Talk about two different ways to win a baseball game. Monday night, the Orioles pounded the Yankees, using Adam Jones’ first career Grand Slam to open up a 11-0 lead, eventually winning 13-4. The game was never in doubt, and those types of wins have seemed few and far between for the Orioles this season. It seems that when they do get into the win column, it’s a nail-biter.
It appeared that Tuesday night would make it back to back easy wins, after Aubrey Huff’s 3-run double in the 7th helped the Orioles push their lead to 6-1. Then, the momentum shifted on a play the Yankees had absolutely nothing to do with. With Daniel Cabrera still pitching in the 8th, Bobby Abreu hit a lead-off double. With the next pitch, Cabrera hit Alex Rodriguez up and in. Rodriguez, who has homered in his previous at-bat, clearly didn’t think anything other than “ouch.” Nobody in the ballpark (well, it was at Yankee Stadium, so I’m sure there were a few) thought it was intentional. Well, nobody except for home plate umpire Chad Fairchild, who for some reason leaped out from behind home plate and threw Cabrera out of the game. Inexcusable. That made Trembley go to Jim Johnson before he wanted to, and got the Yankees crowd fired up. Johnson was able to get out of the jam freezing Xavier Nady on a ridiculous breaking ball, but not before the Yanks had scored twice and the lead was cut to 6-3. That also forced Trembley to get George Sherrill up.
It was also inexcusable for Orioles color man of the evening Buck Martinez (who is about 10 notches below normal color guy Jim Palmer), to offer no thoughts other than “That is the umpire’s right to do so.” Yes, Buck, it’s his right to throw someone out. We know. That doesn’t make it the right call. We know that umpires get 99% of calls right (well, probably less than that, but I digress…), that doesn’t mean you need to defend them when they get one wrong. That is one thing I hate more than anything when it comes to broadcasting. When an umpire clearly misses a call and the announcer feels the need to go on and on about how tough their job is, even sometimes defending the call when the replay makes it clear they were wrong. This is one of those times to criticize an umpire for a terrible call, and Buck decided to waffle and tell us what the umpire’s rights are. When is Jim Palmer back in the booth again?
Anyways, Aubrey Huff stretched the lead back out with a home run off Mariano Rivera in the Top of the 9th to make it 7-3. How hot has Aubrey Huff been? Every rumor has said that no contending team is interested in him. Really? He is now hitting over .300, his OPS is over .900 and he is now 5th in the AL in RBI’s with 71. He only has one more year left on his deal, and it’s not that much (8 million dollars). At this point, if someone doesn’t have a pretty significant offer on the table for Huff, Andy MacPhail should keep him and hope he can be anywhere near this good next season.
George Sherrill certainly made things interesting in the 9th, and after Giambi hit a ball off Sherrill’s back to drive in two runs, I was pretty sure this was going to be some more typical Yankee Stadium magic, with the Yanks coming back to break the Orioles hearts. However, even after pinch-runner Jason Christian stole second, Sherrill settled down to strike out both Robinson Cano and Wilson Betemit to give the O’s the win.
Today, the Birds go for the sweep in an afternoon contest with Dennis Sarfate making his first start as an Orioles. Joba Chamberlain will go for the Yankees. Sarfate was a starter in the Milwaukee and Houston systems before coming to Baltimore, so we’ll see what he can do in his first shot with the O’s. I’d be thrilled with 4 solid innings.
As you know, the trade deadline is tomorrow afternoon. Will the Orioles make a move? We’ll see. With the team not playing tonight or tomorrow at all, I’ll be all over any moves that get made.
Keywords: Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees
