Child’s Play : NEW YORK 5, BALTIMORE 4 (11)

Tony Tarasco settled under the fly ball and was ready to close his glove around it.

And then, presto, it vanished!

“To me,” Tarasco said, “it was like a magic trick because the ball just disappeared out of thin air.”

So did the Baltimore’s lead, and the Orioles went on to lose to the New York Yankees, 5-4, Wednesday in Game 1 of the American League championship series.

The Orioles’ latest beef with the umpires was started by a 12-year-old, and this one ended the same way--someone got ejected, the Orioles lost the argument and then they lost the game.

Baltimore missed a chance to win when Derek Jeter was given credit for an eighth-inning home run that almost certainly would have been caught by Tarasco in right field.

Instead, the ball was caught by Jeffrey Maier of Old Tappan, N.J. Umpire Rich Garcia called the fly ball a homer, tying the score at 4-4.

“I was getting ready to come down with it and throw it to the infield,” Tarasco said. “The kid was clearly sitting on the fence. He clearly reached not just out, but down over the fence to catch the ball.”

Tarasco argued the call as several Orioles rushed to right field in support. Replays later supported their claim that Maier reached over the wall to grab the ball. Manager Davey Johnson was finally ejected, and the Yankees went on to win in the 11th inning.

The scene was strikingly similar to the events of Sept. 27, when Baltimore’s Roberto Alomar argued a third-strike call by umpire John Hirschbeck. Alomar was ejected and the Orioles lost, 3-2, to the Toronto Blue Jays.

This time, no one spit at the umpire, as Alomar did at the conclusion of his confrontation. But Baltimore missed a chance to win the game and grab the homefield advantage in the best-of-7 series.

It didn’t help that Garcia admitted after watching the replay that he blew the call.

“I probably would have called fan interference,” he said. “I wouldn’t have called the guy out.”

It wasn’t the first time the Orioles claimed they were robbed in Yankee Stadium on a play at the wall. On Aug. 15, 1993, Don Mattingly was credited with an eighth-inning home run when a fan reached over the wall and prevented outfielder Mark McLemore from catching the ball.

New York won, 1-0.

The loss means Baltimore must win Thursday to avoid returning home with a 2-0 deficit. The Orioles have been forced to battle back from many a loss this season--they were 51-52 on July 28--but this loss hurt a lot more than all the rest.

“You have many disappointing losses over the course of the season, this one probably being the most disappointing,” center fielder Brady Anderson said. “But the thing about baseball is you learn to be pretty resilient because you have to keep coming out the next day.”

Anderson and Rafael Palmeiro hit solo homers for Baltimore, but Jeter’s homer was the one that turned the game around.

“I thought Tarasco was going to make the play, but he wasn’t given the opportunity,” Palmeiro said.

Anderson and Palmeiro connected off Andy Pettitte, a 21-game winner and the favorite to capture the AL Cy Young award. That Anderson and Palmeiro homered wasn’t too unusual, except that Pettitte had allowed only one homer to a left-handed batter this season--back on April 14.

Palmeiro, meanwhile, hit only 14 home runs against lefties, but he tagged Pettitte’s first pitch into the right-field seats in the fourth inning to put Baltimore ahead. The lead stood until Jeter’s hit in the eighth.

Palmeiro, who waited his entire career for a chance to participate in the playoffs, went three for three with two walks.

Now it’s up to Wells, the Orioles’ starting pitcher in Game 2, to help Baltimore avoid a 2-0 hole. Wells is 9-1 lifetime at Yankee Stadium.

Baltimore went 3-10 against New York during the regular season and finished second behind the Yankees in the AL East. Before the series, many of the Orioles said they needed to win at least one of the first two games in order to have a shot at advancing to the World Series.

“We’ll be all right. We’ll bounce back and win some games,” Palmeiro said.

Jeter’s homer might not have been so significant if the Orioles played better defense earlier in the game.

New York’s first batter, Tim Raines, reached second base when left fielder B.J. Surhoff lost a fly ball in the sun. Raines eventually scored to make it 1-0.

Baltimore then made four fielding miscues in the second inning, handing the Yankees an unearned run and a 2-1 lead.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Rule 3.16

When there is spectator interference with any thrown or batted ball, the ball shall be dead at the moment of interference and the umpire shall impose such penalties as in his opinion will nullify the act of interference.

If spectator interference clearly prevents a fielder from catching a fly ball, the umpire shall declare the batter out.