By Eduardo A. Encina, The Baltimore Sun –
NEW YORK — These Baltimore Orioles came to Yankee Stadium having won six of nine in the Bronx during the regular season — winning all three series here — but they knew beating the Yankees in October would take an entirely new brand of Orioles Magic.
They had been the masters of extra innings, winning 16 straight, but in Wednesday night’s American League Division Series Game 3, the Yankees dealt the Orioles’ playoff hopes a gut-wrenching punch to the stomach.
Raul Ibanez hit a pair of solo homers — one to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth and a walk-off homer to open the bottom of the 12th inning – to deal the Orioles a heart-breaking 3-2 loss.
In the 12th, Ibanez took left-hander Brian Matusz’s first pitch of the inning into the right-field porch for the game-winning homer, sending 50,497 fans into a frenzy.
As Matusz delivered the 91-mph cutter and saw Ibanez’s swing, he didn’t look back, just walked off the mound as the Bronx celebrated around the Orioles.
After being just two outs away from taking a commanding two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-five ALDS, the Orioles head into Thursday’s Game 4 on the brink of elimination.
The Orioles hadn’t lost an extra-inning game since losing back-to-back games to the Yankees on April 10-11 at Camden Yards during the season’s opening homestand. Ibanez also won the first game on a 12th-inning ground-rule double.
Closer Jim Johnson, who set a club record with 51 saves, allowed a game-tying solo homer to Ibanez in the bottom of the ninth inning after Ibanez pinch hit for Alex Rodriguez.
After yielding just three homers in 71 regular-season innings, Johnson has allowed two ninth-inning homers in the first three games of the ALDS.
The Orioles took a 2-1 lead into the ninth after 28-year-old rookie right-hander Miguel Gonzalez held the Yankees to one run in seven innings for his third win in the Bronx this season as the Orioles beat the Yankees 2-1 in Wednesday’s pivotal American League Division Series Game 3 at Yankee Stadium.
The Orioles offense was paced by solo homers by second baseman Ryan Flaherty and Manny Machado, who became the first rookie teammates to homer in the same postseason game, according to STATS, LLC.
But the Orioles had just two base hits after Machado’s homer, unable to take advantage of Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda’s early control problems.
The Orioles had the go-ahead run on second base against closer Rafael Soriano after Robert Andino singled and moved to second on Machado’s sac bunt, but left fielder Nate McLouth lined out to shortstop and Andino was doubled up.
The O’s were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position and left six runners on base, including the bases loaded a fourth inning in which Kuroda walked a batter and hit another.
Gonzalez, found by the Orioles while pitching with Mazatlan in the Mexican League, entered the season having pitched just one game above Double-A, but he has dominated the Yankees this season in their home ballpark.
Released by the Red Sox in December, Gonzalez overcame two years away from the game because of reconstructive knee and elbow surgeries to make it to the big leagues this season for the first time. And on Wednesday, he became the first rookie to allow one or fewer runs in seven or more innings against the Yankees in a postseason game since Joe Black of the Brooklyn Dodgers did it in Game 1 of the 1952 World Series, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
He also became just the second pitcher since 1950 to record eight strikeouts and no walks against the Yankees in a postseason game, joining Cliff Lee.
In three games at Yankee Stadium, Gonzalez – who allowed just one run on five hits over seven innings on Wednesday — is 3-0 with a 2.18 ERA. He’s held the Yankees to a .197 batting average and has 25 strikeouts and just one walk.
Unafraid to attack the Yankees hitters, Gonzalez mixed up a variety of pitches – a four-seam and split-fingered fastball, change up, curveball and slider – to strike out eight Yankees. He held New York’s 2-3-4 hitters of Ichiro Suzuki, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano to a combined 0-for-9 with 3 K. He retired four of the last five batters he faced.
Flaherty put the Orioles up 1-0 with his first career postseason homer, a solo shot, in the third inning off Kuroda.
The Orioles managed just five hits off Kuroda, who settled down in the late innings, retiring the final 11 Orioles hitters he faced. Kuroda struggled finding the plate with his sinker and slider early on and hit two batters, but managed to walk just one over 8 1/3 innings of work.
Flaherty, a Rule 5 pick this past offseason, took a first-pitch hanging curveball from Kuroda over the right-field fence for the Orioles first postseason homer and first since Eric Davis homered in Game 5 of the 1997 American League Championship Series.
Flaherty also became the first player born in Maine to hit a postseason homer.
In the bottom half of the inning with Russell Martin on second after a one-out double, Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter hit a ball to center that carried just out of the reach of center fielder Adam Jones for an RBI triple that tied the game.
Jones took one step in on Jeter’s hit, then retreated toward the warning track, blowing a bubble before the ball bounced just past his outstretched glove.
The 20-year-old Machado led off the fifth by taking an 84-mph hanging slider into the Orioles bullpen beyond the left-center field fence to give the Orioles a 2-1 lead.
Machado, the Orioles top position prospect heading into the season, spent most of the season at Double-A Bowie before a surprise August call-up. On Wednesday, Machado became the second-youngest player to hit a postseason home run and the youngest players to homer in the ALDS.
