Sunday June 5 vs the Yankees

Opponent: New York Yankees
Outcome: L
Score: 2-9
Streak: L1
Record: 12-42
Rank: 7th

GB: 23.5

After a grueling 14 inning game the night before I'm sure that Orioles manager Frank Robinson was hoping to be able to give his bullpen a bit of rest on this Sunday afternoon.  But as so much this season what he hoped for and what he got were two different things.  The Yankees quickly reminded the Orioles that they were in first place for a reason.

For the third game in a row Rickey Henderson got on base to lead off the game.  This time he got on via a walk from Orioles starter Jay Tibbs.  Unlike the previous two games however he didn't steal second although he got there anyway when Tibbs walked the second batter of the game Willie Randolph.  Claudell Washington then brought Henderson in with the first run of the game with a single.  After Tibbs walked Jack Clark to load the bases, Robinson decided he'd seen enough and brought Mark Williamson in to pitch.  

Williamson's outing started promisingly enough when he got Jose Cruz to hit a ground ball to Eddie Murray at first base that allowed the Orioles to force Randolph out at the plate for the first out of the inning.  But Mike Pagliarulo then singled to bring in Washington and Clark to make it 3-0 Yankees.  Williamson got Gary Ward to strike out but then walked Rafael Santana to load the bases again.  It looked like he was going to get out of trouble when Joel Skinner hit a ground ball to Cal Ripken at shortstop but Cal made a bad throw to first pulling Murray off the bag and everyone was safe - including Cruz who scored with the fourth run.

Now the floodgates opened.  Henderson had a two RBI single that scored Pagliarulo and Santana and Randolph doubled to score Skinner and Henderson.  When Washington hit his second RBI single of the inning to bring in Randolph the score was now 9-0.  Mercifully Clark finally ground out to end the inning.  The Yankees scored nine runs on five hits, four walks and one error.

That was pretty much the ballgame.  The Orioles only managed to get six hits and score two runs off Yankees starter Rich Dotson who threw a complete game and gave the Yankees bullpen the rest the needed after Saturday night's marathon.  Williamson combined with Don Aase and Doug Sisk to keep the Yankees off the board for the remainder of the game.