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A tough loss for the Yankees in a game which they led by three runs at one point. Unfortunately a loss is still a loss, but the biggest news of the game probably goes to injuries. Mark Teixeira left the game early after the second when he felt some right knee discomfort. Prior to the game, Rob Refsnyder was named the backup first baseman as a result of a hyper-extended elbow to Brian McCann, and was immediately called to action. Fun stuff. It'll be interesting to see how the Yankees play this if Teixeira is forced to miss any significant amount of time.
The Orioles got on the board first after Mark Trumbo led off the second inning with a booming double. A Matt Wieters ground ball advanced Trumbo to third who then scored on a Pedro Alvarez single to center. Fortunately, at the time, Nathan Eovaldi limited the damage to just one run in the second.
The Yankees' offense was largely quiet until the fourth inning when starter Chris Tillman lost the strike zone. After walking Brett Gardner, Tillman worked a 3-0 count against Carlos Beltran who took the fourth pitch for a strike before launching the next pitch into center to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Alex Rodriguez followed Beltran's blast with a blast of his own. Rodriguez launched his 694th career home run into right to give the Yankees a 3-1 lead. The Orioles would get one run back in the bottom half of the inning after Chris Davis hit one to right field himself to make it a 3-2 Yankees lead.
Austin Romine led the next inning off with a home run of his own to give the Yankees a 4-2 lead and some breathing room. They tacked on to that lead in the sixth inning after Didi Gregorius hit a ground rule double and then scored on a Chase Headley single to take a 5-2 lead. While the Yankees were probably thinking insurance runs, they should have gone with a better coverage plan as the offense was done for the night.
The bottom of the sixth inning started with a single to center by Hyun Soo Kim. Eovaldi was able to get Manny Machado to line out next, but that would be the last out he'd get for the night. A Davis walk followed by a Trumbo single would load the bases for the Orioles with one out. Wieters came on and promptly singled to left to cut the Yankees lead to 5-4 and end Eovaldi's night. Joe Girardi called on Kirby Yates to help close out the inning. Yates struck out Alvarez to get the second out of the inning, but a Jonathan Schoop double to left scored Trumbo and tied the game 5-5. That would be all the Orioles did in that inning.
Girardi called on Dellin Betances to pitch the bottom of the seventh, who started it off by allowing back-to-back singles to Adam Jones, who would make it to third base on the next hit, and Kim. A slow ground out to third by Machado was just enough to score Jones and give the Orioles a 6-5 lead. Betances limited the damage to one run, but the damage was done. There were a couple quiet innings after that before Zach Britton came in on the ninth to secure his 16th save of the year.
The Yankees will try and right the ship tomorrow with Ivan Nova (3.98 ERA) on the mound against Tyler Wilson (3.83 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:15pm.