NEW YORK _ Orioles manager Brandon Hyde had visions of his team being aggressive on the bases, not because of the roster of runners assembled but because that might be the easiest way for his team to consistently score without the power of years past.
That philosophy began to manifest itself in a unique way _ with an extra base taken by plodding catcher Jesus Sucre _ in the sixth inning that put the Orioles ahead for the first time this season. That propelled them to a tense 5-3 win over the New York Yankees before 42,203 fans at Yankee Stadium.
"As you see, we're not hitting a ton of homers, so it's going to be what we do on the bases," Hyde said. "We have to really run the bases well, and I think Sucre surprised everybody with tagging up there. That just shows if you put pressure on defense and make them make plays, that good things happen. It worked out for us."
Sucre singled up the middle in the sixth inning for just the second hit of the day against Yankees starter James Paxton (0-1), and was standing on second base after rookie shortstop Richie Martin looped his first career hit over first base to put two on with nobody out.
That's when the Orioles started running.
Jonathan Villar skied the next pitch to shallow center field. And Sucre _ clocked by MLB's Statcast data as the fifth-slowest runner in baseball last season _ challenged Brett Gardner and beat the throw to third by a step to get himself an extra base.
"I know Gardner, I know he's got a really good arm, but when I saw him coming back, I thought I had a chance over there," Sucre said.
"I saw him go back to tag, and I wasn't sure what he was going to do, to be honest with you," Hyde said. "But it was a great baseball play."
Sucre scored on a single through the right side by left fielder Dwight Smith Jr., which would have been nearly impossible from second with Aaron Judge's cannon of an arm in right field, and cleared the bases for the Orioles to keep running.
Martin and Smith executed a double steal, where Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez threw the ball into center field, and Martin scored easily for a 2-1 Orioles lead.
An inning later, Rio Ruiz doubled down the left-field line and scored on a line-drive single to the wall by Sucre to give the Orioles (1-1) a 3-1 lead.
In the home halves, four of the best arms on the Orioles' roster _ Nate Karns, Jimmy Yacabonis, Miguel Castro and Mychal Givens _ made the use of the "opener" strategy look good, even if it took until Givens' arrival for someone to make it look easy.
Karns got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first inning without allowing a run and passed it off to Yacabonis after a second scoreless inning. Yacabonis (1-0) allowed a run on three hits in three innings before Castro's two scoreless innings. And Givens was electric in striking out three Yankees in the eighth.
Richard Bleier allowed a home run to Troy Tulowitzki to jump-start a tense ninth inning, one that saw him charged with two runs before Mike Wright picked up his first career save with a pair of strikeouts.
