Seven-Run 7th Dooms Yanks As They Fall To the O's 7-3

As Ron Burgundy would say, "Well, that escalated quickly." Entering the 7th inning with a 3-0 lead, the Baltimore Orioles exploded for seven-runs on the New York Yankees -- their first runs scored since Friday night -- to take away the momentum, and any chance of a sweep by the Bombers.

Andy Pettitte has tossed six scoreless innings before a pair of singles to open the 7th chased him from the game. The first six O's reached base in the inning, then homeruns by JJ Hardy and Adam Jones helped lead Baltimore to a 7-3 victory Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

All was going well for the Yankees through the first six innings. Alfonso Soriano singled home the game's first run in the 3rd inning -- his 36th RBI since joining the team. Then in the 4th, Brett Gardner walked with the bases loaded and Derek Jeter flew out on a sac-fly to right field to put the Yanks up 3-0.

Pettitte had picked up right where Ivan Nova left off on Saturday. He was attacking hitters early, his breaking pitches were working well, and he was locating his pitches very efficiently. In the end, he worked six plus inning, giving up two runs on seven hits, while striking out three.

Baltimore was only able to string together five hits off Pettitte through six innings, before things finally started to come together in the 7th. Michael Morse and Danny Valencia singled to open the inning, bringing Yankees manager Joe Girardi out of the dugout to go to the bullpen.

Shawn Kelley entered the game, and left four pitches later after Matt Wieters singled home Morse, then Hardy put the O's up 4-3 with a three-runs homerun off the top of the right field wall, just barely out of the reach of Curtis Granderson's glove.

"It's completely on me for those pitches right there. I've got to get Wieters and Hardy out and get us into the dugout with a lead," Kelley said. "Three-run lead, going into the seventh, chance for a sweep against a team we're right there, neck and neck with -- it's a tough one to swallow."

So then Girardi went to Boone Logan, but he proved to also be ineffective, giving up a bunt-single to Brian Roberts, then he walked Nick Markakis. After 12 pitches, Girardi went to Joba Chamberlain, trailing only by one-run in the 7th.

Chamberlain got Manny Machado, who made several nice defensive plays in this game, to pop up to the catcher on a bunt attempt, but a couple pitches later, Jones launched a three-run homerun to center field off Joba -- the 7th homerun his given up this season -- extending the Orioles' lead to 7-3.

Despite the poor effort from the bullpen, Girardi says he don't regret making the move to take Pettitte out of the game after throwing 93 pitches. Pettitte even said he didn't have a problem with it.

"He was up in pitches and they had just squared up two balls against him, so we felt it was time to make a change," Girardi said. "Unfortunately it didn't work out."

"It's not even an issue to me. I know Joe has all the faith in the world in our bullpen, and I know Joe has faith in me, also," Pettitte said. "Right now, you can't second guess going to our bullpen. They've just been so great. … Nobody in here -- not me and I'm sure not our manager -- is going to lose any faith in those guys out there."

The O's big 7th inning took away all the momentum from the Yankees, as they went down pretty quietly in the 8th and 9th innings, losing out on sweeping Baltimore, and gaining any more ground on the Tampa Bay Rays in the Wild Card standings.

"You talk about winning series, but when you win the first two and you're up 3-0, you get greedy," Girardi said. "And that's the hard part."

Phil Hughes will take the mound for the Yankees tomorrow, on Labor Day, as the Yanks open up a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox, whom the Yanks were swept by earlier in August. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 pm EST in the Bronx.

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