Yankees beat O’s 8-6 and it was never in doubt, no siree

Source: FanGraphs

That was dangerously close to being a Very Bad Loss. The Yankees took a seemingly comfortable 7-0 lead into the seventh inning Saturday night, but some mistake pitches and questionable bullpen management allowed the Orioles to score six runs in the seventh inning. New York was able to hang on for the 8-6 win. Nice and easy, right? Saturday night games get bullet point recaps because they are the bane of my existence, so let’s get to it:

• Four In The Fourth: After taking a 1-0 lead on Austin Romine’s third inning sac fly, the Yankees broke the game open by scoring four runs in the fourth. Starlin Castro (double), Didi Gregorius (ground out), Rob Refsnyder (double), and Romine (single) drove those four runs in. Refsnyder and Romine came up with big two-out hits. They turned a two-run inning into a four-run inning. Huge. Castro singled in another run in the fifth to give the Yankees a 6-0 lead.
• Safe At Home: Jacoby Ellsbury stole home for the second time this season. This one wasn’t a straight steal like the one against the Rays though. Ellsbury was on third when Brett Gardner attempted to steal second. Matt Wieters threw down to second, and when Manny Machado had to reach down to apply the tag (Gardner was safe), Ellsbury broke for home and beat the return throw. I was surprised a veteran catcher like Wieters threw down to second there. He knew who was at third, right? Either way, that made it 7-0 Yankees in the sixth.
• Better Than Advertised: The box score is a damn lie. It’ll tell you Ivan Nova allowed five runs in six innings, and while that is true, it is not in any way representative of how he pitched. Nova dominated for the first six innings, holding the O’s to three hits and a walk. He was in total control. Then things unraveled quickly in the seventh. Mark Trumbo hit a homer to make it 7-1, and fine, whatever. It happens. Then Pedro Alvarez managed to sneak a two-run homer just inside the left field foul pole to cut it to 7-3. Argh. A single, a wild pitch, and a walk followed. That ended Nova’s night. It was still 7-3 at the time. Overall, good work Ivan.
• No Goody: For whatever reason Joe Girardi opted to go to Nick Goody with two on and no outs in the seventh rather than Andrew Miller, who was warming in the bullpen. Goody threw two pitches. The first was a ball, and the second went for an Adam Jones three-run homer to turn a 7-3 game into a 7-6 game. The O’s scored six runs before making an out in the seventh. Not ideal! Miller came in following the homer. Why did Goody come in first? I’ll never know.
• Big Two: Dellin Betances was unavailable due to his recent workload, meaning Miller had to serve as the seventh and eighth inning guy Saturday. He retired all six batters he faced. Only 28 pitches too. Miller is quite good at this pitching thing. Aaron Hicks (double) and Alex Rodriguez (single) created a much appreciated insurance run in the top of the ninth, then Aroldis Chapman closed the door in the bottom half. Never in doubt. (It was very much in doubt.)
• Leftovers: Weird injury alert: Austin Romine tore the nail on his left thumb trying to catch a Chapman warm-up pitch in the ninth. Chapman spiked a fastball in the dirt and it came up and hit Romine in a weird way. He had to leave the game, so Brian McCann caught the final three outs. Romine is heading for x-rays just in case … the Yankees had 16 hits total, tying their season high. They had 16 in the 16-6 win over the Astros in the second game of the season … every starter had at least one hit. Ellsbury and Gardner had two each while A-Rod and Castro had three each.

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. We have Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages too. The Yankees and Orioles will wrap up this three-game series Sunday afternoon. That’s a 1:35pm ET start and it is the final game of this ten-game, four-city road trip. CC Sabathia and Kevin Gausman are the scheduled starters.