The New York Yankees defeat the Baltimore Orioles 7-4 – MLB Update
The American League East Division New York Yankees grabbed the first match of the exciting rain-shortened two-game home-series 7-4 against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium in New York.
The Yankees three-time AL Most Valuable Player, Alex Rodriguez led the outing off with a brilliant three-run homer in the first inning. Derek Jeter drove in an RBI single and Robinson Cano added a RBI double in the second, as New York posted six early runs
until the second innings. The lead was enough to put the opposition under extreme pressure.
The Orioles, realising that the outing has gone out of their hands, relieved the starter Chris Tillman after just one inning. It was a disappointing performance by Tillman, as he allowed too many hits at the beginning of the game.
However, it was not the case with the Yankees’ starter Allan James Burnett, who achieved his third win of the season crushing the Orioles’ sluggers in his superb shut-out spells. The right-hand pitcher tossed six scoreless innings before he finally allowed
a pair of two-run homers in the seventh inning. However, the 34-year-old pitcher coming from two wins managed five strike-outs and earned another win with a 4.67 earned run average.
"If they come out swinging the bats like that -- I got a four-run lead -- I can just take a breath and go at it,” The pitcher said. He has some strong backup in the form of David Robertson, Rafael Soriano and Mariano Rivera. For pitching their short spells,
all of these players did not allow any runs and made one strike-out each.
The Yankees manager Joe Girardi was more impressed with the batters than pitchers as he mentioned to reporters. Girardi said, "Maybe the couple of days helped. You want to be able to get on the board and get your starting pitcher some runs early."
On the other side, the Orioles’ batters remained helpless throughout the game and could not touch more than eight pitches in a combined 35 at-bats. However, Matt Wieters and Brian Roberts managed to launch some spectacular homers in the seventh inning. Yet
it did not prove helpful for the Orioles in front of the Yankees strong relievers.
Baltimore suffered their fourth defeat of the 2011 Major League Baseball season and might cost them with another if they do not utilise their best pitching depth in the next game on Thursday at the same venue.
It will be interesting to see how the Orioles manage to adjust their line-up against the powerful Yankees team. The star power of the Yankees has managed to dominate in the first match and is looking to put in a winning performance in the second game of
this series.
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