Yankees 12
Orioles 9
When the Yankees rode roughshod over Baltimore for nine runs in the first two innings last night, it appeared starting pitcher Aaron Small would coast last night.
And there certainly was no way, with a seven-run, fifth-inning lead, that Tom Gordon or Mariano Rivera would be needed.
Well, guess again.
Gordon was called upon for the eighth inning, and Rivera was summoned with nobody out in the ninth when bust Alan Embree allowed a run on two hits.
The Yanks finished off a 12-9 victory over Baltimore thanks in part to two eighth-inning runs. But this time of year, Joe Torre isn’t taking any chances.
Boston routed Tampa Bay, 15-2, and the Yanks remained a half-game behind the Red Sox in the AL East with 12 to play.
“We don’t need to look around for help,” Torre said before the game. “If we win all our games, we win.
“And that’s really all you want this time of year, especially considering where the hell we were in May.”
After Jorge Posada’s three-run, first-inning homer and Gary Sheffield’s second-inning grand slam paced the offense, Small exited without recording an out in the sixth and the bullpen sweated out a Baltimore comeback.
Alex Rodriguez’s 45th homer of the season and Sheffield’s sixth RBI of the game allowed Torre to start Embree in the ninth. But Jay Gibbons doubled, and B.J. Surhoff singled him home, and it was nail-biting time again.
Rodriguez’s remarkable opposite-field, upper-deck homer in the eighth left him one behind Joe DiMaggio’s team record for righties set in 1937.
On a night when Small looked beatable, the Yankees’ offense picked him up. Sheffield smoked his first two extra-base hits since going down with a strained left thigh on Sept. 7.
His second-inning grand slam off Baltimore reliever James Baldwin sent the Yanks to their eighth win in nine games. Posada’s three-run, first-inning bomb into the right-field bleachers off Baltimore starter John Maine sparked the onslaught.
This was another critical victory on the heels of Bubba Crosby’s walk-off homer Monday, and Crosby again was in the middle of a key rally.
Unfortunately, his grotesque collision at first base with second baseman Brian Roberts during the five-run second resulted in a dislocated left elbow for Roberts.
The Orioles All-Star was in agony as he was helped off the field by a trainer and manager Sam Perlozzo, who was ejected for arguing that Crosby interfered on the play while running through the first-base bag.
With Bernie Williams on second following a single and a balk, Crosby bunted in front of the mound. Roberts covered first, and Crosby apparently raked Roberts with his arm on the bang-bang play.
It was an unfortunate but clean play, and heads-up Williams scored while Roberts was writhing on the ground grabbing his elbow. The elbow was put back in place at Yankee Stadium, and Roberts was taken to a nearby hospital.
The Yankees took a 4-0 first-inning lead on Sheffield’s RBI double down the left-field line and Posada’s 17th homer of the year, but Small gave back three runs.
The Yankees’ defense didn’t help him. Second baseman Robinson Cano double-clutched on B.J. Surhoff’s one-out single and right fielder Crosby misplayed Roberts’ hit into a two-run triple.
It didn’t matter, because Sheffield hit his 10th career grand slam inside the left-field line on a 1-2 fastball.
In the seven previous games as DH, he was 10-for-26. But those all were singles, and he had managed one RBI in that span.
Scott Proctor allowed a two-run homer to Gibbons in the seventh, and Gordon surrendered a run in the eighth as the O’s inched closer.