Yankees 8, Orioles 4: Gleyber sizzles, Bader bops, Yankees win
The Yankees’ offense sprang to life again this afternoon, once again dinging the Baltimore bullpen for several late runs in a solid 8-4 victory on Independence Day. Clarke Schmidt picked up the win, his fourth of the year and second in a row, while Kyle Gibson was saddled with his sixth loss of the year despite a solid six-inning effort. The victory puts the Yankees back at 10 games over .500 at 48-38, while the O’s slide to 49-35, their fifth loss in six tries.
The action started quickly in this one, and the Yankees didn’t waste time letting Gibson know that this would not be like the last time he came to the Stadium, when he twirled seven shutout innings in a 3-1 Orioles win. After Schmidt set down the Baltimore offense 1-2-3 to open the action, Anthony Rizzo worked a walk against Gibson from the leadoff spot, and Gleyber Torres immediately followed by depositing one 436 feet into the left field seats for a 2-0 lead.
Both pitchers settled in shortly thereafter. Jake Bauers followed up Torres’ blast with a one-out double, but Gibson managed to retire the subsequent eight batters before running into trouble in the fourth inning, while Schmidt was in a groove from the moment he set foot on the mound, allowing just one of the first 13 hitters he saw reach base.
After Schmidt sent Baltimore down in order in the top of that aforementioned fourth inning, the Yankees scratched another run against Gibson, when a leadoff walk of Bauers came across to score after a hit-by-pitch, grounder to move the runners over, and sacrifice fly off the bat of Isiah Kiner-Falefa, his 23rd ribeye of the year:
Unfortunately, Schmidt was unable to continue his brilliance into the middle innings. Early in the game, he was able to move his cutter back and forth from a hitter’s hands to the outside edge in a way he simply hasn’t for most of the season, dotting back- and front-door sinkers to his glove side, and generating whiffs and called strikes with his breaking balls, rarely letting the Orioles get comfortable against one single pitch or location.Alas, it came apart in the fifth inning, when the cutters and breaking balls started hanging — and leaving the yard. Yankees fans weren’t terribly kind to Aaron Hicks in his return to the Bronx yesterday, and today, he repaid the sentiment in kind with a solo jack in the fifth.
The subsequent hitters left little doubt that Schmidt was losing his mojo, as Jordan Westburg immediately followed up with a double, and then, before anyone had a chance to blink, the game was tied at three thanks to Adam Frazier — not the guy you want to let beat you on the power side, typically.
Although it hasn’t often been the case this year, the Yankees offense managed to bail Schmidt out, re-taking the lead in the bottom of the inning when Torres scored all the way from first base on a hit-and-run single by Giancarlo Stanton, courtesy of Cedric Mullins’ loss of awareness.
Though he managed to complete the fifth, it was clear that Schmidt was just about running on empty, and he was removed for Ron Marinaccio in the top of the sixth after allowing a leadoff single to Adley Rutschman. He finished with a line of five innings, three earned runs, and seven strikeouts without a walk. He just barely avoided getting an additional run tacked on when Marinaccio walked Anthony Santander and Hicks to load the bases, but got Westburg to pop out to end the threat.
After that, the Stadium was able to exhale collectively. Wandy Peralta took care of business in Baltimore’s half of the seventh inning, and in the bottom half, the home side began putting things away, starting with an oppo-taco bomb from Jose Trevino to make it a 5-3 lead.
Gibson had finished his day with a respectable six innings and four earned runs, but the combination of Nick Vespi and Bryan Baker was considerably less effective. After Trevino’s homer, Vespi and then Baker loaded the bases with two outs, just in time for Harrison Bader to break things open with a two-run double down the right field line.
The Yankees tacked on another run in their part of the eighth thanks to an IKF double and some shoddy infield defense from Baltimore, and that more or less spelled the end of any sense that the Orioles would threaten in this one.
Tommy Kahnle was entrusted with the eighth inning, where he used a double-play to work around two free passes against the heart of Baltimore’s lineup. Finally, with the game firmly out of save territory, Aaron Boone let Albert Abreu have the ninth inning, where a pair of suspect defensive plays put the first two runners on and in scoring position, but to little effect. One of them came around to score on a weak grounder, and a strikeout and another ground out later, the game was over with an 8-4 final score.
The Yankees return to Amazon Prime for the third part of this four game set tomorrow afternoon, with Dean Kremer starting for the Orioles against a to-be-announced starter for the home side. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM ET.
Box Score
Source: Pinstripe Alley
