The good news about today's game is that the offense exploded for ten runs against Freddy Garcia and the Yankees bullpen. The bad news is that Brian Matusz had another terrible outing, giving up five runs in just 1.1 innings and raising his ERA on the season to 9.84. The bullpen wasn't much better, and the end result was an 11-10 loss, the O's 84th of the year.
The Orioles got on the board first with a solo home run from Nick Markakis in the first inning, but the 1-0 lead didn't last long. Matusz gave up two runs in the bottom of the first, one on a home run from Mark Teixeira. But the Orioles struck back in the top of the second, getting to Freddy Garcia for four more runs.
Vladimir Guerrero led off the second inning with a single, and after a double from Mark Reynolds, Robert Andino knocked in Vlad with a single. Reynolds moved to third and scored on a passed ball. Ryan Adams followed that with a single, then Kyle Hudson hit a ball in front of the plate. Andino ran home from third and a bad throw from Teixeira allowed him to score. A single by J.J. Hardy knocked in the fourth run of the inning and gave the Orioles a three-run lead.
And how did Matusz respond to the lead? He walked Jesus Montero on four pitches to start. Then after Brett Gardner was called out on strikes on a pitch that probably should have been called ball four, Matusz gave up back-to-back doubles to Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson and was pulled for Chris Jakubauskas. Oh, Brian Matusz. What is wrong with you? You make me so sad!
Jack O'Boskie wasn't much better as he loaded the bases on a walk and a HBP, then gave up a grand slam to Robinson Cano. The end result was six runs by the Yankees in the second inning and an 8-5 Yankees lead.
The O's offense got right back into it with two runs in the top of the third courtesy of Reynolds' 32nd home run of the year, and they tied it in the fifth on a home run from Robert Andino.
Sadly the Yankees untied it in the bottom of the fifth with none other than Jim Johnson on the mound. Montero connected for his first major-league home run and the Yankees were back on top, 9-8. JJ was still pitching in the seventh inning when Montero hit his second major-league home run, adding two more runs to the score.
After hitting a leadoff double, Hardy scored the O's 9th run of the game on a single by Markakis. Nick moved up a base when Yankees right fielder Chris Dickerson dropped the ball, but was thrown out trying to get to third. Oh, Nick.
After Troy Patton pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth, the Orioles just needed to score two runs off of Mariano Rivera to keep the game going. They did not, but they did make it exciting. Singles by Mark Reynolds and Ryan Adams, combined with a stolen base from Reynolds, resulted in the O's tenth run of the game. But then Hardy struck out with the tying run on third to end the game.