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BALTIMORE -- A beautiful day for baseball ended ugly -- at least the first half of it -- for the Yankees when a first-pitch, bases-loaded double by pinch-hitter Jimmy Paredes off Adam Warren in the 11th inning gave the Orioles a 2-1 walk-off victory in a game the Yankees seemed to have won moments earlier in equally dramatic fashion. But Warren, who walked two batters and hit another to load the bases, couldn't nail down the victory. Once again, the Yankees wasted some outstanding pitching. Once again, their offense came up essentially non-existent, and to make things worse, both set-up man Dellin Betances and closer David Robertson worked more than an inning, leaving the availability of both for the nightcap very much in doubt.   Yankees get young: Chris Young, that is. For the second straight game, the outfielder who couldn't hit enough to stay a Met has hit plenty as a Yankee. His 11th-inning solo home run off Orioles reliever Brad Brach gave the Yankees the lead, and what looked like a badly-needed 1-0 victory to keep their improbable playoff dreams alive. After hitting just .205 with eight home runs and 28 RBIs in 88 games for the Mets, Young is now 8-for-17 with three home runs and three doubles in seven games as a Yankee.
Close call: The Yankees narrowly escaped defeat in the ninth inning when the Orioles loaded the bases, all on walks (one by Betances, two by Robertson) before Robertson, on his 21st pitch of the inning and ninth of the at-bat, caught Jonathan Schoop looking at a fastball at the knees. Two pitches earlier, John Ryan Murphy, getting a rare start behind the plate, saved Robertson and the Yankees by making a diving block on a curveball in the dirt that could have scored the game-winner from third. Big Mac: Brandon McCarthy turned in one of his best performances as a Yankee, working into the eighth inning and holding the powerful Orioles scoreless on four hits, three of them singles, until Kelly Johnson led off the eighth with a ground-rule double, prompting Girardi to go to his pen. McCarthy struck out the side in the fourth and had retired 13 in a row before Johnson's hit. And for his efforts, McCarthy came away with a no decision. Speed zone: In one of the key moments of the game, Dellin Betances changed speeds so radically on Adam Jones -- going from 99 mph on a 1-1 pitch to 83 mph on a 1-2 curve -- that he made the Orioles' best all-around hitter look foolish, striking out to leave the bases loaded in the eighth. But that wasn't the only reason the Yankees escaped unscathed after Johnson's leadoff double chased McCarthy, followed by a throwing error by Mark Teixeira on a sac bunt that gave the O's runners at the corners with none out. After Betances struck out Jonathan Schoop, Nick Markakis' grounder to Stephen Drew with the infield in resulted in Johnson being caught off third when Drew fired alertly to Martin Prado. Betances then walked the bases loaded before fanning Jones to end the inning. Young and unstoppable: Chris Young, the hero of Thursday night's game, doubled in the sixth inning, his fifth extra-base hit in three games with the Yankees. By contrast, Mark Teixeira has five extra-base hits in the past 3 1/2 weeks (since August 19), according to our old buddy Katie Sharp. Missed opportunities: The theme of this season reared its ugly head twice in the first six innings. The Yankees got runners to first and second with two out in the fifth but got nothing when Jacoby Ellsbury lined out to right, and loaded the bases in the sixth on a single by Prado, Young's double and a walk to Stephen Drew. John Ryan Murphy made a bid for a grand slam, but his high fly to left was caught by Alejandro De Aza in foul territory just in front of the left-field fence. Caught napping: Given a rare opportunity to start, call-up Antoan Richardson responded with two hits. But he also got himself picked off first to end the seventh inning, the second time in his brief (four games) Yankees tenure he has committed a base-running gaffe; on Sept. 4, he neglected to peek at the ball while running on the pitch and was easily doubled up when Ichiro Suzuki lined out to right. Tomorrow: Game 3 of this four-game series matches Shane Greene (4-3, 3.57) and RHP Miguel Gonzalez (9-7, 3.22), first pitch at 1:05 p.m.
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