The Yankees are making Hammel work, taking their walks, and that patience paid off when Mark Teixeira drilled a liner off the right-field wall for the tying run. Yankees baserunning errors have mitigated some of their key hits, but you get the sense that they could drive a truck through one of these openings at any moment.

Against a normal regular-season opponent, getting into the bullpen this early would be a good thing, but the Orioles are strong there and getting Hammel out of the game might actually work in their favor.

Teixeira's coming alive in this series would be a terrific omen for the rest of October. Meanwhile, I'm wondering why Alex Rodriguez is in the field, Raul Ibanez is at designated hitter, and Eric Chavez is on the bench.