BALTIMORE — The first of 17 games was against the defending AL East champions.
On Monday night, in the first showdown between division rivals and the American League’s top two offensive teams, the Orioles nudged the Yankees 2-0 in front of a lively crowd of 23,184 at Camden Yards. I overtook him.
Clark Schmidt and Grayson Rodriguez had a pitching battle, but the only blemish was Gunnar Henderson’s leadoff home run in the bottom of the first inning.
The Orioles (18-10) added another run in the bottom of the eighth, scoring on a grounder from third base by Anthony Volpe with two outs.
But that ultimately didn’t matter, as the Yankees (19-11), who scored 30 points in games against the Brewers from Saturday through Sunday, suffered their fifth shutout loss of the season.
“Obviously it’s a tough loss, but we’re in a good position heading into the series,” Schmidt said. “We’re fine. Thankfully, we have four games left.”
The Yankees had 10 runners on base, but all of them were stranded, and they went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Rodriguez pitched 5/3 innings, then the Orioles’ three relief pitchers handled the rest.
“There were nights we had to close down due to heavy traffic, but we just couldn’t make a big hit,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously, they kept us in the ballpark. We’ve got to keep giving ourselves opportunities like that and believe we can break through. … One night we had a good at-bat. I felt frustrated that I couldn’t break through.”
The Yankees tied the game in the ninth inning when Gleyber Torres led off with a single.
Oswaldo Cabrera then hit a deep fly ball to left-center field, but the ball missed the wall, which was pushed back 26 1/2 feet by 2022, just to the left of where the fence juts out again.
“[If] It was just a few feet to the right, maybe closer to center field, so it was a different ball game,” said Aaron Judge, who twice flew to the right field cordon. “But he took a good swing at it. That’s all you can do in that situation. The players had good swings all night, nothing fell off. We’ll fix it tomorrow. ”
In place of Craig Kimbrel, who missed a chance to make consecutive saves, left-handed relief pitcher Danny Coulon retired the two following Yankees and ended the game.
Schmidt pitched powerfully for five innings, stopping one of the most dangerous attacks in the majors.
The only damage was done to the first batter he faced when Henderson smashed a low, inside curveball for his league-leading 10th home run and quickly took a 1-0 lead.
Schmidt said of the breaking ball in his third at-bat, “I caught it well, but it wasn’t enough.” “I think that’s his biggest draw. Yeah, credit to him, he’s a really, really good hitter.”
After the next two batters also made heavy contact, Schmidt (who was hit with a line drive to the ribs in the fourth inning but said he was fine) calmly cruised through the fifth inning, with his first two walks and a runner on base. became. 1 out, 2nd and 3rd base.
But he got out of that predicament by directing two pop-ups.
The Yankees had one of their best chances to score in the third inning when Volpe walked and Juan Soto hit an extra-base hit into the high wall in right field, putting the runners on the corners with one out.
But Judge chased a 3-on-2 changeup down the zone, and Anthony Rizzo ended the threat with a grounder to third base.
“Sometimes you have to tip your hat,” the judge said. “They were making pitches, but the guys were putting the ball in play. All you have to do in that situation is keep guys on base and drive in pitches when you get them. A few guys hit the ball hard and it didn’t fall, but it’s not our night, but we gotta go. [Tuesday] And do our thing. ”
