Mark Teixeira's Stolen Base Helps Lift Yankees Over Orioles in A.L.D.S. Early in this American League division series, Mark Teixeira noticed that Orioles first baseman Chris Davis would not hold him on the bag when he reached first. He considered stealing but never felt spry enough to try. The left calf strain that had cost him nearly all of September kept holding him back. Mark Teixeira, with two stolen bases all season, stole second in the fifth and scored on a hit by Raul Ibanez for a 1-0 Yankees" lead. In the fifth inning of Friday's game, though, Teixeira could not let the opportunity pass. After a leadoff single, he stole second, putting a Yankee into scoring position for the first time all evening. Six pitches later, Raul Ibanez singled up the middle to score Teixeira and give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. "I was either going to be a hero or a goat there," Teixeira said. But I felt like we needed a spark. It was only the Yankees" second stolen base of the series, and it could hardly have come from a more unlikely source. Teixeira, still feeling the effects of a Grade 1 calf strain, had swiped just two bases all season, none since July 6 against Boston. For his career, Teixeira has only 21 stolen bases, and Friday gave him his first postseason steal of his career. As a team, Baltimore allowed only 63 stolen bases all season, fewest in the American League. Their catcher, Matt Wieters, was fourth in the majors, throwing out 38.6 percent of potential base stealers. Jason Hammel had allowed only six stolen bases when he was pitching this season. So Orioles Manager Buck Showalter elected again to hold Teixeira on the bag. Before the game, Teixeira said he talked with the coaches about the possibility of trying to steal. He seized the chance to take a sizable lead, ran on a second-pitch curveball and easily beat an accurate throw from Wieters. "You talk about trusting your players and their instincts," Manager Joe Girardi said. He trusted them, and he was right. The play jolted a little bit of life into a pensive Yankee Stadium crowd. Teixeira had just picked up the team's first hit of the game, but managing to get him around to score was a different issue. The Yankees came into the game hitting 6 for 28 with runners in scoring position for the series. Ibanez worked the count full and, on the eighth pitch, grounded a 3-2 slider from Hammel up the middle. Teixeira raced around to score, giving the Yankees the first run of the game. Ibanez said the goal of his at-bat changed with Teixeira in scoring position with no outs. "Any means necessary try to get him to third base," Ibanez said. If the ball goes through, that's even better. But once you get to two strikes, you're really just battling, trying to stay in the middle of the field and get the guy over. Until a few weeks ago, it was not clear how well Teixeira could even jog. He missed 30 games after straining his left calf on Aug. 27, and aggravating it Sept. 8, against the Orioles before returning on Oct. 1, against the Red Sox. When he came back, he admitted the leg was not 100 percent, but he said he would play through any soreness.