Orioles Draw Even With Yanks; Cards Draw Even with Nats

Jim Johnson rebounded from an awful ninth inning in Game One of the ALDS to strike Alex Rodriguez out in the ninth to end Game Two and even the series between the New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles  at 1-1. In Game One, The O’s brought Johnson, their closer, in a tie game in the ninth. He gave up a home run to Russell Martin to make it a 3-2 game and then the wheels fell off as New York struck four more times to win 7-2.

In Game Two he came in with a one-run lead, which closers prefer because it’s a save opportunity, and he shut the door. ”I think that’s been big for us all year, the fact that we’ve been able to put our losses and obviously our low points behind us, really learn from them and bounce back,” said right fielder Chris Davis, who had two RBIs.

The O’s were 79-140 in the last 14 losing seasons against New York. This year they are 10-10.

”They have a good team,” Yankees captain Derek Jeter said.

”It seemed like Baltimore and us have kind of gone back and forth all year and that’s what we did here,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.

The series will resume on Wednesday in New York where it will remain until its conclusion.

In the NLDS, The St. Louis Cardinals also evened their series with the Washington Nationals with a blowout 12-4 win in St. Louis.  The Cards rebounded from a 3-2 loss in Game One by pounding Nats pitching for four homers, two by Carlos Beltran to send the series to Washington 1-1. Allen Craig and Daniel Descalso also homered for St. Louis. ”If we get things going, we feel like we can carry the team,” Craig said. ”As you saw tonight, we put a lot of good swings on the ball and really drove the ball. It was a lot of fun.”

The Cards chased Nats starter Jordan Zimmerman in the third inning of Game Two. It was Zimmerman’s shortest outing this season.  ”You’ve got to be confident,” third baseman David Freese said. ”We’re one of the few teams left. They still think they can take the series, and so do we.”