Josh Donaldson's two-run shot the big blow as Yankees beat Orioles

BALTIMORE — After taking as ugly a loss Friday night as they are likely to take all year, the Yankees rebounded Saturday night.

And though the 5-2 victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards didn’t come close to shoving the hitting with runners in scoring position scourge behind them, the big hits that had been missing did arrive. None was bigger than Josh Donaldson’s two-run homer — his first homer as a Yankee — in a four-run fifth inning that overcame a 2-0 deficit.

Those kind of hits, a solid start from Jameson Taillon and more terrific work by the bullpen gave the Yankees a 5-4 start.

The Yankees trailed 2-0 with one out in the fifth, but after a 49-minute rain delay, they erupted for four runs.

Aaron Hicks walked with one out against righty Mike Baumann and, as Aaron Judge stepped in, rain and hail arrived and crew chief Tom Hallion quickly called for the tarp.

After the delay, righty Travis Lakins Sr. got ahead of Judge 0-and-2 before walking him. Anthony Rizzo smashed a 1-and-2 curveball for a single to rightfield to make it 2-1 and Giancarlo Stanton drove an RBI double to left-center to tie it. Rizzo tried to score from first and was called safe, but the call was overturned via challenge. Donaldson, who had grounded out to leave the bases loaded in the third, then crushed a 1-and-0 cutter to right-center for a 4-2 lead.

Did the rain delay help the Yankees? “Maybe,’’ Donaldson said. “I can’t really call it, but maybe it, I’m just speaking for myself, kind of gave us like a breath of ‘all right, let’s get this back under control.’ We believe in this lineup. We believe we have the ability to score a lot of runs really quick. As we did tonight.”

The Yankees made it 5-2 in the sixth as Jose Trevino, who had doubled with one out, scored on a two-out wild pitch by lefty Paul Fry. JP Sears, Michael King and Clay Holmes then combined for four scoreless innings.

“Got a good group out there,’’ Trevino said of the bullpen. “A lot of guys can make a lot of pitches when they need to. It’s pretty impressive.”

King came up as a starter and still desires to be one, but he likes his role. “I love the adrenaline. I love the pressure situations,’’ he said. “As much as every inning’s a pressure situation in the first, second, third . . . it doesn’t seem as amplified.”

After going 11-for-61 with runners in scoring position in their first eight games, the Yankees were 3-for-15 and left 11 runners on base but outhit the Orioles 11-7, with Hicks, Donaldson, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Trevino (who continues to make a bid for more playing time at catcher) picking up two hits each. Hicks, batting leadoff for the first time this season, reached base four times.

“Even when we hadn’t scored before the rain delay, it was like, ‘Man, these are the at-bats you want to have,’ ’’ Aaron Boone said. “I just felt from jump street it was much better than last night, and then we’re finally able to break through there. I thought a lot of guys had a lot of really good at-bats tonight.”

For the second straight night, the Yankees put the first two batters on base and came up empty.

Hicks reached on an infield single and Judge lined a single to center, but Hicks — thinking he had Tyler Wells timed up — got picked off by Wells while taking off for third (it went as a caught stealing). Rizzo moved Judge to third with a groundout but Stanton flied to right for the third out.

The Orioles took a 2-0 lead in the third. Austin Hays led off with a single and, with two outs, Cedric Mullins hammered Taillon’s 3-and-0 fastball 433 feet over the rightfield wall.

Trevino blamed himself for that. “We just should have taken our chance with the next guy,’’ he said. “Mullins is a good hitter, and I didn’t make it clear enough on what I wanted with Jameson [with the location]. That’s on me.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.