We’ve heard a lot recently about the Orioles’ success in one-run games and the Rays’ inability to win one. Well, their fortunes finally reversed today.
We’ll start with the Orioles. They entered the bottom of the seventh inning with a 3-1 lead against the Yankees, but things unraveled from there. Wei-Yin Chen was ahead of Jayson Nix 0-2 with two outs and a runner on first, but he ended up walking him. Eduardo Nunez then delivered an RBI single before Buck Showalter brought the hook. His replacement, Pedro Strop then issued two walks, including one to Derek Jeter to force in a run. The go-ahead run scored after J.J. Hardy mishandled a hard-hit ball up the middle off the bat of Nick Swisher.
The Yankees didn’t get much from starter David Phelps, who gave up three runs on three hits and six walks over just 4 2/3 innings, but the bullpen was excellent. Cody Eppley, Boone Logan, David Robertson and Rafael Soriano combined to give up just one hit and two walks over 4 1/3 shutout innings. The loss snapped a streak of 13 straight wins in one-run games for the Orioles dating back to June 20 against the Mets. With today’s 4-3 win, the Yankees have a three-game cushion again in the American League East.
As for the Rays, they ended up hanging on thanks to a five-out save from Fernando Rodney and some heroics from B.J. Upton and Jose Molina. Colby Rasmus hit a single to center field with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, but Upton made a strong throw to Molina, who blocked a charging Omar Vizquel from scoring the tying run. You’ll recall last night’s game ended in the same exact fashion, as Blue Jays’ catcher Jeff Mathis was able to hang on following a collision with Elliot Johnson. Crazy.
As you can see with the video here, it looked like the 45-year-old Vizquel hit a brick wall. Molina came up limping after the collision, but he was able to hang onto to the ball to help secure the 5-4 victory. The Rays entered today’s action with 11 losses in their last 12 games decided by one run, but hey, maybe they are turning a new leaf now that the calendar has flipped to September.
