Yankees 4, Orioles 3

"Game of the year?"

Yes.

"Should not have come down to that?"

Yes. Had A-Rod whiffed or been called out on that 1-2 pitch, the Yankees would have scored a single run on eight hits, plus Cano's dash to first on a third strike, plus four walks.

Showalter aside, these are the Orioles. I had no idea Kevin Millwood was, as they say, still in the leaque. I had a vague recollection of Millwood as one of the series of pitchers the Atlanta Braves kept hoping would be the fourth piece in the Cy Young/Hall-of-Fame Maddux-Smoltz-Glavine puzzle, the team always one pitcher away from the five World Series rings Ted Turner paid for. (Come on down, Steve Avery, Kent Mercker, Denny Neagle . . .) Then a few years later Millwood suffered the career death of all mediocre pitchers: a multi-year contract with Texas. (Come on down, Chan Ho Park . . . oh, never mind).

The Orioles start two Houston Astro cast-offs. The Orioles are a team who consider Ty Wigginton (batting .252 at first base) an All-Star. The Orioles are a team who used to sell out, in March, a Tuesday-afternoon August 1 pm game versus the Royals, and now have so many available seats for a Friday night Yankee game that, close your eyes and listen to the cheers, it is sometimes impossible to identify the home team, so numerous are the Yankee fans driving and flying and Amtraking south for the weekend.

The Orioles . . . are a team the Yankees should beat.