Tillman stifles Yankees as they drop series finale by 4-1 score

After the Yankees won three straight against the Baltimore Orioles they set their sights on a four-game sweep at home to move up in the American League East standings.  The Yankees sent C.C. Sabathia to face the now 14-2 Chris Tillman of the Baltimore Orioles. Sabathia finished the afternoon of 6 ⅔ innings allowing seven hits, and four earned runs while allowing one walk and striking out two. Tillman shut down the Yankees across seven innings allowing four hits, one run, two walks and seven strikeouts en route to a 4-1 Orioles win.

Photo Credit: Kathy Willens | AP

The Orioles challenged Sabathia early on in the first inning with a single by J.J. Hardy scoring both Jonathan Schoop and Manny Machado to give the O’s a 2-0 lead. The Yankees then answered in the bottom of the second with a single of their own off the bat of Starlin Castro. The single by the hot hitting Castro made it a 2-1 game scoring Didi Gregorius. Sabathia settled down and pushed through innings three, four, five, and six.

Sabathia and Tillman both continued to battle, but C.C. drew blood once again when he served up a solid double to right field off the bat of the second basemen Jonathan Schoop in inning number seven.  

The double by Schoop drove in two runs once again by the likes of Joseph and Borbon.  Chad Green entered the game from the bullpen with two outs in the seventh inning with a strikeout to end the inning. Green finished with 2 1/3 innings pitched while allowing zero runs on two hits with one strikeout.

The Yankees hitting woes continued, except for Castro and Gregorious, after a successful first three games against Baltimore.  The Yankees will definitely take three out of four from Baltimore, but the team cannot afford to lose big games against divisional foes if they want a shot at the wild card. The Yankees still have an opportunity to continue a home stand above .500 as they start a three game series against the San Francisco Giants on Friday. The matchup should be exciting with a battle of the aces as the Yankees Masahiro Tanaka faces Madison Bumgarner for a 7:05 PM ET start at Yankee Stadium.

Winning pitcher: Chris Tillman (14-2, 3.18 ERA): 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 7 K

Losing pitcher: CC Sabathia (5-8, 4.04 ERA): 6.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 2 K
Save: Zach Britton (30)

Notables:

Didi Gregorius: 1-3, 1 R

Starlin Castro: 1-3, 1 RBI

Jonathan Schoop:  2-5, 2B, 2 RBI

J.J. Hardy:  2-4. 2 RBI

Article by: Michael Mosier

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