Darren O'Day on his struggles in the ninth, plus more clubhouse quotes

On a day when Orioles pitchers walked 11 batters, the final three hurt the most. The Yankees took advantage of three Darren O'Day walks in the ninth to score four times, break a 3-3 tie and beat the Orioles 7-3.

It is the Orioles' first loss after a 4-0 start. Now they start a nine-game road trip Tuesday at Boston.

O'Day felt he didn't get some borderline calls in the inning and then didn't adjust to the strike zone of home plate umpire Brian Gorman. The Orioles held a 3-0 lead after five innings and then saw New York pin the loss on O'Day in the ninth.

"Yeah, I threw some good pitches early in the outing," he said. "They were just pitcher's pitches and I couldn't make the adjustment to get back into the zone to get strikes called. So overadjusted on some pitches. If you put three guys on base, bad things are usually going to happen. Just wasn't a good outing. Pretty bad."

O'Day dealt with a severe flu bug that lingered into the first days of the season. But that was not an excuse, he said, as he has thrown enough during the season's first week to be ready today.

"I've had plenty of work. I should be sharp, but I wasn't," said O'Day, who has walked five in two innings over two games.

He tried to find a strike, but could not, walking three of the first four batters in the ninth. All three scored.

"Yeah, it's tough," he said. "You hit a spot many times. Well, not many times, a few times, and if he doesn't call it, he doesn't call it. I can't persuade him to call strikes. They were borderline pitches. If he wants to call them balls, he can. So I have to make the adjustment but not overadjust like I did and throw quality pitches. Doing it for long enough, I should be able to do it. Just couldn't do it today."

Wade Miley had his own issue with walks. He pitched five scoreless innings and gave up just one single. But he walked seven. That is three more than in any outing last year and it tied his career high, which he had done twice before. But the Yankees went 0-for-4 against him with runners in scoring position and Miley left with a 3-0 lead.

"Lucky. Houdini, I don't know," he said of his tightrope act. "It was pretty weird. Two or three hitters in a row, just had zero command of the fastball. Then, for whatever reason, be able to just lock it in and make some pitches when I needed to. Definitely a weird outing. Fastball command was all over the place. Breaking ball, I never really threw it for strikes, so wasn't getting any swings on that. Just kind of living fastball, moving it back and forth.

"I think I've done that one other time in my career with Arizona, when you are not really sure where it's going. Then get in a big situation and need to make a pitch and (get the command) right back where it needs to be. It was definitely off and I need to make some adjustments. Probably not to going to be very successful living on the edge like that through a full season."

Miley said it was tough to see the Orioles bullpen break down after starting the year with 17 1/3 scoreless innings.

"I take some responsibility for that," he said. "My job is to give them a break and get deep in the game, and I wasn't able to do that. Those guys will be fine. O'Day got squeezed pretty good there in that ninth inning.

"I looked up in the third and saw 70 pitches and I was like, 'Man.' Our bullpen wasn't overused, but they did some throwing the last four games. I was happy to keep them scoreless through five."

This was the second time in his career Miley walked seven, yield did not allow a run. He did that on April 27, 2013. The last O's pitcher to walk seven was Daniel Cabrera on April 28, 2008 at the Chicago White Sox.

The Orioles ended the season's first homestand going 4-1. Mark Trumbo said he'll take it. Now they head on the road for a trip that includes games in Boston, Toronto and Cincinnati.

"I think we've played great and a lot of the credit does go the bullpen," Trumbo said. "There are no slouches in this division. We're going to have to bring it each and every day. Got two of our big rivals coming up and we're ready to go."