Chen strong in potential farewell O’s beat Yanks 9-2

As his struggling team prepared to face the Orioles in the final game of the season, Joe Girardi spoke of how resilient the Yankees have been all year.

Baltimore Orioles’ Chris Davis, left, and Manny Machado celebrate a… He opened the fifth with a walk and a two-run home run by Chris Davis to make it 7-1. There’s nothing wrong with that decision, and it might have even been the right call, if not for the fact that they then turned to Chris Capuano, of all people, to keep the game close.

The Yankees fell behind early to the Orioles on Sunday afternoon, a day after dropping both ends of Saturday’s doubleheader.

New York starter Michael Pineda (12-10) lasted only 3 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on six hits.

Baltimore Orioles’ Gerado Parro is called out at second after New… Parra greeted left-hander Chasen Shreve with an RBI single followed by Machado’s RBI single on an infield topper that died near the third-base line.

Baltimore went 10-9 against New York this year.

All that matters now is what happens next.

To that, the Yankees say: So what?

That would give Severino a normal four days of rest before the ALDS opener; Masahiro Tanaka is likely to pitch the wild-card play-in game on Tuesday, and while Girardi would not confirm that, he told the assembled media after the rainout was announced, “You can surmise”. “Every time there’s the first hint of fall in the air, I want people thinking about playoff baseball and the World Series”.

The Yankees had gotten the game back to 7-4 when Davis belted his second homer, a two-run blast off Andrew Miller in the eighth.

Hitting with runners in scoring position was a problem for the Yankees all series long. Already, they have been forced to rely on 22-year-old Greg Bird to be their everyday first baseman since Mark Teixeira went down with a leg fracture, and on Severino to be a regular part of their starting rotation when Nathan Eovaldi went on the disabled list with elbow inflammation. “We have to just concentrate on this one game”.

“It’s about just getting ready for what’s coming, focusing on [Tuesday’s] game and doing our best”, said Carlos Beltran, who also thanked a higher power that the Yankees weren’t forced to play at Houston. That victory never came, but that’s partly because Girardi tried to balance the importance of winning against resting his starters and relievers. Had New York (87-75) and the Astros (86-76) finished tied, Houston would have won the tiebreaker for home field based on head-to-head record.

“Home field is big for us“. “We have a shot just like the other nine teams do”.

Pineda lasted only 3.2 innings for the Bronx Bombers, surrendering four runs on six hits while striking out five.

Gordon had two steals to take his season total to 58, overtaking injured Reds outfielder Billy Hamilton for the league lead.

If it was farewell, Davis gave a fitting goodbye with his eighth multi-homer game of the season with a pair of two-run blasts, including one on what could be his final at-bat as an Oriole.

“That’s a little too apropos, the last one”, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. He’s really established himself here in Baltimore. “It’s never goodbye, it’s see you later”. New York is the first team in major league history to have seven pitchers get at least 100 strikeouts in one season.

Astros and Rangers scores on the out-of-town scoreboard to learn their wild-card fate.

Home-field advantage is nice, but it hardly guarantees anything for the Yankees, who are 15-19 at the Stadium since the beginning of August. In the sixth, Ackley singled and was knocked in by a Didi Gregorius triple.