NEW YORK (AP) ― Nick Swisher hit a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning and the New York Yankees rallied from a five-run deficit for an 6-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles Thursday night to sweep the rain-shortened series.
After Joba Chamberlain used his big body to save a run in the eighth by blocking the plate and keeping the Yankees within 5-4, Jorge Posada led off the bottom of the ninth with a tying homer on the first pitch off closer Kevin Gregg.
Michael Gonzalez (0-1) walked Mark Teixeira and gave up a double to Alex Rodriguez to start the 10th. After Robinson Cano lined out, Swisher hit a fly and Teixeira easily beat right fielder Nick Markakis’ throw home. Swisher earned the Yankees’ first pie in the face of the season for a game-winner.
Mariano Rivera (1-0) gave up a leadoff single in the 10th. But Derrek Lee grounded into a double play and Vladimir Guerrero grounded out.
Chamberlain relieved Bartolo Colon in the eighth inning with runners on first and third. Chamberlain threw a pitch in the dirt that went to the backstop, and the ball took a long bounce off the wall as catcher Russell Martin went to retrieve it.
Martin tossed the ball to Chamberlain, who turned sideways and shielded pinch-runner Felix Pie from reaching the plate. Pie made a standup slide rather than going all the way down and thought he was safe ― Orioles manager Buck Showalter came out to argue, but replays clearly showed Chamberlain made the tag in time.
Lee strikes out 12, Phillies beat Nationals 4-0
WASHINGTON (AP) ― Consider the past two games Exhibits 1 and 1A for why the Philadelphia Phillies assembled their ace-after-ace starting rotation.
Cliff Lee produced a 12-strikeout, three-hit shutout in a 4-0 victory over the Washington Nationals on Thursday night, a day after Roy Halladay went nine innings to win, too, giving the Phillies consecutive complete games for the first time since 1999.
“I want to throw nine innings every time I take the mound. That’s that,” said Lee (2-1), who walked one batter and went to three-ball counts on only two others. “I hope Roy does it every day before me, too, but that’s what I’m going to try to do. Just because he threw a complete game it isn’t like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to do that, too.’”
Pretty nice when it works out that way, though, especially in this age of protected arms, scrutinized pitch counts and relief specialists.
