BALTIMORE -- The New York Yankees earned the AL East title by pulling away from the Baltimore Orioles in the final week of the regular season. That scenario repeated itself in the first game of their AL playoff series, and now the Orioles are again forced to play catch up against their division rivals. Russell Martin led off the ninth inning with a tiebreaking home run off Jim Johnson, CC Sabathia turned in a sparkling pitching performance and the Yankees gained the upper hand with a 7-2 victory Sunday night. For eight innings, the teams engaged in a tense duel that could have gone either way. Then came the ninth inning, when the Yankees scored five runs off Johnson, Baltimores All-Star closer, to ruin the Orioles first home playoff game since 1997. "You always want to take the first one, but you go game by game," said New Yorks Robinson Cano, who contributed a two-run double in the ninth. "Enjoy this game and just go home get some sleep and be ready for (Game 2 on Monday)." The Yankees have been to the playoffs in 17 of the last 18 years. This is Baltimores first trip in 15 years, following 14 successive losing seasons. "We stayed in as long as we could," Orioles right fielder Chris Davis said. "Were finding out what playoff baseball is all about." Sabathia allowed two runs and eight hits, coming within an out of his first career complete game in the post-season. He was 0-2 in three starts against Baltimore during the regular season, but in this one the husky left-hander returned to form and improved his lifetime record against the Orioles to 17-4. "Fastball command was good, worked off that," Sabathia said. "Throwing the ball pretty good, getting the corners. Tried to stay out there and make some pitches." Sabathia is 6-1 with the Yankees in the post-season, 4-0 in the division series. With the score 2-all, Martin drove a 2-0 pitch from Johnson into the left-field seats. It was the first of four straight hits off Johnson, who led the majors with 51 saves. Raul Ibanez and Derek Jeter followed with singles, Ichiro Suzuki drove in a run with a swinging bunt and one out later, Cano hit a two-run double. In his seven prior appearances against New York, Johnson allowed one run in seven innings and had three saves. Nick Swisher capped the five-run ninth with a sacrifice fly off Tommy Hunter. "I made mistakes," Johnson said. "I obviously paid for those, and that was location. It wasnt anything else. Two fastballs that really cost us. Just have to make a better pitch. Thats all it comes down to." The Orioles were left disappointed, but manager Buck Showalter was confident his team would be in bounce-back mode Monday. "This is a very realistic club that lives in reality, but they also understand the sense of urgency," he said. "You can sit here and say you got beat by a quality pitcher, but thats why teams like that are playing this time of year. We have good, quality pitchers, too. I dont have any doubt what type of mentality our guys will have as we go forward in this series." The start of the game was delayed by rain for 2 hours, 26 minutes, and that did nothing to lessen the enthusiasm of the 47,841 fans who waited so long for the Orioles to play a post-season game at Camden Yards. "Were obviously disappointed we couldnt give them a win, but at least were playing a five-game series instead of a shootout," Davis said. Orioles starter Jason Hammel allowed two runs, four hits and four walks in 5 2-3 innings. The right-hander underwent knee surgery in July and returned to pitch two games in September before his right knee began to bother him again. After working his way back into form, Hammel donned a knee brace and gave Baltimore a solid 112-pitch outing in his first start in nearly a month. New York missed an excellent chance to take the lead in the seventh. After Troy Patton walked Martin and Ibanez, Darren ODay entered and Jeter dropped down a perfect two-strike sacrifice bunt. With the infield drawn in, Suzuki hit a sharp grounder to second baseman Robert Andino, who threw home. Matt Wieters grabbed the ball on the short hop and tagged out Martin. ODay then struck out Alex Rodriguez. Neither team got a runner in scoring position again until J.J. Hardy started the Baltimore eighth with a double. He did not advance. "Being able to get out of that with a tie and give us a chance to get up and score some runs, which we did, was just a big spot," Sabathia said. Immediately after Orioles fans cheered and waved their orange towels following a first-pitch strike by Hammel to open the game, the Yankees went to work. Jeter hit a leadoff single and Suzuki followed with an RBI double into the gap in left-centre. But Suzuki was thrown out trying to steal third, and Hammel settled down by striking out Rodriguez and retiring Cano on a broken-bat fly to right. Sabathia retired the first six batters he faced without allowing a ball out of the infield, then ran into trouble in the third inning. Davis led off with a single, Lew Ford singled and both runners moved up on a bunt before Nate McLouth bounced a two-run single into right field for a 2-1 lead. New York promptly tied it in the fourth, but another potential big inning was short-circuited when a runner was thrown out on the base paths. After