Outcome: L
Score: 1-5
Streak: L1
Record: 54-104
Rank: 7th
GB: 34.5
This was the Orioles final home game of the season and the Orioles were running a somewhat unique promotion called "Shirts Off Out Back Night". The O's would be changing their uniform design in the off-season and were giving away all the jerseys the players were wearing to the fans. I was at the game but I don't remember the details of how it worked - if I had to actually register somewhere at the ballpark to be in the running or if they were doing everything by seat location - but it doesn't really matter as I didn't win a jersey.
There were 38,958 fans in attendance that evening which was the third highest home crowd of the season (behind Opening Day and Fantastic Fans Night). The Orioles ended up drawing 1,660,738 which at the time was the eighth highest total in the club's history (and the fourth highest total for any team that had lost over 100 games). I'll note that while this is a tribute to the fans of Baltimore who came out to support a bad team, it also reflects a trend upward in overall baseball attendance over the past 30 years. The 1988 attendance is actually the Orioles lowest since the 1982 season.
The game was kind of an after thought and the Orioles played like it. The Yankees went up 2-0 on a two run home run by Ken Phelps in the fourth and added a third run on an RBI single by Rafael Santana in the sixth. Cal Ripken led off the bottom of the sixth with his 23rd home run of the season to get the Birds on the board but the Yankees got the run back in the top of the seventh on a bases loaded walk to Jack Clark. New York got a final run in the ninth inning on a solo home from Don Mattingly.
The Orioles ended up leaving nine men on base and went 0 for six with runners in scoring position so they certainly had opportunities in this game. Of course the Yankees squandered just as many opportunities to score more runs - they left 10 men on base and went one for eight with runners in scoring position.
Here are the clippings about the game from the next day's Evening Sun:
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