It was a beautiful night for some tasty pie.
Jorge Posada's solo homer tied it in the ninth and Nick Swisher's sacrifice fly won it in the 10th as the Yankees walked off with a 6-5 win over the Orioles to complete the sweep of a rain-shortened two-game set.
The Yankees erased a 5-0 deficit in this one, getting fine bullpen work from Bartolo Colon and Joba Chamberlain while overcoming yet another poor start by Phil Hughes.
On the opposite end of the spectrum was Colon. A man thought to be at Fred Durst-levels of washed up, Colon has suddenly recaptured the magic of his salad days in Anaheim (this is the only way Bartolo and salad get mentioned together).
Colon gave the Yankees the chance to get back into the game. He replaced Hughes with one out in the fifth, allowed one inherited runner to score and nothing else over three innings.
The Yankees were down 5-0 before they even got a hit off Baltimore starter Jake Arrieta. A-Rod's leadoff double in the fifth got the Yankees going, and Robbie Cano chased him home with a long double.
Mark Teixeira's bloop double, A-Rod's sac fly, and Russell Martin's groundout accounted for the other runs heading into the ninth. That's when Posada stepped to the plate against Orioles closer Kevin Gregg. The first pitch he saw was a fastball, and he deposited into the bullpen in right-center to tie the game.
Posada has seven hits this season and five of them are home runs. Quality, not quantity, people.
After a clean Mariano Rivera 10th, Mark Teixeira walked to lead off the Yankees' half of the inning and A-Rod followed with a ringing double down the line in left to put runners on second and third. After Robinson Cano lined out, Swisher lofted a ball to right that Nick Markakis caught flat-footed. The throw was late and off line, allowing Teixeira to score with the winning run and commence the first pie celebration of the season.
Stray thoughts:
- Rodriguez is locked in. He went 3-for-3 with a walk and sac fly. He's now hitting .412 on the season. Como se dice MVP?
- Good insight by Al Leiter early in the YES telecast on the Pedro Feliciano injury, making it clear the left-hander's rehab may take him well beyond the year that's predicted. (Cut to a forlorn Chien-Ming Wang nodding his head.)
- Enjoyed Brett Gardner taking time out of his quest to set the backwards K record to show up A-Rod in the fifth inning. Gardner theatrically doubled over after Rodriguez cut off his throw to home plate on Vlad Guerrero's RBI single.
- Anybody know what A-Rod has in his mouth during games? It looks like a wad of gum or chew, but then he'll periodically spit out sunflower seeds. Is there some type of revolutionary hybrid action going on there? If so, gross.
- Joba Chamberlain has vacillated between dominant and crappy this season, but he bailed Colon out of trouble in the eighth tonight. Extra credit for his Hoss-like home-plate block of Felix Pie in the eighth. That saved the game in retrospect.
- With his sac fly in the sixth, A-Rod passed Al Simmons and Ted Williams for 11th place on all-time RBI list. Derek Jeter's sixth-inning single moved him past Barry Bonds on the all-time hit list.
- Swishalicious gets the final word: "Pies are back baby. We want pie!"