NEW YORK -- April continues to unravel for the Orioles. Offered several chances last night to distance themselves from the New York Yankees, they instead hung around long enough to suffer a stunning 6-3 loss.
Reliever Arthur Rhodes (0-1) commanded center stage in the latest tragedy as his lack of control transformed a seemingly harmless eighth inning into a four-run outburst. Playing before a home crowd of 25,254, the Yankees took a 3-2 lead when Rhodes bounced a two-strike pitch past catcher Charles Johnson. On the next pitch they removed any remaining suspense on struggling catcher Jorge Posada's three-run homer.
At 2-5, the Orioles might concede it's unlikely they can catch the 6-1 Yankees. Right now they would settle for catching a break.
The latest loss, their fifth in six games and their eighth straight at Yankee Stadium, included botched bunts, wind-aided home runs, nonexistent clutch hitting and a late fold that sucked the breath from a stunned clubhouse.
Starter Juan Guzman gave the Orioles only their second quality start in seven games. His reward was a no-decision and a flashback to last season when he received the third-worst run support of any AL starter.
The Orioles entered averaging one run per 1.96 hits compared to the Yankees' one run per 1.26 hits. They reinforced the habit by stranding eight runners in the first four innings, leaving them a 2-1 lead despite outhitting the Yankees 7-1 in that span. Unknowingly, they lost the game there.
"I don't know if we're snakebit or not," said manager Ray Miller. "They're a good team, they're solid all the way through and when you believe things are going to happen they're going to happen. They're expecting good things to happen and it happens for them. Our guys played well. We just didn't come up with the big hit."
The Orioles did get the pitching performance they were looking for, however, thanks to Guzman.
Consistently high in the strike zone and behind in the count during his earlier 3 1/3-inning appearance, Guzman settled down after a first-inning run into the pattern he established in spring training.
Guzman retired eight straight hitters before walking Derek Jeter to lead off the fourth inning. He then retired the side to extend his run to 11 of 12 hitters before yielding the tying run in the sixth, finishing the inning and a strong five-hit performance.
"He showed me he's a championship-type pitcher tonight," Miller said. "He bore down and gave us a great outing. Over 162 games, if I get that kind of outing from the starters and the weather gets warmer, next thing you know they'll be going into the seventh inning and we'll be winning ballgames."
Despite Miller's optimism, seven games into the season finds the new-look Orioles' era of good feeling has been replaced by suggestions of playing under a dark cloud. The Orioles wake up today in last place, four games off the AL East lead. Even during last season's collapse they weren't this far back until their 24th game.
The Orioles experienced their share of bad luck but also failed to execute in several crucial situations.
With runners at first and second and none out in the third inning, the Orioles couldn't build on an unearned run.
In the eighth, Cal Ripken was asked to bunt B. J. Surhoff into scoring position. He fouled off one pitch and missed a second. With the bunt off, Ripken then lined to reliever Jeff Nelson (1-0) for a rally-killing double play.
The Orioles struggled again with runners in scoring position, going only 2-for-9 in such situations. The bottom four spots in the batting order were a combined 3-for-15.
Each of their runs could be traced to Yankees blunders -- second baseman Chuck Knoblauch's botched relay in the first inning, his error in the third (both of which were followed by Harold Baines' RBI singles) and a wild pitch in the ninth.
"You've got to have big hits. We didn't get any," lamented Miller, who has seen the same often this season.
The Yankees did what the Orioles tried to do but could not. A stiff breeze toward the right-field corner encouraged right-handed hitters to push the ball the opposite way. Jeter, the Yankees' gifted shortstop, did so beautifully in the first inning and was rewarded with a wind-blown home run.
In the sixth inning Jeter punished the Orioles again by driving a pitch over hesitant center fielder Brady Anderson for a leadoff triple that became the tying run.
"A ball that high that stays in the park I should catch," said Anderson, who battled the wind and misjudged the center-field fence.
Miller tried to stay upbeat.
"I don't see anybody not trying to execute," he said. "We were trying to stay inside the ball early tonight and drive it to right field. We just didn't get it done. This is a pretty good club. We're getting hits, but we're not getting the big hits. Then something freak happens late in the ballgame."
The eighth inning began quietly with Rhodes striking out Jeter and getting Paul O'Neill on a line drive at Ripken. A two-out walk to Bernie Williams was followed by Tino Martinez's two-hopper at Ripken, who was crowding the line to prevent an extra-base hit. But instead of a routine out the Orioles received another dose of twisted fate as the ball struck the bag and bounded over Ripken's head for a double.
"It's deflating when something like that happens," said Johnson.
Miller ordered Chili Davis intentionally walked to load the bases and bring Posada to the plate.
With Mike Timlin ready, Miller then elected to stay with Rhodes despite the switch-hitter Posada's preference for left-handed pitching. Posada entered the at-bat in a 1-for-15 funk. He was 0-for-14 against right-handers, 1-for-1 against left-handers.
"It makes you happy to see a lefty; it kind of gets your hopes up," Posada said.
Rhodes quickly got ahead of Posada. He nearly struck him out on a breaking pitch that Posada fouled off with a lunging hack. On a 2-2 count, Rhodes committed the game's most serious mistake.
"We were working him away, he was fouling pitches off and fouling pitches off. Instead of busting him [with a fastball], I threw a slider in the dirt and he barely nipped it for a foul ball. I threw a fastball in for a wild pitch. I held onto the ball too long," Rhodes said.
"It was the kind of pitch you just try to get a glove on," catcher Johnson said of Rhodes' errant fastball. "It got away from him."
Williams scored the go-ahead run. On the next pitch, a tardy slider, Posada sent a three-run shot into the right-field bleachers.
Down 6-2, the Orioles were able to add a meaningless run in the ninth on Mike Bordick's two-out triple followed by a wild pitch. In the night's context, the run seemed a perverse irony.
Orioles tonight
Opponent: New York Yankees
Site: Yankee Stadium
Time: 7: 35
TV/Radio: HTS/WBAL (1090 AM)
Starters: Orioles' Scott Erickson (0-1, 6.43) vs. Yankees' David Cone (1-0, 1.69)
Baines bats back
Since being lifted for a pinch hitter during the Orioles' eighth-inning rally Saturday, Harold Baines has been on a run-producing tear, driving in five of the Orioles' last eight runs. Each hit produced or added to an Orioles lead (L):
D, Opp. -------------- Inn. ------ Hit -------------- L
4/11, Tor ------------ 1st ------- 3-run HR ----- 4-0
4/13, N.Y. ----------- 1st ------- RBI single --- 1-0
----- ----- ------ -------- 3rd ------ RBI single --- 2-1
Pub Date: 4/14/99