The New York Yankees fell 5-4 to Baltimore Orioles on Monday night in Game 1 of the three-game series at Yankee Stadium. Freddy Garcia (4-5) struggled in six innings on the mound, giving up three earned runs off nine hits while striking out two.
To add injury to insult, Mark Teixeira left the game in the seventh inning with an apparent left hand injury. The first baseman dove for a ball and got up shaking his hand afterward. He completed the inning but would not return to the game. Eric Chavez moved to first and Jayson Nix slid into third to compensate Teixeira's absence.
The Yankees only lead of the night came in the second inning. Chavez hit a second-inning single off Miguel Gonzalez (3-2) scoring Raul Ibanez. After the fifth inning, the O's had the lead for good, however. Nick Markakis notched the first of two RBIs on the night on a sac fly to put Baltimore up 3-1. He finished 3-for-4 at the plate.
Ibanez hit his 14th home run of the season in the bottom of the inning to bring the Yankees back within one, but Baltimore added two more runs off Boone Logan in the top of the seventh. Chavez and Ichiro Suzuki responded with back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the inning to make the score 5-4, Baltimore. Ichiro has hit in all seven games played so far with the Yankees. The homer was the 100th of his career.
The game ended with Ramiro Pena and Ichiro stranded on third and second base. Russell Martin was struck out swinging.for the third out in the ninth by Jim Johnson, who earned his 31st save of the season.
Game 2 of the series is set for 7:05 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Ivan Nova (10-4, 4.08 ERA) and Baltimore's Chris Tillman (3-1, 1.66) will be the starting pitchers.
For more on the Yankees, please be sure to check out our blog Pinstripe Alley and SB Nation New York for all the latest news and updates.