And for seven innings, it looked like the Orioles could pull it off. They scored five runs off Yankees’ starter David Cone in six innings, and Orioles’ starter Doug Johns held the Yankees to a run in five innings.

By the time the bottom of the eighth inning started, the Orioles were holding on to a 5-3 lead. Orioles reliever Sidney Ponson, who replaced Johns in the sixth and who gave up two runs in the bottom of the seventh, got Scott Brosius to fly out to right on a 2-1 pitch for the first out. He then walked Jorge Posada who was pinch-hitting for Joe Girardi and Chuck Knoblauch to put runners on first and second. Orioles manager Ray Miller summoned right-hander Alan Mills from the bullpen to replace Ponson and pitch to Derek Jeter. Mills got Jeter to fly out to shallow right on the first pitch. With two on and two out, Miller once again strode out to the pitcher’s mound to take the ball from Mills, and lefty Norm Charlton came into the game to face Paul O’Neill. O’Neill hit a 1-0 pitch into the hole between shortstop and third base which scored Posada to make the score 5-4. Knoblauch advanced to third. Miller, who would have been in deep trouble if the mound visit limit was in effect in 1998, called upon righty Armando Benitez to end the inning. Instead, Benitez surrendered a three-run home run to Bernie Williams which gave the Yankees a 7-5 lead.

While the stadium was still rocking and the fans were still celebrating, Tino Martinez stepped into the box to face Benitez and was immediately greeted with a fastball to the back, right between the 2 and the 4. Benitez had a history with the Yankees already. More specifically, he had plunked Martinez once before, so when it happened again, the Yankees were not going to brush it off. Home plate umpire Drew Coble threw Benitez out of the game and then Benitez did the tough guy thing, he motioned for the Yankees to come and get him, and well, they did, and all hell broke loose.

Some highlights from the video include: (0:34) the Yankees bullpen; specifically, Graeme Lloyd goes after Benitez, (1:56) Jeff Nelson tries to get at Benitez and at (2:03) Darryl Strawberry disappears from the shot, but you see him as he’s about to nail Benitez (The replay is at 6:01). At (3:05) Joe Torre is trying to calm down Strawberry. Strawberry ended up being punched by Alan Mills.

It was ugly all around, and it didn’t have to happen. Benitez didn’t need to hit Martinez in the back. It wasn’t Tino Martinez’s fault that your team used up its bullpen in a single inning and lost the lead. But the umpires were also at fault because they didn’t warn the benches after Benitez’s obvious message to the Yankees.

After the umps restored order, nearly 10 minutes later, reliever Bobby Munoz was on the mound for the Os and Tim Raines was at the plate for the Yankees. Munoz threw his first pitch and Raines deposited it into the right-field seats to give the Yankees a 9-5 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.

Two days later, American League President Gene Budig handed out suspensions to five players; three Yankees and two Orioles. Darryl Strawberry (3 games), Graeme Lloyd (3 games), and Alan Mills (3 games) and Jeff Nelson (2 games). Armando Benitez received the largest suspension: eight games.

Gene Budig released a statement explaining his decision and said this about Benitez hitting Martinez: “The severity of the discipline reflects the gravity of the offenses. Mr. Benitez not only intentionally threw at Martinez, but the location of the pitch was extremely dangerous and could have seriously injured the player.”

He added: “This was a highly unfortunate and highly dangerous on-field situation. The events demand swift and stern action. A player’s safety is of utmost importance.”

Martinez didn’t break anything; he just had a large welt in the middle of his back for a while. As for the Yankees and Orioles, you know how 1998 ended up; the Yankees barely lost any games and won their 24th championship while the Orioles finished fourth in the American League East division with a 79-83 record.

The following is not an attempt to divine which AL East teams will be playing baseball in the middle of October. It is instead an attempt to divine how the other four teams stack up against the Yankees. This may in fact be a more pointless venture than the aforementioned kind of content. The Yankees will only play a relative handful of games with each of these teams, and as we all know, 19 or so games isn’t enough of a sample to draw conclusions.

That’s why fun was invented. Fun is good!

Baltimore Orioles

So, the Orioles spent enough money this offseason to buy a small island. They walked away from free agency with three new players, and netted Mark Trumbo in a trade. Most of that money went towards retaining Chris Davis, Darren O’Day, and Matt Wieters (when he accepted his qualifying offer). Baltimore failed to upgrade its starting rotation, making a lateral-at-best move by replacing Wei-Yin Chen with Yovani Gallardo, and are relying on Davis, Trumbo and Pedro Alvarez not striking out so much that a rip in spacetime appears in the middle of Camden Yards. There’s also the matter of Trumbo playing a full season’s worth of defense in right field.

