Brian Roberts falls behind 1-2 but comes back to draw a lead-off walk. Mora grounds to third, with Roberts going to second. Moose appears to be throwing a whole lot of non-fastballs. He doesn't throw a single one to Nick, who goes down swinging at a splitter. Two outs and it's up to Aubrey Huff. He lines one down to right-field line for a single, 1-0 O's. Kevin Millar singles to center - he went down a got a curveball. Luuuke grounds one to Cap'n Jeter. It's an easy play, and Jeter just throws it high, pulling Giambi off the bad at first. Scott is safe, and the bases are loaded. Ramon Hernandez walks on four pitches to drive in a run. 2-0. Adam Jones falls behind 0-2, but takes a high fastball the other way for a bases-clearing double. 5-0 Orioles. Mussina doesn't throw nearly hard enough anymore to get away with pitches like that. Freddie loops a low breaking-ball into right field. Jones scores from second to make it 6-0. Roberts gets his second plate appearance of the inning. He slices one to left and Johnny Damon can't make the diving catch. It's a stand-up triple for Brian, and Mussina will leave down 7-0 (though only one run is earned). Mora grounds out to A-Rod (again) to end the first. Daniel will have a pretty big cushion with which to work.
Not a great start as Cabrera falls behind Damon 3-0. Johnny singles to right to start the Yankee attack. The Captain continues his excellent first inning by grounding into a double play. Bobby Abreu hits one deep to left, but Scott is there and makes the catch.
Millar walks with two outs, and Luke Scott lifts one to left. The ball takes off on Damon a bit, and it bounces off his glove, scoring Millar. 8-0 O's. Ramon walks. No lead is really safe with the Yankees offense, but I feel pretty confident with Cabrera on the mound. I feel even better now as Jones bloops a single to right to bring in Luke. Bynum flies out to Damon, but it's 9-0 already.
Mora returns the throwing-error favor, allowing A-Rod to reach. Matsui just beats out a potential double-play ball. Jason Giambi breaks his bat, but his bloop into left falls in front of Scott. Robbie Cano goes down swinging at a low fastball. Daniel really pounded him inside in that at bat. Melky Cabrera flies out deep to center to end the threat.
Brian Roberts takes his third trip to the plate in as many innings. Ross Ohledndorf, who relieved Mussina, gets him looking. Mora grounds out again, and Nick follows it up with his first hit of the day, lining one to center. Huff grounds to Cano to end the inning.
With two outs, Daniel comes up and in with a fastball to Jeter, and hits him on the hand. He'll be leaving the game. Abreu can't capitalize, as he grounds out to second.
Kevin Millar extends the lead to double digits with his solo home run to start the fourth. An Adam Jones infield single is all the O's would get after that. 10-0.
Two groundouts and a strike-out by Giambi (looking an that tailing fastball on the inside corner at 96) as the Yanks go down in order.
Former Orioles Latroy Hawkins comes in from the pen. 1-2-3 go the Birds.
Daniel follows suit with a 1-2-3 inning of his own. He got Melky with another of those "Maddux" fastballs.
Two quick outs, and Edwar Ramirez relives Hawkins. He walks Scott and gives up a single to Ramon, but gets Jones swinging to end the inning.
Damon lines one towards right, but Kevin Millar takes to the air and makes the catch. Alberto Gonzalez - in there for Jeter - strikes out looking on a fastball on (off) the outside corner. Abreu grounds one up the middle, and beats it out even though Roberts kept it in the infield. A-Rod puts the Yankees on the board, hitting the next pitch out to deep left-center. 10-2. Matsui grounds out to Millar to end the comeback.
Another 1-2-3 inning.
Giambi starts the seventh with a single up the middle. After a flyout by Cano, a Mora to Roberts to Millar double play off Malky's bat ends the inning.
Markakis goes down on strikes for a third time. In Nick's defense, he does take a lot of pitches and the strike-zone was fairly wide today. Huff works new pitcher Jose Veras for a walk. Ramon goes down swinging. The lead is back to 10, as Luuuke hits one into the upper deck. He did a good job of fouling off pitches until he got a good one; a down and in fastball that he absolutely crushed. Ramon grounds weakly to Morgan Ensberg (in for A-Rod) for the third out.
Dave Trembley is getting some starters out of the game. The Pelican makes an appearance coming in for Roberts at second; Cintron replaces Mora at third; and Lance Cormier is in to finish the game for Daniel Cabrera. Luis makes a great play, diving to catch a liner off the bat of Johnny Damon. He has looked much batter at second than he did at short. 1-2-3 go the Yanks.
Adam Jones greets Mo Rivera with a single up the middle. That's Jones' fourth hit of the game. A groundout and a line-drive double play (by Luis) sends the game into the bottom of the ninth. I wish this game was in Baltimore and I was there. What a fun experience that would be.
Abreu singles to left to start the inning. How horrible of a loss would this be? Shelly Duncan flies out to right for the first out. Matsui singles to put two on. Cormier may have some trouble with lefties. Not with righties though, as Morgan Ensberg grounds into a double play to end the game. I don't remember many games like this. The O's route the Yankees, 12-2.
Daniel left the game having thrown 86 pitches (52 for strikes). Of those, 83 were fastballs (and 3 sliders). That is insane. The Yankees pretty much knew exactly what pitch was coming every time and a two-run homer by A-Rod was all they could get. His final line was 7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 4 K. It's his second straight game without a walk (and against a generally patient line-up). Daniel is now 5-1 with a 3.48 ERA and 41 K's to 24 walks. Take out his 7-walk game in horrible weather versus Chicago, and it's 39:17 - he's never had a ratio over 1.8 before (that's a ratio of 2.3 - not great but not bad). People are going to write the standard "Contenders or Pretenders" articles, and the Orioles will be mentioned as "pretenders". They main not be "contenders" yet, but they will still be competitive. That's something, at least.
This is nice to see. The Yankees were pretty much out of it by the bottom of the first. Complete domination by the Orioles.
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