PALMER LIMITS YANKEES AS ORIOLES WIN FIRST GAME OF PRE-SEASON
Eternal Baseball
BRONX – Orioles starter Jim Palmer stared down the celebrated Yankees lineup and only blinked once.
Baltimore’s ace was superb in his Opening Day start, blanking the Yankees into the seventh inning and pitching the entire game in a 7-4 victory. The Orioles dinged Yankees starter Jack Chesbro with Manny Machado’s second-inning sacrifice fly that scored Eddie Murray. Baltimore increased their lead with a pair of runs in the fifth inning on an RBI single from George Sisler immediately followed by a run-scoring double by Boog Powell.
The Yankees trailed 3-0 when Chesbro took the mound in the sixth inning, but the lead seemed bigger as New York had only two baserunners of their own. Chesbro induced a groundout to third from Chris Hoiles, but walked Manny Machado on four pitches and Yankees skipper Casey Stengel had seen enough. C.C. Sabathia was summoned from the bullpen, and he immediately struck out Brian Roberts. Trouble renewed as Ken Williams earned a walk out of a tough at-bat, then Ken Singleton smashed a double over Mickey Mantle’s head and off the center field wall, scoring Machado and Williams and pushing the Oriole lead to 5-0.
Baltimore’s Cal Ripken Jr. helped the Oriole cause with a line drive 343-foot 2-run homer off C.C. Sabathia, pushing the Baltimore lead to 7-0 in the seventh inning. Palmer’s only rough inning came in the seventh, as he walked the bases loaded with just one out. Tony Lazzeri’s sacrifice fly scored Alex Rodriguez to break up the shutout. With two on and two out, Roger Maris stepped up to the plate, pinch-hitting for Bill Dickey. Palmer hung a curveball on his second pitch, and Maris pounded it into the right field bleachers. Maris’ pinch-hit three-run homer closed the gap to 7-4, but New York would get no closer.
Palmer (1-0) earned the victory and a complete game (9 IP, 4 H, 6 BB, 3 K) while Chesbro (0-1) took the loss (5.1 IP, 9 H, 2 BB, 1K).
Tuesday night brings game two of this pre-season opening series. Baltimore starts right-hander Harry Howell and New York will counter with left-hander Whitey Ford. First pitch from Yankee Stadium is at 7:05 PM EST.
Photo credit: Yankee Stadium by Shinya Suzuki
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