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Cintron's single lifts Orioles over Yankees

May 28, 2008 - 5:08 AM By Sean Burns PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BALTIMORE (Ticker) - By the time Alex Cintron stepped up to the plate as a pinch hitter in the 11th inning Tuesday, the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees already had combined for 18 runs and 30 hits.

One pitch from LaTroy Hawkins and Cintron made it 19 and 31, singling with the bases loaded to deep center to give the Orioles an improbable 10-9 win after waiting through a lengthy rain delay.

"For five hours, I watched one of the best games I've ever seen," Citron said of the back-and-forth action. "When I got up there, my mind was ready to swing. I just saw the ball and I hit it.

"It's unbelievable to play the Yankees and come back like that ... everyone just did a great job."

Things looked all but over for Baltimore after Hideki Matsui singled home Bobby Abreu to give New York a 9-8 lead in the top of the 11th, but Baltimore, which had already rallied twice from four-run deficits, had one more rally in it.

Hawkins (1-1) started the inning in relief of Mariano Rivera, who pitched a scoreless ninth and 10th inning. Melvin Mora, who had set up the Yankees' run in the top of the frame with a pair of errors, led off with a single and scored on a triple to the wall by Aubrey Huff.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi elected to walk Brian Roberts and Kevin Millar to load the bases, but Cintron's shot to center was well over New York's drawn-in outfield for the walk-off win.

"I made terrible pitches," Hawkins said. "I just wasn't getting the ball down. It's tough, because the guys played their butts off tonight and I didn't get the job done."

Cintron's hit made a winner out of Orioles reliever Matt Albers (3-1), who worked two innings and allowed only the one run, nearly escaping a bases-loaded jam with no outs when he got Alex Rodriguez to ground into a home-to-third double play prior to Matsui's hit.

Both teams relied on the long ball early, with the Yankees connecting for four home runs and Baltimore belting five, all of which came before the sixth inning. New York scored all but two of its runs on homers.

The Yankees' Jason Giambi got the long-ball festival started in the second inning with a monster shot to right that cleared the seating areas and landed on the Eutaw Street promenade in right field. The blast was the 21st onto Eutaw street in Camden Yards' history and the second of Giambi's career.

Baltimore got right back into the game moments later, as Huff led off the second with a single and Millar and Ramon Hernandez went back-to-back with home runs of their own.

The blasts, which came on consecutive pitches from Ian Kennedy, marked the first time Baltimore hitters have hit consecutive homers since August 2007.

The Orioles knotted the score at 4-4 that inning when Luke Scott singled, took second on a flyout to center field, advanced on a wild pitch and scored when Brian Roberts just beat out a grounder that Rodriguez booted - one of the Yankees third baseman's two errors in the game.

New York surged ahead again in the fourth, when Derek Jeter singled Johnny Damon home from second followed by Abreu and Rodriguez hitting New York's final two home runs of the game, which chased Orioles starter Brian Burres.

Three more home runs brought it to equal footing in the fifth, as Mora hit a shot with Roberts on base followed by solo shots from Scott and Millar.

"Just a great team effort from the full 25-man roster," Millar said. "Keep rallying like that to come back, it shows that we really care about this ball club. There's no quit. ... We're going to go all the way to September and see what happens."