The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles comprehensively 7-2 Sunday in the opening game of the AL divisional series.
Both the Yankees and the Orioles staged a dramatic duel for eight innings before the Yankees brushed aside the inexperienced newcomers.
In the ninth inning, it was Russell Martin who led off with a tie-breaking home run off Jim Johnson. CC Sabathia, the Yankees pitcher, went 0-2 against the Orioles in three starts during the regular season however in Sunday's game he looked quite impressive returning to form and improving his overall record against Baltimore to 17-4.
In 8 2-3 innings, he allowed 2 runs and eight hits to help New York take a lead against the Orioles.
The Associated Press quoted Sabathia as saying: "Fastball command was good, worked off that. Throwing the ball pretty good getting the corners. Tried to stay out there and make some pitches."
Sabathia is at 4-0 in the division series while 6-1 with New York in the postseason.
New York manager Joe Girardi said: "I thought he gave us a great performance. Didn't give up a lot of hard hit balls tonight, had a really good changeup tonight, and I thought he used it very effectively."
A 2-0 pitch from Johnson was driven by Martin into the left-field seats when the score was 2-2. It was the first among the four straight hits off him.
Martin said: "I definitely wasn't thinking home run. He left a fastball up and I put good wood on it."
Johnson, who led the majors with 51 saves, has, in his last seven games against the Yankees allowed one run in 7 innings and had three saves.
"I made mistakes," Johnson said. "I obviously paid for those, and that was location. It wasn't anything else.
"Two fastballs that really cost us. Just have to make a better pitch. That's all it comes down to."
The second game between the Yankees and the Orioles will be played Monday.
The start of Sunday's was delayed due to rain. Play was delayed by 2 hours and 26 minutes, but that did not dampen the spirits of the 48,000 fans who have witnessed 14 consecutive losing seasons waiting for Baltimore to play a postseason game at Camden Yards.
Chris Davis, the Orioles right fielder said: "We're obviously disappointed we couldn't give them a win, but at least we're playing a five-game series instead of a shootout.
"We stayed in as long as we could. We're finding out what playoff baseball is all about. You've got to capitalize on every opportunity that you give yourself and we weren't able to do that."
Davis further added that it was difficult to build up a sustained rally against an ace pitcher like Sabathia.
"He just kind of wore us down," Davis said. "You have to tip your hat to him. He held us to two runs and gave them a chance to win in the end."
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