Anthony Santander's home run breaks up scoreless game in ninth, ruins Aaron Judge's return

BALTIMORE — A game that was all about Aaron Judge when it began turned out to be about both clubs’ starting pitchers.

After a thunderstorm delayed the start of the game for 2 hours, 32 minutes, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and Orioles rookie Grayson Rodriguez dueled deep into Friday night at Camden Yards.

Neither pitcher factored in the decision, though. Anthony Santander’s walk-off homer off Tommy Kahnle with one out in the ninth inning gave the AL East-leading Orioles a 1-0 victory and dropped the Yankees further into last place.

Kahnle threw five straight changeups in striking out Adley Rutschman to begin the ninth. He stayed with the pitch three more times against Santander . . . and his eighth straight changeup landed 425 feet away in right-centerfield for a no-doubt home run.

That was the Orioles’ fourth hit of the night, matching the Yankees’ total.

“Tough, tough loss, obviously,’’ Aaron Boone said. “Held them down so well. Had a couple opportunities . . . and then one big swing from their side. Tough. A long night here, but we have to get back on the horse tomorrow.”

Judge, playing for the first time since he suffered a right big toe sprain on June 3, went 0-for-1 — a lineout to rightfield on the first pitch he saw — with three walks. The Yankees had gone 19-23 in his absence.

Judge said of how his toe came through the night: “Feeling good. Feeling good.”

He added: “I think I was a little jumpy to begin with, and then I think it was after my second at-bat, swinging at a high fastball, I kind of told myself, ‘All right, take it easy a little bit and put a good at-bat out there. If you get a good pitch to hit, take your swing.’ We felt all right.”

Cole said he was impressed with Judge’s at-bats. “Absolutely. The discipline tonight, it’s a true sign of a great hitter, just heightened awareness of the strike zone,’’ he said. “So disciplined with what he wants to swing at and what he doesn’t want to swing at. He’s obviously a tone-setter for us.”

Cole continued polishing his 2023 American League Cy Young Award credentials, throwing seven scoreless innings to lower his ERA to an AL-leading 2.64. He allowed three hits, walked none, struck out five and threw a season-high 110 pitches.

What was working for Cole? “Everything,’’ Boone said. “Man, he’s been so good. Used the cutter a little bit but just the fastball and, again, maybe there was a couple batters where he felt behind 2-0 but gets right back in. Otherwise, he was in control of count leverage. Just really in command of all his pitches right now.”

Rodriguez, 23, taken 11th overall in the 2018 draft, showed none of the issues that left him with a 2-2 record and a 6.91 ERA entering the game. Throwing 100 mph from the first inning on, he allowed three hits and two walks in 6 1⁄3 innings in which he struck out four. Four Orioles relievers shut down the Yankees from there.

The Yankees (54-49)  are 3 1⁄2 games behind the Astros and Blue Jays, who are tied for the second wild card. They are two games behind the Red Sox and a half-game ahead of the Angels in the wild-card race.

Judge worked a one-out walk in the fourth to give the Yankees their first baserunner and Anthony Rizzo sliced a single to left-center to give them their first hit. Giancarlo Stanton then bounced into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.

DJ LeMahieu led off the fifth with a single and two outs later, Anthony Volpe stung one down the third-base line, where Ramon Urias made a diving stop and throw across the diamond for the third out.

With first and second and one out in the seventh, Harrison Bader grounded into a 6-3 double play.

Volpe led off the eighth against righthander Yannier Cano with a slicing liner down the rightfield line that appeared destined for extra bases, but Santander laid out and made a diving catch toward the line. Pinch hitter Jake Bauers followed with a broken-bat single to center, and one out later, Judge walked for the third time.

In came lefty Danny Coulombe to face the lefthanded-hitting Rizzo, who hit a ground smash that had RBI single written all over it. Second baseman Adam Frazier, however, made the third diving play of the night for the Orioles to keep the game scoreless.

What does Judge sense from the team when it comes to confidence right now? “I think it’s high because I saw a lot of good things out of those at-bats. Rizzo had a good at-bat late and Frazier makes a great play in the hole to rob him of an RBI opportunity there. But I think everybody going up to the plate, they’re confident, they’re swinging the bat. We just didn’t see the results we wanted to. But these guys are all professionals in this room. You have to bounce back. Tough loss like this, walk-off hit, you have to show up tomorrow. You can’t sit here and pout about it.”

Said Cole, “We were throwing the ball really, really well and putting together really good at-bats, [but] the game is based on results. So you can try as hard as you want but at the end, you have to find a way to push yourself over the edge. Tonight we couldn’t do that but we gave ourselves a lot of opportunities. We were right there.”

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.