O's Give Yankees Christmas in August

It wasn't Phelps' birthday, but he'll take it.

The Yankees were headed to another boring loss Saturday afternoon when, out of the goodness of their hearts, the Baltimore Orioles handed them the baseball game. Hopefully, after the game Joe Girardi sent a thank you note to Buck Showalter. It's the proper thing to do when someone gives such a tasteful gift.

The Yankees trailed 3-1 in the 7th inning after a shaky start from David Phelps (6 free passes, 3 ER in 4.1 IP) and a lack of hitting from a lineup that looked like it belonged in a future Old Timers Day. Then the magic happened, a magic we haven't seen too often in the Bronx this year.

Skipper Buck Showalter left starter Wei-Yin Chen in just a tad too long and the normally reliable bullpen and defense didn't get the job done.

Chen had allowed just two hits to that point- a 4th inning solo home run by Robinson Cano and a harmless single in the 6th inning by Nick Swisher. He retired Andruw Jones (seriously, still batting Jones in the clean up spot? In case you haven't noticed, Joe Girardi, that was last year that Jones killed lefties, not this year.) to start the inning, before Steve Pearce reached on a single.

No worries, Russell Martin flew out and Chen was about to finish up his day and get ready to watch Jim Johnson and company save the ball game. But the left-hander walked Jayson Nix and was kept in to face the right-handed hitting Eduardo Nunez, who had just been recalled from the minors. YES' Michael Kay and Ken Singleton speculated that it could be the biggest at-bat of Nunez's career, given the Yankees current circumstances.  They weren't wrong and Nunez came through with a broken bat bloop that landed softly in the outfield for an RBI single.

Showalter sent for hard throwing right-hander Pedro Strop to face Ichiro Suzuki with the tying and go ahead runs on base. Strop had been dynamite all year, but in his prior two games, the native of San Cristobal in the Dominican Republic had allowed three runs and five hits in 1.1 innings pitched. Hits weren't a problem against the Yankees, but Strop walked Ichiro Suzuki to load the bases and then lost a battle to Derek Jeter, that resulted in another walk and a tie ball game.

With left-hander Brian Matusz warmed up in the pen, Showalter stuck with Strop despite the fact that Swisher has hit righties at a better rate than when he's in the other batters' box. Perhaps Showalter was thinking about Swisher's "Golden Sombrero" in the series opener. Swisher lined a one-hopper that ate up shortstop J.J. Hardy, who compounded matters when he bobbled a second attempt at making a play. The error allowed the Yankees to take the lead for the first time in the series.

Then it came down to the Yankees bullpen and they were perfect. David Robinson retired the side in order in the 8th and Rafael Soriano struck out a pair in the 9th for his 35th save and an untucked shirt for a well done performance.

Notes

The victory moved the Yankees back to three games ahead of the O's entering Sunday's series finale. Phil Hughes will be pitted against red-hot Chris Tillman.

Curtis Granderson struck out in the 2nd inning and didn't return to the field due to a tight hamstring. The Yankees certainly don't need any additional injuries to their already weakened lineup and, thankfully, an MRI revealed no structural damage. The Grandy Man will be considered day-to-day for the moment.

The Yankees' pen did a fantastic job; in addition to Robertson and Soriano, Cody Eppley retired the only man he faced in the 5th inning and Boone Logan tossed two scoreless innings for the win. Baltimore only had one hit after the 5th inning.

David Phelps entered the game with a 2.7 walks per 9 innings average. He also averaged 9.4 K's per 9 innings, but picked up just 3 K's.