Catchers play big roles for Yankees, Orioles in Game 1

• Yankees catcher Russell Martin hit the go-ahead home run in the ninth
• Orioles catcher Matt Wieters prevented a run in the seventh by tagging Martin out at the plate
• Yankees starter CC Sabathia said Martin called a great game and made some huge plays

BALTIMORE — After a pitchers' duel, the best way to get some insight is to talk to the catchers. So, after what turned out to be a catchers' duel in Game 1 of the AL Division Series between the Yankees and the Orioles, where else to start?

"He was huge," Yankees starting and winning pitcher CC Sabathia said of battery mate Russell Martin.

Oh, and Martin also hit the tie-breaking home run in the ninth inning of the Yankees' 7-2 victory.

Sabathia, you see, was raving about Martin's work behind the plate as he and Orioles catcher Matt Wieters took turns keeping their teams in the tight game.

"That play he made on Lou Ford's ball was unbelievable," Sabathia said of Martin gobbling up a slow roller up the first-base line in the fifth inning and narrowly getting Ford at first base. "Russ caught a great game, came up with a big hit and made some huge plays, so it was awesome."

With a single before Ford's roller and a single after — not to mention a couple of pitches in the dirt that Martin blocked in the inning — well, it could have been the inning that broke open the game.

There were several of those innings and Wieters also had a direct hand in taking the game to ninth inning deadlocked 2-2.

The Baltimore catcher wiped out the Yankees' attempt to take quick control of the series in the first inning then saved the Orioles in the seventh with a defensive play that might have one-upped Martin's burst from behind the plate.

The veteran-laden Yankees came out looking for opportunities to put pressure on an Orioles team with little playoff experience. After Derek Jeter led off the game with a slow bouncer into center field, he was running on a 3-2 pitch to Ichiro Suzuki, who lined a double into the left-center field gap that easily drove in Jeter. But Suzuki tried to steal third on the first pitch to Alex Rodriguez and Wieters easily threw him out.

So much for grabbing momentum.

Suzuki was up again in the seventh with the game tied and runners on second and third with one out. The infield was in and Suzuki hit the ball right at second baseman Robert Andino. His throw was low but Wieters made a one-handed, short-hop grab just in time to sweep a tag on Martin.

"You know how difficult it is," said Orioles manager Buck Showalter, "But with a catcher's mitt, too, that's some kind of play, especially in that situation."

Alex Rodriguez then struck out to end the inning.

The first sign the game might be tilting Martin and the Yankees' way came in the bottom of the eighth. Sabathia, who had stymied the Orioles but for Nate McLouth's two-run single in the third, allowed a leadoff double to J.J. Hardy.

Surely, sensed the raucous Camden Yards crowd, this was about to be just another day at the office for the Orioles team that set a major league record going 29-9 in one-run games this season.

Sabathia struck out Adam Jones on what Martin called "his best slider of the game."

Wieters was next — all lined up to cap off the hero role.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi went to the mound and asked Sabathia if he wanted to intentionally walk Wieters.

"I felt like (on-deck batter Mark) Reynolds had been having some good at-bats," Sabathia said. "So, I just wanted to pitch to Wieters."

He jammed Wieters and got a broken-bat pop foul to first baseman Mark Teixeira, then retired Reynolds on a ground out.

The attention in the ballpark was still on that turn of events as Martin came to the plate to leadoff the next inning.

Orioles closer Jim Johnson, who had a club-record 51 saves this year, was entering the game and Martin hadn't exactly been an offensive force. He'd left three runners on base, including men on first and third after the Yankees had tied the game in the fourth.

"I definitely wasn't thinking home run," Martin said. "He's a guy that doesn't necessarily make any mistakes over the plate and he just left a fastball up. I put good wood on it."

The Orioles had talked about waiting for just that kind of pitch from Sabathia.

It was Wieters, in fact, who said Saturday, "When he gets a pitch over the middle of the plate, like every pitcher's going to do, you've got to hit it. No pitcher is going to go out there and throw 125 perfect pitches."

But the Yankees ace came close enough — 120 pitches, 80 strikes and nothing but singles until Hardy's double in the eighth.

Wieters said Sabathia indeed wasn't perfect, but plenty good enough.

"He was able to locate his fastball to both sides of the plate and mix in his offspeed," Wieters said. "He made some mistakes tonight, but we just couldn't get the big hit to drive a run in to get a lead. We just missed some pitches that we needed to get hits on."

The Yankees know there's a fine line in challenging the Orioles.

"They're an aggressive swinging team," Martin said of his role in calling the game that shut down the team that finished second to the Yankees in home runs this season. "CC had a really good changeup today and we used that quite a bit. Then you mix the fastball in and out, you get hitters in between. It seemed like hitters were uncomfortable tonight."

Nobody was comfortable, even on the Yankees side, until Martin added to a season that started poorly offensively, but has included three game-winning homers in the ninth inning or later.

"He has really turned it around," Girardi said of his catcher, who hit .176 in last year's playoffs. "He was huge in the month of September for us. Huge hit tonight. He's got a lot of power. And he's capable of doing it."