Jason Hammel's control deserted him in the fourth inning, which cost him a run and his Orioles the lead.
Yankees score once in 3rd to make it 2-2
Alex Rodriguez led off and walked. Hammel did get Robinson Cano on a grounder to first baseman Mark Reynolds, with Rodriguez advancing. Well, that's one word for what he did. You might want to supply your own ...
Gotta love that slide, and the Mickey Mouse gloves.
Anyway, that brought up Nick Swisher, who's got a long history of postseason struggles but drew a walk earlier in this game.
He drew a walk this time, too.
Mark Teixeira came up. Hammel threw a fastball that tailed right through the heart of the strike zone. Teixeira killed it, and the only things that kept his liner in the park were a) he hit it too hard, and b) there's a really tall wall in right field at Oriole Park.
Ex-first baseman Chris Davis played the ball adroitly off the wall, turned and fired a strike to second base in plenty of time to nail Teixeira. Rodriguez scored, but Davis's play (and Teixeira's baserunning) turned a first-and-third situation (with one out) into a third-only situation (with two outs). And after intentionally walking Curtis Granderson, Hammel retired Russell Coltrane Martin on a routine fly ball to end the inning.
So our score after three-and-a-half innings: Orioles 2, Yankees 2.
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