BALTIMORE — After six innings, the Yankees were headed for a rare laugher.
Ivan Nova was cruising and an under-siege offense produced a second straight good night against the Orioles.
But if the first third of the season taught Yankees fans anything, it’s that nothing comes easy for this team.
And Saturday night proved to be anything but easy, though the Yankees ultimately prevailed.
They nearly coughed up a seven-run lead as the Orioles scored six runs in the seventh, but Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman combined to slam the door in the last three innings, allowing the Yankees to escape with an 8-6 victory at Camden Yards.
After entering a seventh inning in which the Orioles already had hit three home runs and scored six runs against Nova and Nick Goody, Miller pitched two perfect innings and Chapman got the first two batters in the ninth before walking Adam Jones, who had hit a three-run homer off Goody to make it 7-6. Chapman then caught Nolan Reimold looking at a slider for his ninth save in as many chances.
Aaron Hicks doubled and scored on a single by Alex Rod riguez (three hits) in the top of the ninth to give Chapman and the Yankees an insurance run.
The Yankees (26-29) accumulated 12 of their 16 hits through six innings in building a 7-0 lead for Nova.
But Mark Trumbo led off the seventh with his 18th homer, and after Matt Wieters reached on an infield single, Pedro Alvarez homered to make it 7-3. Jonathan Schoop’s single and a walk to Ryan Flaherty brought out Joe Girardi to call on Goody to replace Nova, but Jones pounded a hanging slider deep to left-center for his eighth homer and a 7-6 Baltimore deficit.
Before the bottom of the ninth, a warmup pitch by Chapman hit well short in the dirt, skipped up and smacked off catcher Austin Romine’s left thumb, pulling back the nail. Brian McCann, out with a hyperextended left elbow, had to come in.
After six brilliant innings, Nova (4-3, 4.41) ended up with a pedestrian line. He was charged with five runs and allowed seven hits.
The Yankees’ highlight inning was a four-run fourth that turned a 1-0 lead into 5-0. Starlin Castro and Rob Refsnyder (who made his first major-league start at first base) had RBI doubles, the latter with two outs, and Romine added an RBI single.
Castro had an RBI single in the fifth, and with two outs in the sixth, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner pulled off a double steal, with Ellsbury scoring from third on a close play.
In the third, Chase Headley doubled, moved to third on Refsnyder’s long fly to center and scored on Romine’s sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead.
Orioles righthander Tyler Wilson came in 2-4 with a 3.83 ERA and, from the first inning, seemed behind almost every batter. He allowed five runs and seven hits in four innings.
Nova turned away a scoring chance in the first. Jones grounded out and Hyun Soo Kim doubled, taking a 0-and-1 fastball the other way to left. Nova got Manny Machado to foul to first, dropping the shortstop to 3-for-20 in his career against Nova, and Chris Davis struck out on a 0-and-2 curveball to end the 14-pitch inning.
The Yankees opened things up in the fourth. Carlos Beltran improved to 9-for-27 on the trip with a single to right through the shift and Rodriguez, who homered Friday night, punched a single to right. Castro ripped an RBI double into the gap in left-center to make it 2-0 and Didi Gregorius followed by crushing a first-pitch fastball over the foul pole down the rightfield line. After a crew chief-initiated review — the Yankees’ dugout believed it was a home run — the foul ball call stood. Gregorius’ groundout to second made it 3-0 and, after Headley grounded out to second, Refsnyder delivered a two-out double to right, making it 4-0. Romine sent a single back up the middle for a 5-0 lead.
..... - Newsday