Tonight the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles met for Game 4 of the American League Division Series. Emotions were high as at the end of the night either the Yankees would be heading to the Championship Series or the Orioles would force a game 5 to fight for the chance at heading there themselves.
This was the second game of the series that went into extra innings.
Joe Saunders started for the Orioles and pitched 5.2 innings giving up three hits and one earned run. Phil Hughes was the starter for the Yankees, he went 6.2 innings giving up four hits and one earned run.
The game remained scoreless due to the excellent pitching until the fifth inning when Nate McLouth homered on a fly ball to right field. The Yankees didn’t score until the bottom of the sixth when Derek Jeter doubled on a line drive. Ichiro Suzuki had a sacrifice bunt moving Jeter over to third. Robison Cano then grounded out, but the play allowed Jeter to score.
The Yankees were hoping for some more magic after last night and brought in Raul Ibanez to hit in the bottom of the ninth with two outs but he struck out.
Both teams had chances to score throughout the night but couldn’t get it done.
In the top of the 12th inning, Matt Wieters hit a ball that fell into right field but broke his bat on the hit. The bat hit Joba Chamberlain in the arm/elbow area. You could see immediate swelling of the area, so he was removed from the game and replaced by David Phelps who was to be making his first postseason start. He was able to get all three outs in the 12th inning.
Later it was announced that the x-rays on Chamberlain were negative and he had a “contusion.”
Video of Chamberlain being hit by Wieters bat:
It wasn’t until the top of the thirteenth inning when the Orioles had a breakthrough. Manny Machado got a base hit off of Phelps followed by J.J Hardy doubling on a fly ball to left field. The ball went over Suzuki’s head, allowing Machado to score and for the Orioles to take a 2-1 lead.
Jim Johnson came to face the hungry Yanks in the bottom of the 13th inning. He struck out the first batter, Mark Teixeira for out number one. Second batter, Cano lined out to McLouth in left field. Two outs.
Yankees replaced Alex Rodriguez with pinch-hitter Eric Chavez. Chavez lined to Machado to end the inning and the game. Orioles win 2-1.
The Orioles and Yankees will face each other to determine who goes to the Championship round Friday at 5:00pm EST. CC Sabathia will be pitching for the Yankees as Jason Hammel is tabbed to start for the O’s.
