Rivera, Yankees Waste Duncan’s Big Home Run

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Miguel Tejada hit a tiebreaking double off Mariano Rivera in the 10th inning and Aubrey Huff added a two-run homer to lead the Baltimore Orioles past the Yankees 6–3 yesterday.

Shelley Duncan’s three-run homer with two outs in the ninth sent the game to extra innings, but the Orioles bounced back quickly against Rivera (3–4), who blew a save in New York’s 7–6 win in the series opener Monday night.

Nick Markakis and Tejada doubled with nobody out, putting the Orioles up 4–3. Rivera got Kevin Millar to ground out, but Huff drove a 1–2 pitch into the bleachers in right-center for his second homer in two games. Huff hit a grand slam and finished with five RBIs in Baltimore’s 12–0 victory Tuesday night.

Alex Rodriguez went 4-for-4 for the Yankees, who remained five games behind first-place Boston in the AL East.

New York was in danger of being shut out in consecutive games at home for the first time since 2000 when Duncan golfed a 1–0 pitch from Jamie Walker to left for his sixth homer of the season, tying it at 3. The rookie pumped his fist as he rounded first and the Yankee Stadium crowd roared.

Duncan, who hit five homers in his first six games in the Bronx, obliged the crowd with a curtain call after exchanging a couple of his customary forearm bashes with teammates in the dugout.

Baltimore’s bullpen meltdown left Erik Bedard with a no-decision. Bedard struck out eight and allowed four hits in seven shutout innings. He is 8–0 in his last 12 starts and hasn’t lost since June 10 against Colorado.

Bedard ran his big league-best strikeout total to 207, becoming the first Orioles pitcher to reach 200 in a season since Mike Mussina fanned 210 in 2000 — his last season in Baltimore before joining the Yankees.

The Orioles won their second consecutive series against an AL East power. They took two of three from Boston last weekend. Jim Hoey followed Bedard with a scoreless eighth. Danys Baez entered in the ninth and allowed singles to Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui before striking out Jorge Posada.

Walker relieved and got pinchhitter Bobby Abreu to ground out before Duncan went deep.

Chad Bradford (2–5) worked a perfect 10th for the win.

Phil Hughes allowed six hits and three runs, two earned, in five innings for New York. He struck out four and walked two in his first career start against the Orioles.

Rodriguez had two hits and a walk against Bedard, and was the only Yankees batter to reach third against the left-hander. He is batting .417 (10-for-24) with two homers and six RBIs against Bedard.

A-Rod led off the fourth with New York’s first hit, swiped second and went to third on Posada’s grounder. But Bedard got Andy Phillips to bounce out to second to end the inning.

Rodriguez hit a two-out single in the sixth and reached third when left fielder Tike Redman lost Matsui’s fly ball in the sun. Bedard responded by striking out Posada to end the inning.

Markakis hit an RBI single in the third, and the Orioles pushed across two more runs on one play in the fourth to extend their lead to 3–0.


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use