BALTIMORE — The way things have gone for Greg Bird this year, from the bum foot to the rough start, he was taking no chances. He wasn’t exactly Carlton Fisk with his body English, trying to bend the baseball to his will and away from foul territory. But he sure was leaning.
“Didn’t want it to take a right-hand turn at the end,” Bird said, laughing.
It was the top of the third inning, the Yankees already up 1-0, two outs, a 2-2 count, the bases loaded. In the perfect pinstriped blueprint for this season, there were a couple of guys they would have requested to be standing in the batter’s box, waiting for Dylan Bundy’s next offering.