The Yankees dropped the rubber game of their three-game set against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday afternoon with an ugly 17-5 loss, allowing three home runs and making three errors in the field.
Here are the takeaways…
–Luis Gil got the starting nod for New York and made his worst outing of the season, failing to get out of the second inning. It was the shortest start of the right-hander’s career, as he lasted just 1.1 innings and allowed seven earned runs on eight hits, including a home run, a walk and a strikeout. Gil’s ERA rose from 2.03 to 2.77 after the tough performance.
It all started in the first inning after that Juan Soto misjudged a shot to left field off the bat Gunnar Henderson that resulted in a leadoff double. Gil had a chance to pick up his outfielder and get out of the inning unscathed after recording the next two outs, but Ryan O’Hearn hit an RBI single up the middle on a 3-2 pitch that opened the scoring.
The wheels completely fell off in the second as Gil gave up six hits, two walks and hit a batter en route to six runs scored in the inning. The biggest blows happened Carlo Mullins who had a two-point shot that extended Baltimore’s lead to 3-0 and Ryan Mountcastle‘s bases-clearing double that gave the Orioles a 6-0 lead. The final run of the frame came on a hit-by-pitcher with the bases loaded Jordaan Westburg thus ending Gil’s disastrous day.
-With the bases still loaded and only outs, Michael Tonkin was the first reliever called up and managed to get out of trouble with a popout and strikeout. Asked to play multiple innings, Tonkin was back out for the third, but allowed a run thanks to two walks, a ground-rule double and a sacrifice fly.
-The Yankees pulled away in the second inning and got on the board Gleyber Torres‘solo home run. They added two more in the third with another long ball, this time from the strike Aaron Judge who hit his major league-leading 27th home run in his return to the lineup after a one-game absence because he was hit on the hand in the series opener Tuesday night. The injury obviously didn’t affect the lanky outfielder, as he finished the day 2-for-3 with three RBIs, earning another MVP award.
– Down 8-3 in the fifth, reliever Tim Hill, who was signed by New York earlier in the day, entered the match to make his pinstripes debut. Things didn’t go as planned. The start was slow when Henderson led off with his second double of the game. After stealing third base, Henderson was shot at home by Torres at second base on a fielder’s choice. The next batter also reached base on a fielder’s choice after the third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera decided to throw to second base and eliminate the lead runner on a weak ground ball instead of eliminating the sure out at first base. The throw was not good and everyone was safe from the error.
Cabrera made up some ground on the next batter with a nice leaping grab on a liner, which would have been the final out of the inning had he made the right throw to a batter earlier. Instead, after an error on four consecutive throws, Anthony Santander hit a three-run home run to right center field, giving Baltimore an eight-run lead.
-The Yanks, however, kept fighting and got two of those runs back in the bottom half of the inning to cut the deficit to 11-5. But that didn’t matter as the Orioles kept going, scoring one in the sixth, two in the seventh, two in the eighth and one in the ninth. Austin Hays hit Baltimore’s third home run, making the score 14-5. O’Hearn drove in two more with a single in the eighth.
-Meanwhile, New York couldn’t get out of the way, committing three errors on the day: two by Cabrera and one by Torres, who left the game in the sixth with tightness in his groin.
In total, the Yankees allowed 17 runs on 19 hits (10 extra-base hits), seven walks and two HBPs, while the Orioles scored in all but one innings in a very poorly played New York game.
-The team used eight pitchers, the last of which was a catcher Jose Trevino who pitched the ninth inning and allowed one run on three hits and a walk.
-The Yankees are now 2-5 against Baltimore this season, as the two teams are separated by just 0.5 games for first place in the AL East.
Game MVP: Gunnar Henderson
Henderson set the tone atop the Orioles lineup, finishing 3-for-5 with two doubles, a walk and scoring three runs, including the game’s first run in the top of the first inning.
Highlights
What’s next
The Yankees begin a three-game weekend series with the Atlanta Braves at home on Friday evening at 7:05 PM
A few successful lefties take the bump as LHP Carlos Rodon (9-3, 3.28 ERA) plays against LHP Chris Sales (9-2, ERA 2.98).
