The New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles engaged in a rain-soaked pitching duel Friday night at Yankee Stadium, and the game turned on two rare plays in the late innings that allowed the Bronx Bombers to pull out a 5-2 divisional win.
The Yankees got a boost from the normally sure-handed Orioles center fielder Adam Jones, who dropped a bases loaded, two-out, can-of-corn fly ball to the outfield hit by Yankees' left fielder Vernon Wells. As Jones ran back and tracked the ball, he blew a bubble with the chewing gum in his mouth as the ball hit the leather of his glove. It hit the heel of his glove, however, and dropped to the grass as all three runs crossed the plate, breaking a 2-2 tie and giving the home team a 5-2 lead.
Jones took his time entering the Orioles dugout following his gaffe, and was visibly upset upon entering. After the game he made no excuses for his lapse in focus. "Just missed it. You could say it's rain. You could say it's cold. You could say anything, wind, you could say whatever you want. I was there. Didn't catch it. Cost my team the game."
In the next inning, Yankees starter CC Sabathia found himself in a pickle. The Orioles led off the bottom of the eighth inning with consecutive singles before Manny Machado hit a shot to second base that began the first triple play by the Yankees in 45 years. The wild sequence was officially scored a 4-6-5-6-5-3-4 triple play.
Those two plays sparked the Yankees in their fourth straight win and pushed their record to 5-4 without several of their highest-paid players. After the game former Yankees nemesis Kevin Youkilis said, "That's like being a kid again. That's one of the coolest things I've ever had on the field. You don't see one written up like that. It was special. This game we play, it's one of these games where it's a job and it's a grind at times. But when stuff like that happens, you feel like you're back playing little league again."
The Yankees and Orioles will meet again today at 4:05 p.m. on YES Network. The game can also be live streamed for free here or for a fee here. Check out video of Jones' drop and the triple play here.
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