That all being said, Baltimore has put together one of the best bullpens in the game. The duo of Zach Britton and O’Day is an excellent one to build around, and then Mychal Givens, Brad Brach and Dylan Bundy himself will round out the relief corps. And, not for nothing, Adam Jones and Manny Machado still exist.

For all intents and purposes, this is nearly the same team that Baltimore trotted out last year, but it’s a much more Orioles-y team. The rotation is probably worse, there are = going to be even more strikeouts and dingers, and the relievers are good. So look forward to Miguel Gonzalez’s yearly outing against  the Yankees where he looks like Dizzy Dean.

Random player that will give the Yankees fits: Pedro Alvarez

I mean, it’s obvious, right? Alvarez is a huge and hefty slugger with a proclivity to strike out at any given moment. This naturally means that he’s going to deposit a baseball in the short porch at Yankee Stadium every single chance he gets. Fear him.

Boston Red Sox

David Price is staying in the AL East. He’s being joined by Craig Kimbrel and Carson Smith. The Red Sox looked at their pitching staff, decided that it simply wouldn’t do, and made an effort to fix it. The rotation behind Price is still one huge shrug emoji (Clay Buchholz? Rick Porcello? Joe Kelly?) and Eduardo Rodriguez just landed on the DL. But the Sox should score enough runs and have a good enough bullpen to counteract that with enough regularity to get by.

You see, Mookie Betts is still a thing, as is Xander Boegarts, and Dustin Pedroia. Oh, and it seems that whole “Hanley Ramirez at first base” experiment is going well. Hanley still hit fairly well last year, and now that a lot of the negative defensive value is going away, he’ll be much more useful. David Ortiz fueled by a farewell tour should be a sight to behold, too.

Add that to a store-brand version of the Yankees’ late inning bullpen house of horrors, and it’s easy to see why so many are picking Boston to win the East. With both teams having restocked and rearmed, 2016 is going to provide some vintage rivalry games.

Random player that will give the Yankees fits: Steven Wright

It was very tempting to pick old friend Chris Young here. All Young does is smash lefties and, well, CC Sabathia is going to pitch against the Red Sox at multiple points during the year. However it’s Wright that will be the monster under the bed. Knuckleballs are always a dicey proposition for the Yankees, and Wright made them look utterly foolish last year. He’s probably going to see more playing time this year.

Tampa Bay Rays

Jake McGee was transfigured into Corey Dickerson in one of this offseason’s more amusing trades. Dickerson is a young power-hitting outfielder and that’s exactly the kind of player that Tampa needed to add. They also added perennial “no seriously this is the year he breaks out!” shortstop Brad Miller, as well as Logan Morrison, who fulfills their requirement of constantly having an underwhelming 1B/DH-type slugger on the roster.

The Rays will once again feature one of the best rotations in the American League. Chris Archer’s hair alone could probably notch 100 strikeouts, but thankfully, he also has an arm. So do Jake Odorizzi, Drew Smyly, and the suddenly good Erasmo Ramirez. It remains to be seen if Matt Moore really does still have an arm, and the existence of Alex Cobb’s arm is unclear at this moment. However, a prospect by the name of Blake Snell could debut this year, and boy does he ever have an arm. Snell is the third best left-handed pitching prospect in the game. The only reason he isn’t the best is because Steven Matz just barely missed the rookie status cutoff and Julio Urias is probably a robot sent back in time from the future and is under the impression that every batter’s name is John Connor.

Basically, the Rays are once again going to depend on run prevention more than they will on run scoring. It should be noted that their offense probably got better, though, so this could be a sleeper team to keep an eye on. If things break the right way, the Rays could be a whole lot of fun. Their entire pitching staff having potent strikeout stuff is basically the best way to turn the Yankees into a shambling mess, and they defend well enough to gobble up a good portion of what gets put into play. Kevin Keirmaier is probably standing behind you at this very moment, waiting to catch a baseball.

Random player that will give the Yankees fits: James Loney

There was literally no other player under consideration for this honor. Loney has a long and illustrious history of turning into Ted Williams when he plays the Yankees. He’s so offensively impotent that many are shocked that he made it through the offseason without being demoted or cut, and that may very well happen at some point this year. Until then, Loney will make the Yankees cry. He has a career .339/.386/.465 line against them. This isn’t Adrian Beltre or Miguel Cabrera or something. It’s James Loney. 

Toronto Blue Jays

Can we talk about home runs? Do we even need to talk about home runs? Because the Blue Jays like to hit home runs. A lot of home runs. All of the home runs.

