Yankees held to five hits, drop second straight to Orioles at Camden Yards

BALTIMORE – The Yankees avoided being shut out for a second straight night and for the sixth time this season.

That concluded the good news portion of the program Tuesday night for the Bombers.

After consistently misfiring with runners on base in a shutout loss Monday, the Yankees gave themselves few chances in a 4-2 loss to the Orioles in front of an into-it-from-the-start crowd of 21,949 at Camden Yards.

“It’s baseball,” said Juan Soto, who had two of the Yankees' five hits, including one of their two homers (Austin Wells hit the other). “We’re all grinding, we’re all trying to get some runs on the board, but things aren’t going our way. We’re hitting the ball hard, they’re making great plays, they’re diving all over the place.”

The Yankees (19-12), who went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 in a 2-0 loss Monday before going 0-for-1 with RISP and four stranded Tuesday, have dropped the first two games of a four-game set against the defending AL East champion Orioles (19-10).

As Soto alluded, the Orioles, whose years-in-the-making youth movement came to fruition last season in a 101-win season, do not appear to be worse this season.

“We’re putting the ball in play well. We’re having the right at-bats. We’ve gotta break through,” said Aaron Boone, whose team totaled 30 runs and 37 hits their last two games over the weekend in Milwaukee. “Especially when you’re playing a good team, you’ve got to take advantage of some opportunities.”

Soto, who hit his team-leading eighth homer in the sixth, made it 4-2 with the blast, which traveled 447 feet and landed on Eutaw Street, which adjoins the famous warehouse in right (he became the 123rd player in the history of this ballpark, which opened in 1992, to hit one there).

Otherwise, the offensive highlights were few.

Baltimore righthander Dean Kremer, who came in 1-2 with a 4.61 ERA this season and with even more unimpressive numbers in his career against the Yankees (2-3 with a 5.04 ERA in nine starts), kept them in check over seven innings.

Kremer allowed two runs, four hits and four walks, striking out four.

Soto stared down the pitcher after his homer, then glanced at him again rounding first base.

“He didn’t like the shuffle,” Soto said of his routine at the plate, dubbed the Soto Shuffle from the early days of his career that rubs some pitchers the wrong way. “I bet he didn’t like the homer, too.”

Nestor Cortes (1-3) wasn’t bad but was done in by one inning, the fourth, in which he allowed three runs. Cortes allowed four runs, eight hits and two walks over six innings in which he struck out five.

“They’re just very talented,” Cortes said of the Orioles.

The Yankees, who grounded into double plays in each of the first two innings and three overall, gifted the Orioles their first run. Anthony Santander led off with a looper down the rightfield line. Anthony Rizzo ran a long way and, with Soto coming in from his position in right, the first baseman saw the ball glance off his glove for a double. Jordan Westburg hit a ground smash to Gleyber Torres, who tried for the lead runner. But Torres’ throw bounced off Santander’s back and into foul ground, allowing the runner to score for a 1-0 Baltimore lead.

“I have a better shot than him (Rizzo), I just didn’t call it because when I was about to call it, I think I was too far and he probably wouldn’t have heard me,” Soto said of the play in right. “He seemed like he had a good route on it.”

The Yankees tied it at 1-1 in the third on Wells’ first homer of the year, but the athletic Orioles tagged Cortes for three runs in the fourth, getting doubles from Jorge Mateo and James McCann, and Colton Cowser and Gunnar Henderson beating out infield singles. Adley Rutschman blooped an RBI single in front of a diving Soto in right to make it 4-1.

“I think overall we’ve had good at-bats with good plans,” Wells said. “I think they’ve just had a lot of good bounces go their way and we’ve hit hard balls right at guys. It’ll sway.”