Hammel walked two of the first three batters, Mark Teixeira ripped a liner off the right-field scoreboard. The hit brought home a run, but Teixeira -- who only recently returned from a strained left calf -- was thrown out at second by Davis. That left Swisher at third base with two outs, and after an intentional walk to Curtis Granderson, Martin hit a fly to centre. Singles by Davis and Andino put runners at the corners with one out in the fifth before McLouth looked at a third strike and Hardy grounded out. NOTES: Andy Pettitte will bring 42 games of playoff experience into Game 2 as the starting pitcher for the Yankees. Orioles rookie Wei-Yin Chen will be making his post-season debut. ... Wieters went 0 for 4 against Sabathia and now is 5 for 28 (.179) lifetime against him. ... In 16 career division series openers, Jeter is batting .448 (26 for 58) and reached base in 15 games. ... Suzuki has at least one hit in 10 of his 11 career post-season games and has reached base in all of them. Hes also hit in 20 straight games at Camden Yards, a streak that began in 2008. Cheap Jerseys NFL . Terms of the deal were not immediately available, but Gelabale was expected to join the injury-filled Wolves on Friday after Lazar Haywards 10-day contract expires. NFL Jerseys China . With a breathtaking closing rush, the smooth-striding colt won the Preakness Stakes by a neck at Pimlico Race Course on a sunny Saturday, a nail-biter of a finish that topped his win two weeks ago in the Kentucky Derby. http://www.nfljerseysch... . -- The New England Patriots have placed the franchise tag on Wes Welker, the receiver who caught more passes than anyone else in the NFL last season but couldnt come down with one that might have clinched a Super Bowl victory. [url=http://www.nfljerseyschinawholesalecheaponsale.com/]nfljerseyschinawholesal... . Oakland staved off elimination on Tuesday and won its seventh straight home game, as Coco Crisp stole a home run from Prince Fielder and scored a run in the As 2-0 victory. Leading off the second inning, Fielder belted a shot into right-center field. [url=http://www.nfljerseyschinawholesalecheaponsale.com/]Cheap Jerseys China . Four days after Texas was eliminated by Baltimore in the AL wild-card playoff, Washington said Tuesday he thinks his team would still be playing if it had been fresher.Each week, the NHL on TSN panel voices its opinions on the hot topics of the day in the Hockey Quiz. As a follow-up, TSN.ca offers you the opportunity to chime in on all the big issues with our insiders. Read up on all the questions and answers, and put in your own two cents on our popular Your Call feature. Nine different teams have won the Stanley Cup in the past nine years. Which of the following is most likely to make it 10 in 10: Flyers, Rangers, Blues or Canucks? Ray Ferraro: Im going to take the Rangers because if there was one weakness that they had last year is that they didnt score goals very easily. Theyve got one of the best goaltenders in the league, a young defense, and up front they added Rick Nash. Aaron Ward: Im going with the Canucks for the fact that Im sticking with the trend of teams least likely to make it. Bob McKenzie: Ill say Rangers are the most likely candidate. You want a team to defend - the Rangers can do that. You want a team thats got ace goaltending - Rangers have that. And you want a team that has a knockout punch offensively. They didnt have that last year but getting Rick Nash helps in that regard. Which of the three highest profile UFAs will most likely be traded this season: Jarome Iginla, Ryan Getzlaf or Corey Perry? McKenzie: Ill say Corey Perry. I think hes going to fetch a big price on the open market and I dont know if the Ducks can afford to pay both him and Getzlaf. Ward: Getzlaf, because I cant see Iginla getting traded from Calgary.dddddddddddd Plus, as Bob said, the Ducks cant afford both Getzlaf and Perry. Ferraro: Im going to go with the Ducks guys as well and say Perry. Perry, I believe, would bring a higher price than Getzlaf and if you have to choose, keep the centreman and move the winger. Pro or con on Avs Gabriel Landeskog becoming a captain at just 20 years of age? Ward: I say pro. They did it with Steve Yzerman in Detroit in the early 80s; why not now? McKenzie: Im going to say con. I love Landeskog as a hockey player but I just dont like, in principle, putting that much on the shoulders of a 20 year old. Ferraro: Im going to say pro because of the youth of the team. I was told that he has the presents in the room of Jerome Iginla and you see what he does on the ice. If the 2013 Draft were held today, who would you pick No. 1 overall, Seth Jones or Nathan MacKinnon? Ferraro: Jones. I watched him at the World Junior tournament for seven games and this is Chris Pronger without the edge. He gets around the ice and has the reach of a pterodactyl and the guy can play all day. McKenzie: Ill say MacKinnon. Dont be seduced by everything that happened at the World Junior Championship where Jones was so good and MacKinnon wasnt because he didnt play that much. MacKinnon is still a dynamic offensive player thats tenacious. Ward: Jones for the same reason I couldnt stay in the NHL - he has a big body and he has skill. ' ' '