O's Halt Yankee Streak
By Joe Davis
Baltimore came out swinging today versus the New York Yankees. Miguel Tejada started it off with a two run blast to give Baltimore a 2-0 lead in the first.
Jeter responded in the top of the second with a three-run home run. Yankees led 3-2 in the second.
In the third, it started to get interesting. Javier Vazquez, the starting pitcher, never made it out of the inning. Vazquez let the Orioles walk all over him, literally. With the bases loaded, he walked Miguel Tejada, hit Rafael Palmeiro and walked Javy Lopez. It already seemed like a long day for Vazquez and he wasn't done yet. He then proceeded to give up a two run single to B.J. Surhoff and to top it off gave up a single to score Lopez. Torre had seen enough and brought in their savior! - Or not. C.J. Nitkowski entered the game and gave up a hit that scored two runs. After three innings Baltimore led 10-3.
The Yankees rebounded scoring two in the next inning. After 4 innings, Baltimore had doubled the Yankee run production and led 10-5.
In the 6th inning, Esteban Loaiza was the pitcher so obviously the Orioles cored some more. He gave up a single and triple which scored three runners. After 6 innings, Baltimore held a 13-5 lead.
The Yankees rebounded again in the top of the 7th as Olerud and Cairo drove in three runners. They had pulled within five after 7.5 innings cutting the O’s lead to 13-8. However, just as the Yankees were getting excited Melvin Mora hit a homer in the bottom of the 8th to end the scoring.
Just like that, the Yankees lost on another strong pitching performance.
