Chen's stellar outing sends O's into Game 3 with momentum

• Wei-Yin Chen surrendered just one earned run in his American postseason debut
• Baltimore's bullpen recorded the final eight outs to hold on to the win
• Andy Pettitte made his 43rd career postseason start

BALTIMORE -- Wei-Yin Chen says he's new to this major league playoff experience, but the Orioles rookie outpitched the most experienced starter in postseason history to beat the Andy Pettitte and the Yankees 3-2 in Game 2 and send a tied AL Division Series to New York.

"I'm from Taiwan, I pitched in Japan, and I'm a rookie here," said Chen, 26, who sounded more like he was introducing himself on the first day of spring training than mowing down the AL East champions into the seventh inning.

It was a different Chen the Yankees saw Monday than the one they beat twice in September. This was an industrious version intent on proving he understands the intensity of the major league postseason.

"I feel like it's a little different right now," Chen said through his interpreter. "The experience of pitching in Japan and the States, they are a totally different feeling."

It's not as if Chen is inexperienced. He has 10 postseason starts over the past four years in Japan. But these are the Yankees he's facing, and Monday was the time to put aside any awe about the moment.

"I didn't want to think too much," he said. "I just wanted to face one batter, one batter, another batter. I wanted to go deep. And today I kept the ball down and lowered my pitch count."

His 112 pitches were enough to get into the seventh inning, exactly to the point where Orioles manager Buck Showalter could begin matching his bullpen against the Yankees.

The Orioles led 3-2 after Chen allowed Derek Jeter's RBI single with no outs in the seventh. One more out, Showalter was thinking.

"I wasn't going to let him face (Alex) Rodriguez," Showalter said.

Chen got Ichiro Suzuki to hit into a force out, then gave way to side-winding Darren O'Day, who struck out Rodriguez. Fellow relievers Brian Matusz and Jim Johnson took care of the final seven outs.

Getting the left-handed Suzuki was especially important.

"Everybody was talking like I didn't pitch good against lefties," Chen said. "Tonight, I felt like I pitched good against lefties and righties, too."

Yankees manager Joe Girardi was more impressed with Chen's pitches to the Yankees' right-handers, who were 5-for-17 against the lefty.

"I thought he pitched pretty effectively to some of our right-handers," Girardi said. "His fastball, it seems to get on hitters quicker than what the speed indicates."

Now the Orioles are back on the Yankees, even with them like they were nine times atop the AL East standings in September, even with them like they've been over 20 meetings since April. It's a position Chen admits he wasn't expecting when he signed as a free agent last winter.

"I never thought of pitching a postseason, and this is really a big dream for me," Chen said.

Another postseason is why Pettitte is out of retirement and back with the Yankees, starting a postseason game Monday for a major league-record 43rd time.

But it was Chen who got through his toughest spot, nursing a 2-1 lead in the fourth with the bases loaded and one out. He got Eduardo Nunez to pop up and Jeter to ground out.

The Yankees didn't get another hit until the seventh. By then, the bullpen was ready to maintain the Orioles' season-long streak of winning every game (75 now) they've led after seven innings.

Pettitte, meanwhile, didn't seem to be in a jam when he allowed the two third-inning runs that erased the 1-0 lead the Yankees took in the first inning when Suzuki made a series of acrobatic moves to elude catcher Matt Wieters' multiple tag attempts and score on Robinson Cano's double.

With two outs and nobody on in the third, Robert Andino and Nate McLouth singled for the first two hits of the game against Pettitte, followed by a walk to J.J. Hardy. Chris Davis's single drove in two runs.

The decisive run came in the sixth when Wieters led off with a double to center, his first hit of the series, and scored on Mark Reynolds' single.

The rest of the series will be in New York, where the Orioles can continue their underdog role, a label manager Buck Showalter scoffs at.

"There's no flukes in baseball," Showalter said. "There's no Cinderellas. You play too many games."

The Orioles and Yankees will play at least two more beginning Wednesday.