Pitching continues to hold strong, but O's remain winless against Yankees

There was plenty of frustration for the Orioles last night in New York. They lost another game to the Yankees. They lost another close game to the Yankees. They are winless this year against the Yankees at 0-4. The last three losses have been by one, two and one run. The frustration for the offense started in the first inning last night, when two balls were hard hit but outs. That trend would continue at times during the night. Chris Davis' long sac fly in the second scored a run, but didn't miss being a three-run homer by much. Nolan Reimold hit a couple of balls hard, including a deep drive to left in the sixth that was foul, and his 14-game batting streak ended. Nick Markakis tried to score from third base in the seventh on a ball that bounced away from catcher Russell Martin, but not far enough away to allow for him to score the tying run. Just before that, Davis struck out with runners on second and third and one out. Jason Hammel pitched well enough to win on most nights, but this time he suffered his first loss as an Oriole. Last year, the Orioles played New York 18 times and half of those games were decided by two runs or less. The Orioles went 4-5 in those contests proving they can at least occasionally win a close one against this team. This year, it seems like the Orioles are right there every game with the Yankees, but just can't get the win. Maybe the Yankees, after so much winning against this team, do have some sort of psychological edge in these games. Then it is also possible I am just overanalyzing one baseball game. The best news out of Monday's game was that the Orioles pitched well again. Orioles starters now have an ERA of 1.94 over their last eight games and the bullpen ERA is 0.68 over the last 14 games. O's pitchers have given up two runs or fewer in seven of the last eight games. That is one impressive run by the pitching. We'll see if Brian Matusz can continue the run tonight and if the Orioles will break through with their first win in 2012 against New York.