Consider that this lineup includes Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Troy Tulowitzki, and Josh Donaldson, the reigning MVP. It also includes Russell Martin, Michael Saunders, and depending on what day it is, either Chris Collabello or Justin Smoak. The city of Toronto may as well cut ties with most of its electrical service providers and use the Jays as a power source. Oh, and there’s Kevin Pillar playing insane defense in center field.

So why aren’t the Jays the runaway favorites for the division? It’s because of their rotation. David Price is no longer here, and what’s left is the awesomeness of Marcus Stroman and the hope that Marco Estrada is actually a good pitcher. R.A. Dickey will provide some innings, but things are much murkier after that. In addition to gambling on Estrada, the Jays are gambling on the leaps and bounds that J.A. Happ made in Pittsburgh can be continued outside of the watchful gaze of Ray Searage. Rogers Centre isn’t exactly the most ideal place to find out.

The Jays are going to be an experiment in seeing just how much pitching is needed to support a god-tier offense. It obviously worked out quite well for them last year, but they also had Price. Only time will tell. In the meanwhile, look forward to the bleachers at Yankee Stadium being under constant mortar attack.

Random player that will give the Yankees fits: Darwin Barney

Barney is probably going to platoon with Ryan Goins at second base until Devon Travis gets healthy. He’s an all-glove, no-hit kind of guy. Because he can’t hurt the Yankees that often with his bat, odds are he’ll make more than a few insane plays that will scuttle entire games for New York. Or he’ll come up with a really clutch hit. Somehow, some way. Barney just feels like the guy. There are also way too many good players on this roster to easily find a “random” player.

Lead photo: Kim Klement/USA Today Sports

Hahahahaha who’s that knucklehead? What a ridiculous, ill-informed thing to do, resting the weight of your prediction on a team’s bullpen, full of guys who are literally there because they are inconsistent, so much it’s accepted that you just don’t sign bullpen guys to long-term deals so you can build a team around them, because then you end up with a Ryan Madson or Jonathan Papelbon or whatever. Look at Fernando Rodney! In 2012, he had one of the greatest seasons in the history of pitching, and now his ERA is over 15, just because.

Oh. Uh, whoops. Last night’s 7-5 Yankees loss to the Orioles was the fault of relievers David Carpenter, Justin Wilson and Chris Martin. Their collective five-run meltdown in the sixth inning was a sharp heel turn for a staff that had ranked third in bullpen ERA before Wednesday.

Bullpen meltdowns happen. But the prospect and occurrence of them is particularly concerning for the Yankees, because their starting pitching hasn’t shown the skill or longevity that led PECOTA to project it for the top cumulative WARP in the A.L. East. The Yankees, before Wednesday, had received 36.1 innings from their bullpen, which was the most of any team in the majors. Then they got three tonight, so that ranking probably won’t drop significantly.

This was a particularly bad meltdown, of five runs in an inning, blowing a lead and ultimately leading to the team’s loss. What is the precedent for this happening to teams like the Yankees, who, if they are to make the playoffs, will have to outshoot their projections on the strength of their position, particularly the bullpen? (Because from the looks of it now, the offense sure isn’t going to pull the weight.)

The 2014 Royals are the ideal for this model for success. So, I did my own little Play Index segment (minus the Play Index, which was of no use to me for my specific query) and looked for games in which their bullpen, whether it be the fault of an individual pitcher of a combined effort, gave up more than five runs in an inning.

I found three instances: Aaron Brooks gave up six runs in the ninth against the Tigers on May 3; the Royals were already losing that game. Donnie Joseph and Michael Mariot gave up six runs in the ninth on June 16; the Royals were winning 11-2 before that inning, and the pitching debacle didn’t affect the final result. Finally, Bruce Chen gave up six runs against the Twins in the top of the 10th inning on Aug. 28…and I don’t think anything needs to be said there.

That was it. Three instances, and none of them involving guys who were actually a significant part of that bullpen. No Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, Greg Holland, Jason Frasor, Aaron Crow; you know, guys who were actually a significant part of that staff, in the same way Carpenter and Martin are for the Yankees right now.

I’m not saying that the Yankees blowing a game like this is a sign of impending doom. They’ve still got Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances to hold down the back end. Betances threw a scoreless inning tonight, and while his fastball was still in the mid, rather than upper, 90s, and he was missing badly on some pitches, he got strikeouts of Chris Davis (big whoop, I know) and Manny Machado.

But, at this point, things aren’t looking peachy, either.

Photo: Getty