YANKS CLIP BIRDS IN 12

BALTIMORE — The air at Camden Yards had the feeling of a crisp October night, but on the field it was most definitely of the early-april variety.

It wasn’t pretty, but the Yankees escaped with a 5-4 win over the Orioles in 12 innings on Raul Ibañez’s game-winning double.

The Yankees overcame five wild pitches by Freddy Garcia, a crucial error by Russell Martin and a dreadful 2-for-18 performance with runners in scoring position to avoid their first 1-4 start since 2006.

“It was just a strange day,” Joe Girardi said.

Robinson Cano opened the 12th with a double to left off Pedro Strop, moving to third on Alex Rodriguez’s grounder to second. Strop got Mark Teixeira to ground out to second, stranding Cano at third as the Yankees fell to 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position, and Curtis Granderson was intentionally walked.

But rather than walking Ibañez to face light-hitting catcher Chris Stewart, the Orioles pitched to Ibañez, who delivered the game-winner.

“Every at-bat is different and every pitch is different,” Ibañez said. “You have to have a short memory in this game — or try to — and focus on what’s right in front of you. The only thing that matters is the next pitch.”

Clay Rapada picked up his first win as a Yankee, retiring both batters he faced in the 11th. Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless 12th for his first save of the season.

The Yankees’ bullpen fired off 71/ shutout innings, as David

3 Phelps and Cory Wade combined for 42/ scoreless frames. The Ori

3 oles were 0-for-8 with men in scoring position in the game.

“They’ve both been very impressive, guys that can give us multiple innings and it’s important because your bullpen needs that,” Girardi said. “Our bullpen was tremendous tonight.”

Garcia became the first player in more than 23 years to throw five wild pitches in a game, two of them allowing runs to score for the Orioles.

Garcia allowed four runs on four hits and three walks over 42/

3 innings, but the Yankees bats — and Orioles defense — bailed him out, handing him a no-decision.

“I didn’t make good pitches tonight,” Garcia said. “I was all over the place.”

Orioles rookie Wei-yin Chen overcame a rough start to pitch well in his major-league debut, though he couldn’t hold the lead, giving up four runs (two earned) in 52/ innings.

3

Derek Jeter led off the game with a booming home run to center field, moving past Rickey Henderson with his 25th career leadoff homer, the most in franchise history. Chen, a 26-year-old lefty from Taiwan, put two of the next three batters on base, but he shook off his nerves and retired the next 12.

The Orioles took the lead with two runs in the first, then scored in the fourth and fifth to push the score to 4-1. Two of Baltimore’s four runs came on wild pitches, while another scored on Martin’s fourth-inning error.

“I was struggling with the splitter tonight,” said Garcia, who had trouble gripping the ball on the chilly night. “I got a couple innings, tried to throw better pitches but I wasn’t able to do that. I tried to keep the guys in the game.”

Garcia is the first pitcher since Philadelphia’s Ken Howell to throw five wild pitches in a game and the seventh to accomplish the bizarre feat. Howell’s came on April 5, 1989, against the Cubs, whose starting catcher was Girardi in his second career game.

The Yankees finally broke through for three runs against Chen in the sixth, tying the game at 4 on Brett Gardner’s RBI single. The game stayed that way for the next six innings before the Yankees took the lead in the 12th.

“With our offense, we’re never really out of the game,” Phelps said. “We just tried to put up as many zeroes as we can to give them a chance to get back into it. We did a good job of that tonight.”