Yankees win a wild one in Baltimore

BALTIMORE -- To say that Freddy Garcia was wild Tuesday night doesn't begin to tell the story.

That would also be the case if one used improbable to describe the Yankees' 5-4, 12-inning victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards.

Despite shoddy work by Garcia, a 2-for-18 performance with runners in scoring and leaving 12 men on base, the Yankees still managed to bring their record to 2-3 with a chance, as CC Sabathia takes the mound tonight, to be .500 heading into their home opener Friday against the Angels.

Raul Ibañez, inserted as a pinch hitter in the eight, collected his second hit of the night to drive in Robinson Cano with the go-ahead run, doubling with two outs in the 12th. Cano had three hits, including a double to lead off the 12th.

The Yankees received outstanding relief pitching, getting 2 1/3 scoreless innings from David Phelps and Corey Wade. David Robertson, Boone Logan and Clay Rapada also held the Orioles in check.

The bullpen's final line: 7 1/3 innings, no runs, two hits, 12 strikeouts and two walks.

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"Our bullpen was tremendous tonight," said Joe Girardi, who called the wild game "just a strange day. A strange day."

Garcia, who pitched well pretty much all spring, was dreadful in his first regular-season start of the season, throwing five wild pitches in 4 2/3 innings.

"I don't remember ever doing that. I don't remember ever having that many,," the 35-year-old Garcia said. "I was all over the place."

Garcia, in tying the record for fourth-most wild pitches thrown in a game, failed to make it out of the fifth inning, allowing four runs -- three earned -- four hits and three walks. He also hit a batter.

The last pitcher to have five get away was Ken Howell of the Phillies, doing so April 5, 1989 against the Cubs. Playing his second big-league game that day for the Cubs and starting at catcher: Joe Girardi.

The Phillies and Howell actually won that day, 12-4, beating Greg Maddux.

Garcia, who had four wild pitches all of last season, wasn't quite that fortunate, though he did avoid taking the loss as his offense finally managed to rally against the Orioles' Wei-Yin Chen, a 26-year-old lefthander from Taiwan making his major-league debut.

The Yankees' bats were held mostly in check by Chen -- the exception being Derek Jeter's home run to lead off the first -- until the sixth.

The Yankees trailed 4-1 heading into the sixth but scored three times to tie it, getting a sacrifice fly from Andruw Jones and an RBI single from Brett Gardner, who got the start against a lefthander for the first time in 2012 and delivered two hits. The Yankees also scored on an error by third baseman Mark Reynolds.

They nearly went ahead in the seventh when Matt Lindstrom hit Nick Swisher on his left toe to start the inning. Cano followed by slicing a double down the leftfield line, but a stellar relay throw by shortstop J.J. Hardy clipped a diving Swisher just before his hand touched the plate. Lindstrom then struck out Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira to end the inning.

Jeter led off by driving Chen's 3-and-1 pitch over the wall in center for a 1-0 lead.

It marked Jeter's 25th career leadoff homer, sending him past Rickey Henderson for most in franchise history.

Garcia turned a 1-0 lead into a 2-1 deficit after one inning as he gave up a solo homer to Hardy and two wild pitches led to the other run in the first. In the fifth, he allowed a run, threw another wild pitch and hit a batter before being lifted by Girardi.