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Abreu, Yanks take advantage of bullpen, top Orioles

Aug 23, 2008 - 3:58 AM By Rich Dubroff PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BALTIMORE (Ticker) -- Bobby Abreu had a wonderful day. It began when he arranged for the Venezuelan National Little League team to see its first major league ballgame. It ended with a five-hit game.

Abreu tied a career high with five hits and the New York Yankees took advantage of some poor bullpen work to earn a 9-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday.

The Yankees trailed 4-3 heading into the eighth inning but scored two runs, on a wild pitch by rookie Kam Mickolio - which scored Abreu with the tying run - and an RBI single by Xavier Nady, to take the lead.

Abreu, who is a native of Venezuela, treated the team, which is in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, for the Little League World Series, to a night at the ballpark. He paid for transportation, tickets and snacks - and the players were his good luck charm.

"I'll bring them tomorrow," Abreu said. "They enjoyed it - and we win."

"We were struggling to score runs," Abreu said. "Every inning we had runners on base. We had opportunities to score runs. They made mistakes and we took advantage of the mistakes they made."

They added four runs in the ninth on their second set of back-to-back home runs in the game - a three-run shot by Cody Ransom and a solo blast by Nady, his eighth since joining New York on July 26. Ransom, whose contract was purchased by the Yankees a week ago, is 2-for-2 with two home runs for New York.

"The score doesn't indicate how tough a game it was," New York manager Joe Girardi said. "I think our guys have been determined all year long. Sometimes, things don't go the way you want."

Jose Veras (4-2), who pitched a perfect seventh in relief of Mike Mussina, got the win. Damaso Marte contributed two-thirds scoreless innings and Mariano Rivera retired the final four batters for his 29th save in 30 chances.

"We needed this game," Yankees captain Derek Jeter said.

Jeter collected his 2,500th hit in the first inning - becoming the third player in franchise history to reach the milestone.

"It means nothing unless we come out and play well again tomorrow," Jeter said. "We need wins whether it's the beginning, middle or the end of the series."

Jamie Walker (1-1) began the eighth and allowed a leadoff single to Abreu and a double to Alex Rodriguez before retiring Jason Giambi on a popout and yielding to Mickolio.

"It got a little ugly there," Walker said. "You've got to go out there and forget about tonight and be ready to play tomorrow."

Abreu drew praise from the opposing manager.

"I thought the key to the whole game was that we didn't get Abreu out at all, and he won't chase bad pitches," Baltimore manager Dave Trembley said.

The Orioles took a 2-1 lead in the third on consecutive singles by Nick Markakis, Melvin Mora and Aubrey Huff. Ramon Hernandez's 14th home run pushed the Orioles' lead to 3-1 in the fourth.

New York tied the score at 3-3 in the fifth on back-to-back home runs by Robinson Cano - his 11th - and Jose Molina - his second.

Baltimore took a 4-3 lead in the sixth. With one out, Kevin Millar hit a ground-rule double to right field and moved to third on a single by Luke Scott before scoring on Hernandez's sacrifice fly.