Yankees Move Past Orioles to A.L.C.S.

GAME 5: YANKEES 3, ORIOLES 1

It took well over a month of unrelenting high-tension baseball, and five more games into the playoffs, but the Yankees finally disposed of the Baltimore Orioles.

Since Sept. 3 they had been within a game of each other in the standings for all but a handful of days, and they battled evenly right down to the last possible game. But in the end, the Yankees separated themselves with the one thing the Orioles could not match: an undisputed, big-moment, season-saving ace.

On a chilly afternoon that stretched into an even cooler evening, C. C. Sabathia threw a complete game to lead the Yankees to a 3-1 victory over the Orioles in Game 5 of the teams’ American League division series.

“People thought they were going to go away, and they never went away,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said. “I am very proud of our club for staying in it.”

So the Yankees, who struggled so much to score runs in the series that Girardi wound up benching Alex Rodriguez for Game 5, ultimately scored more than enough with Sabathia on the mound. They moved on to their third American League Championship Series in the last four years.

The series starts Saturday night at Yankee Stadium against the Detroit Tigers, the team that beat them in a division series last year.

Sabathia won’t be available to pitch again until Game 4, or perhaps Game 3 on short rest. But the Tigers won’t be able to use Justin Verlander, their ace, in the first two games, either. Verlander pitched a complete-game shutout Thursday in the Tigers’ Game 5 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

Andy Pettitte will face Doug Fister in Game 1, and the Yankees may use David Phelps in Game 2 against Anibal Sanchez. Hiroki Kuroda is likely to start Game 3 against Verlander.

Sabathia pitched well on short rest during the Yankees’ run to the 2009 World Series title, but he threw 120 pitches in Game 1 of the Baltimore series and 121 in Game 5, two of the Yankees’ three wins against the Orioles.

“Remember when everyone was saying there was something wrong with him?” Derek Jeter said, referring to Sabathia’s struggles with injuries and control in the second half of the season. “He came out and did what he does. He battles. He wants to be in these situations, and we couldn’t have asked him to do more.”

Girardi said he needed more time to devise his plan for the next round, which starts without a day off between series under this year’s format. Still, it all had to be especially satisfying for Girardi, who experienced emotional lows and highs throughout the series.

On the trip to Baltimore the day before Game 1, he learned that his father, Jerry, had died from advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Then he made a monumental managerial decision when he pinch-hit Raul Ibanez for Rodriguez in the ninth inning of Game 3, and Ibanez hit a game-tying home run. (Ibanez smacked the game-winning homer three innings later.) On Friday, Girardi decided to bench Rodriguez altogether.

He also let Sabathia pitch eight and two-thirds innings in Game 1, then go the distance in Game 5. But those decisions were not difficult with Sabathia. “It’s what I am here for,” Sabathia said. “It’s what I play the game for. I guess I should feel a little pressure or something, but I don’t.”

The Yankees, who managed only one run in 13 innings in Game 4, scored a run each in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to finally give their starting pitcher a lead to protect. Mark Teixeira singled in the fifth, brazenly stole second and then scored on Ibanez’s base hit.

The Orioles almost got it back in the top of the sixth on Nate McLouth’s deep drive down the right-field line. It appeared that the ball went foul by only a few centimeters, and was ruled that way. The Orioles argued, saying the ball grazed the pole, but after the umpires reviewed it, they upheld their original call.

It was the hardest ball the Orioles hit all game, but for the Yankees it just turned into a long, scary strike. After the delay, McLouth stood back into the box, and Sabathia struck him out with one additional pitch.

The Yankees added a run in the sixth when Jeter walked and scored on Ichiro Suzuki’s double. Curtis Granderson homered into the second deck in right field in the seventh, his first extra-base hit of the series.

It seemed as if that would be more than enough with Sabathia dominating with his slider and displaying impeccable command of his fastball. But the Orioles scored a run in the eighth and then loaded the bases with one out. Suddenly the outcome was in some doubt.

But Sabathia struck out McLouth, then watched as Jeter charged J. J. Hardy’s soft grounder and made a pinpoint throw to Teixeira at first to end the threat, and the inning. Sabathia pumped his fist, and Jeter, without breaking stride, raised his fist as he ran into the dugout.

“I was leading off the next inning,” Jeter said, “so I had to get in there pretty quick.”

The Orioles, one of baseball’s most surprising teams, go home after a valiant season in which they shadowed the Yankees almost game for game and win for win over the final month of the season. But try as they did, they never could pass the Yankees, who won 12 of the 23 games the teams played this season.

Showalter, the former Yankee manager who led Baltimore so deep into the season, said he had more fun with this team than any he had managed, and gave an emotional speech to his players after the game.

“I am not going to go into what I said to them,” he said, “but I am sure they now think it’s a little tougher on me than them.”

But no one was tougher than Sabathia, which was why the Yankees survived and the Orioles didn’t.