St. Louis rallies in ninth inning; Yankees beat Orioles
More magic by Cardinals
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| New York Yankees' Derek Jeter scores on an RBI double by Ichiro Suziki during the sixth inning in Game 5 of the American League division baseball series against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday in New York. Orioles' catcher is Matt Wieters and home plate umpire Mike Everitt watch. (Peter Morgan) |
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Doesn't matter how bad things look for the St. Louis Cardinals. Trailing by a bunch, down to their last strike, they simply stay calm and do what it takes to win.
Erasing an early six-run hole in Game 5 slowly but surely, the defending World Series champion Cardinals got a tying two-out, two-run single from Daniel Descalso and a go-ahead two-run single from Pete Kozma in the ninth inning and came all the way back to beat the Washington Nationals 9-7 Friday night and win their NL division series.
It was the largest comeback ever in a winner-take-all postseason game. No other club in this sort of ultimate pressure situation had come back from more than four down.
Yankees 3, Orioles 1: CC Sabathia and his teammates saw Nate McLouth's long drive called foul by the slimmest of margins and then hung on to beat Baltimore 3-1 Friday in the deciding Game 5 of the AL division series in New York.
With Alex Rodriguez benched, the Yankees advanced to the AL championship series against the Detroit Tigers, starting Saturday night in the Bronx.
Sabathia pitched a four-hitter, wriggling out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning. It was his first career postseason complete game, and the first for the Yankees since Roger Clemens did it in 2000.
Baltimore again was stung on a close play in right, echoing what happened across the street at the old Yankee Stadium in the 1996 AL championship opener.
This time, with the Orioles trailing 1-0 in the sixth, McLouth sent a 3-1 pitch deep down the right-field line. Eyes turned to right field umpire Fieldin Culbreth, who demonstrably waved foul with both arms.
