Judge with a fastball and spending most of the inning with two runners on.
He settled down, and despite another blast from Machado and the season's first from slumping first baseman Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles first baseman Pedro Álvarez celebrates after hitting a grand slam against the New York Yankees during the 14th inning of Friday night’s game. It was Ávarez’s first homer of the season.
the Orioles didn't threaten much.
Gausman, too, gave back a second lead but settled in to pitch into the sixth inning, allowing two runs. After he allowed a single to start that inning, Richard Bleier relieved him. Then things got really weird. Bleier ended up putting another runner on, and there was a man on first and third with one out when things got complicated.
Bleier got a dribbler toward third base from Neil Walker, and with Giancarlo Stanton running home, he started a rundown that saw Stanton run back toward the bag with a runner already on it. He ran past the base, and catcher Caleb Joseph tagged him out, but the Orioles lobbied unsuccessfully for two outs instead of one. Major leagye rules stipulate that two outs can be recorded if a runner does that, but the umpires didn't grant manager Buck Showalter's wish.
The home half of the seventh inning was similarly uneasy once Bleier walked Brett Gardner and ceded, still up 3-2 to Miguel Castro. Castro got Judge to whiff on a slider to sit the Bronx crowd down once again.
But after another feeble top half of an inning in the eighth, Castro made one mistake that set the game on a different path. Didi Gregorius turned on a ball low and inside and yanked it onto the short porch in right field for a gametying home run.
Castro got it to the ninth inning still tied, and the Yankees (4-4) brought in closer Aroldis Chapman. As is his wont, he was effectively wild, walking two but striking out two — and receiving two mound visits for an apparent physical problem — to put the game in his hitters' hands.
But Castro set them down again, and extra innings began as temperatures began to drop in New York. The Orioles had their first of many chances in the 10th off reliever Chad Green, who walked Machado to lead off the inning and allowed a two-out single to Álvarez but fanned Colby Rasmus to get his team back into the dugout.
That brought Mychal Givens— who had allowed a run in his last two appearances and threw 26 pitches Thursday—in for the 10th. He broke that form and blew away the top of the Yankees lineup, striking out Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge, and Gary Sanchez.
His teammates went down in order in the top of the 11th, but the Yankees didn't oblige him with another clean inning.
Givens walked Gregorius to start the inning, and he promptly stole second base. Catcher Gary Sanchez grounded out, and the Orioles used their free base to set up a double play with an automatic intentional walk to Neil Walker.