Orioles vs. Yankees: Bombers Take Bizarre Decision, 4-1 In 15 Innings

After the New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 4-1 Wednesday night -- actually, the 15-inning affair didn't end until early Thursday morning -- Mike Gonzalez was trending nationwide on Twitter (not in a good way) and Robinson Cano observed, "All you can say is it was a pretty good game."

First, a few words about the starting pitchers. In one corner, 38-year-old Bartolo Colon. In the other, 23-year-old rookie Zach Britton. Colon, one of the spring's best (and biggest) stories, tossed eight scoreless innings on three hits, one walk, and seven strikeouts. Britton didn't pitch quite as well, but gave up just one (unearned) run in seven innings and lowered his ERA for the season to 2.14, fifth-best in the American League.

Heading into the bottom of the ninth, the score was still 1-0 Yankees. Mariano Rivera owns the ninth inning. Usually. Rivera entered this ninth inning with a 1.42 ERA and hadn't blown a save since the 24th of April ... his last appearance in Baltimore. He blew the save in Baltimore this time, too. With one out, Adam Jones singled to center, moved to third on Nick Markasis's base hit, and scored the tying run on Vladimir Guerrero's sacrifice fly.

Other things happened in the subsequent innings, but time moves ever onward, so let's skip ahead to the bottom of the 12th. Joe Girardi had deployed only three of his relief pitchers, but in this critical spot summoned Hector Noesi to make his major-league debut. Noesi began brilliantly, striking out J.J. Hardy and Mark Reynolds, both swinging. But then he walked Andino, was touched for a single by Felix Pie, and walked Adam Jones. That brought up Markakis, with any number of ways to end the game and send the non-Yankees fans in the stands home happy.

In the top of the 13th, Baltimore's Jeremy Accardo pulled off an even more impressive escape act. After the Yankees loaded the bases with just one out, Accardo struck out Chris Dickerson and retired Brett Gardner on a grounder to first.

Skip again, this time to the 15th. With Accardo still on the mound, Mark Teixeira led off with a single and Alex Rodriguez followed with same. Accardo, the sixth man out of the home bullpen, had thrown 55 pitches and Buck Showalter replaced him with Mike Gonzalez, who trotted into the game with a $6 million salary and an 8.53 ERA.

Chris Dickerson, who just two days earlier had been working at the Dunder-Mifflin loading dock, came up next, and Gonzalez's third pitch caught him flush on the batting helmet. This resulted in a) Gonzalez's ejection, b) the entrance of pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, since Gonzalez had been Showalter's last available reliever, and c) Dickerson's removal from the game, which in turn resulted in some rarely used gears inside Joe Girardi's head being forced into action, because his only remaining bench player -- not including pitchers -- was Jorge Posada.

Girardi went with a pitcher, as A.J. Burnett pinch-ran for Dickerson.

Those gears inside Girardi's head? They told him to keep Posada on the bench, thus sacrificing his DH slot. Derek Jeter had been the DH, but he moved to shortstop, with rookie shortstop Eduardo Nunez replacing Dickerson in right field.

With Noesi still pitching, Markakis led off with a single and Brandon Snyder -- just up from Triple-A Norfolk -- walked. That brought up Luke Scott, who demanded an affidavit proving the Dominican Noesi's parentage before shooting a screaming line drive directly to Brett Gardner in left field. Matt Wieters followed with a grounder that desperately wanted to reach right field and drive in Markakis, except Snyder's left leg had other ideas, and intercepted the baseball. Snyder out, Wieters gets credit for a single.

J.J. Hardy, so hot since coming off the Disabled List last week, came up next and lifted a routine fly ball to -- who else? -- ex-infielder Eduardo Nunez, who captured the final out, four hours and 56 minutes after Britton threw the game's first pitch.