Sunday June 12 at the Yankees

Opponent: New York Yankees
Outcome: L
Score: 5-6
Streak: L2
Record: 15-45
Rank: 7th
GB: 23.5

51,142 fans were in the big ballpark in the Bronx this afternoon - the most people to watch an Orioles game since the third game of the season - and they witnessed a see-saw battle that the Yankees won in the bottom of the ninth.  The Birds took a 1-0 lead with a two out rally in the top of the first - Mickey Tettleton had an RBI single after Cal Ripken had singled and Eddie Murray had drawn a walk.  They extended the lead to 2-0 in the fourth.  Murray and Tettleton led off the inning with singles and were sacrificed up a base by Fred Lynn.  Yankees starter Tommy John then walked Ken Gerhart to load the bases and Jim Traber followed up with an RBI single.  Yankees manager Billy Martin pulled the 45 year old John and replaced him with Charles Hudson who got two shallow fly balls to get out of the bases loaded situation without giving up any more runs.

The Yankees tied it up in the bottom of the inning.  With one out Jack Clark walked.  Mike Pagliarulo hit a ground ball that first baseman Murray made an error on.  Clark and Pagliarulo ended up on third and second respectively.  After Dave Winfield struck out, Jay Buhner hit a single to left that scored both runners.  Buhner was cut down trying to get to second on the throw to the plate to end the inning however.

New York went ahead in the next inning.  Rafael Santana led off with a single and moved to second on a balk by Orioles starter Jay Tibbs.  Joel Skinner then sacrificed Santana to third and he scored on Wayne Tolleson's double.  Tibbs then walked Jose Cruz and gave up a run scoring single to Claudell Washington.  That was it for Tibbs - Orioles manager Frank Robinson replaced him with Dave Schmidt.  Schmidt walked Clark to load the bases however and Pagliarulo hit a ground ball that Murray handled unassisted at first which scored Cruz from third and moved the other runners up one.  Schmidt intentionally walked Winfield to load the bases back up but struck out Buhner to end the inning.  The score was now 5-2 Yankees.

The Orioles made a comeback in the top of the eighth.  Bill Ripken led off the inning with a double and moved to third on a wild pitch from Hudson with his brother Cal at bat.  Cal then hit a single that scored Bill with the Birds' third run of the afternoon.  Martin went to the bullpen again and brought Cecilio Guante in to relieve Hudson.  Murray greeted the new pitcher with a game tying two run home run, his third one in the past three games (all two run shots with Cal on first).  Guante then settled down and got Tettleton to pop out and struck out Lynn and Gerhart to end the inning.

The game remained tied going into the bottom of the ninth.  Tom Neidenfuer had relieved Schmidt to begin the bottom of the eighth and he struck out Skinner to start the ninth.  But three consecutive singles by Tolleson, Cruz and Washington allowed the Yankees to walk off with the victory.

I had spent this weekend in Delaware at my parents' house.  My "business attire" at my government job had been less than professional - I generally came in wearing jeans and a t-shirt.  My new employer required that I wear a suit every day so I went shopping over the weekend with my friend Linda (girl friend of Harry of my friend Steve's Opening Day Springsteen concert fiasco) who "helped" me (i.e. picked out all the clothes) design a wardrobe that would allow me to at least appear to be an actual grown up.