I don't think Jeremy Guthrie will be traded in the next few days, but if he does get traded he certainly gave us a great going away present. Jeremy Guthrie pitched his heart out tonight and gave us a win in New York. If he moves on to a winning team, good for him, but I'll miss that guy like crazy.
The Orioles didn't get a ton of hits tonight, but they hit for enough power to score four runs. It's a rare day that the Orioles can beat the Yankees when they only score four runs, but they did so tonight thanks to seven strong innings by Guthrie. A close call from Kevin Gregg almost ruined it all, but ultimately the Orioles prevailed for their first win over the Yankees this season.
Guthrie cruised through two innings, retiring the first seven batters he faced before Jorge Posada and Russell Martin singled in the third. Guthrie got out of the jam, though, retiring Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter. He lost his control a bit in the fourth, walking two batters. Luckily he got out of it with no runs allowed. He faced only three batters in the fifth inning, and then in the sixth he gave up his only run of the night on a home run to Mark Teixeira. Guthrie pitched one more inning to finish with the line of 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K.
The Orioles never trailed in this game thanks to Mark Reynolds, who homered in the second inning with Derrek Lee aboard. They added another run in the fourth inning on back-to-back doubles from the old man brigade of Vladimir Guerrero and Lee, and then DLee continued in his attempts to get traded back to the National League with a solo home run in the sixth inning. That all added up to a 4-1 lead going into the 8th, where it was up to the bullpen to hold it.
Koji Uehara came in to pitch the 8th and was as good as we've all come to expect. He did allow a one-out single to Jeter that Nolan Reimold booted for an error, allowing Jeter to go to second. But Koji responded by striking out Curtis Granderson and inducing a fly ball from Teixeira.
And then, that's when the fun started. And by fun, I mean misery. With a three-run lead, Kevin Gregg came in to get the save. Robinson Cano led off and hit a ball that deflected off of Mark Reynolds glove for a double, then Nick Swisher double off the wall in left. Cano scored and just like that the tying run was at the plate. After Eric Chavez flied out for the first out, Gregg walked the corpse of Jorge Posada to bring the winning run to the plate. Gregg went 3-0 to the number 9 hitter Martin before he grounded out for the second out, then went to 3-1 on leadoff hitter Gardner. I guess that's when the adrenaline kicked in, because Gregg threw two more strikes to end the game. Gardner swung through the last pitch and then pitched a fit, breaking his bat. I'd be pretty embarrassed if Gregg struck me out, too.