Gerrit Cole is on the mound. Baltimore’s offense is relentless. Giancarlo Stanton does damage. Hitters get hit by pitches of questionable intent. There are comebacks, big hits and great plays as the two best teams in the American League battle for supremacy.
If Wednesday’s game was any preview of what the rest of this season and perhaps postseason Yankees-Orioles matchups will be like, it was an entertaining game but also a disappointing one for the home crowd.
The Yankees rallied from a four-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh to send the game into extra innings, but the Orioles gave up two runs in the 10th inning off Clay Holmes, and the Yankees lost, 7-6, in front of a sellout crowd of 47,155 in the Bronx.
The Yankees (51-25) lost just their sixth of their last 20 games and cut their AL East lead to 1 1/2 games heading into the series finale on Thursday.
“That was a big game,” manager Aaron Boone said after the Yankees tied the game with three runs in the seventh and one in the ninth, both by Giancarlo Stanton. “There were a lot of moments in that game where we could have won.”
Although the seventh, eighth and ninth innings were thrilling, including a three-run homer by Stanton and a 120 mph RBI single to give the Yankees life in the ninth, Holmes and Jose Trevino collapsed in the fateful tenth inning.
Holmes, pitching for the second straight night, brought home a ghost runner on a fly single by Cedric Mullins, who advanced to second on a throw by Alex Verdugo and then raced toward third.
Trevino, suddenly having trouble with his pitching arm, slings a ball to left field for the extra run.
“I didn’t get a grip on the ball and I threw it too much,” said Trevino, who has allowed 13 runners to steal bases in his past two games.
That was enough for the Orioles, who ended up beating the Yankees in the bottom of the inning.
After DJ LeMahieu singled, Ben Rice hit a liner to right field that looked like it would have been a hit, but Anthony Santander dived to block it and turn it into a sacrifice fly.
When Trevino came up to bat, Baltimore catcher Adley Rutschman did what Trevino could not and got pinch runner Oswaldo Cabrera out as he attempted to steal second base.
After Trevino walked, Jamai Jones, who was at bat on a night when Aaron Judge was absent, struck out.
“They’re a good team,” said Anthony Volpe, who hit the tying run in the ninth inning. “There’s a reason they won 100 games last year. They won the division last year. We’re trying to take that title away from them.”
In the best possible development for the Yankees, Cole, who had been sidelined all season with nerve inflammation and swelling, returned to the mound and pitched through the fifth inning.
The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner seemed to get better the longer he pitched, giving up three hits and two runs while walking one and striking out five over four-plus innings.
There were even worse developments.
Trevino’s arm appears to be declining, and the team is taking advantage of that.
The bullpen took a hit, with Ron Marinaccio giving up a home run, Victor Gonzalez allowing one run and Holmes being the losing pitcher.
And the Yankees’ attempt at retaliation may have backfired.
The Yankees might have fought back in the seventh inning, a day after Judge was hit in the hand by a fastball and taken out of the lineup.
Gonzalez threw a first pitch fastball that hit Baltimore star Gunnar Henderson in the back of the shoulder, the crowd cheered, and Henderson calmly advanced to first base.
“I was just trying to make a good pitch inside, but the ball just slid off,” Gonzalez said through interpreter Marlon Abreu.
If that pitch was thrown with intent, the Yankees did not intend what happened next.
Henderson stole second base and scored the Orioles’ fifth run of the day on a Ryan Mountcastle double.
That run had big implications as the Yankees’ offense woke up in the bottom of the inning.
Soft singles by Volpe and Juan Soto advanced Stanton to second base, then he smashed a three-run homer off Baltimore fastball pitcher Yenier Cano to bring the Yankees within one run, the result of a potential retaliation.
In the eighth inning, Verdugo made a great catch of a ball that hit the wall in center field to cut the lead to just one run.
Stanton hit a hard ball to left field off Craig Kimbrel in the ninth inning to force the game into the 10th inning.
And the Orioles found a way to win a game that was slipping away.
There may be others similar to this.
“Obviously it was a great game,” Boone said. “A great club.”
