NEW YORK _Seven games into this young but already unsettling Orioles season, the breakout inning at the plate finally came on a night when it seemed like it never would.
Beginning with a bloop single by second baseman Jonathan Schoop, continuing with a line-drive home run to left-center field by center fielder Adam Jones, and punctuated by a two-run single by freshly christened leadoff man Trey Mancini, the Orioles' five-run seventh inning provided enough offense for a 5-2 win Thursday night against the Yankees, and a dash of hope for the team's bats long term.
Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka had used just 71 pitches to set the Orioles down with seven strikeouts and just three hits through six innings before Schoop fouled off four straight pitches and flared the eighth pitch of the seventh inning's first at-bat into center field. Jones followed him two pitches later with his club-high third home run of the season, and the Orioles were off to the races.
First baseman Chris Davis grounded into the shift for the inning's first out, but third baseman Tim Beckham started the engine again by singling through the vacated right side of the infield to chase Tanaka. Against reliever Chad Green, Beckham went first-to-third on a single to right field through the shift by designated hitter Colby Rasmus, and scored when right fielder Anthony Santander doubled into the right-center gap.
Mancini, who ended the day with three singles out of the leadoff spot to more than double his season total of hits, singled through the right side to score both Rasmus and Santander and make it five runs.
That kind of inning has eluded the Orioles throughout this long season. They'd scored just 14 runs all season, and never more than two in an inning, which they accomplished three times. All eight others came in one-run drips, and up until Thursday's seventh, 51 of their 62 innings were fruitless.
It might have been dumb luck, with the batted ball gods finally catching up to an Orioles team that. It could have been a smarter approach, taking what Tanaka and Green were giving them. But whatever ended up aligning in the Orioles' seventh Thursday, it was enough to hand a comfortable lead over to a bullpen that had its three top relievers _ Mychal Givens, Darren O'Day, and Brad Brach _ all rested.
After Givens relieved Andrew Cashner following six innings of one-run, two-hit ball, he allowed a run on two hits and a walk while retiring two batters. O'Day finished off the seventh and loaded the bases on a walk and two hit batters in the eighth before getting out unscathed.
