Yankees Ichiro Eludes Tag At Home Plate

Sometimes, postseason experience isn’t all that important. How else to explain the Baltimore Orioles beating the playoff-tested New York Yankees, and rookie Wei-Yin Chen outpitching 40-year-old Andy Pettitte? With Chen leading the way, the Orioles squeezed out a 3-2 victory Monday night to even their AL Division Series at one game apiece. Chris Davis drove in two runs for the wild-card Orioles, who used the same formula that got them into the postseason for the first time in 15 years: a magnificent bullpen and an ability to win tight games. Baltimore was 29-9 in one-run decisions during the regular season and 74-0 when leading after seven innings.That was some show you put on at Camden Yards the past two nights. I've never seen anything like it. And I've been around sports in this town for a long time. For two wonderful nights in October, you showed the entire country this could still be a great baseball town, no matter how big the Ravens are.Major league saves leader Jim Johnson, roughed up for five runs in a Game 1 loss, came back to pitch a perfect ninth to close it out. The rest of the best-of-five series is at Yankee Stadium, beginning with Game 3 Wednesday. Hiroki Kuroda will start for AL East champion New York against rookie Miguel Gonzalez. ‘‘It means everything,’’ Davis said of the win. ‘‘You definitely don’t want to go into New York in a five-game series down two games. This is big — having the day off tomorrow, hopefully building some momentum, and we can take that into New York.’’ Chen gave up two runs, one earned, and eight hits over 6⅓ innings. The Taiwan native, who pitched previously in Japan, was 1-2 with a 5.25 ERA in four outings against New York this season.