Yankees sweep bungling Birds, complete 6-0 homestand
The Yankees' Aaron Judge is greeted by Anthony Rizzo after his three-run home run against the Orioles during the eighth inning of an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Thursday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Yankees completed a 6-0 homestand with a 10-5 victory over the sloppy Orioles on Thursday before 29,268 on another chilly day at Yankee Stadium.
The first-place Yankees (13-6) were trailing the Orioles, 2-0, and had two hits through four innings against lefthander Bruce Zimmermann.
But the last-place Orioles (6-13), who took two of three from the Yankees last week in Baltimore, turned back into the Orioles, committing five errors and gifting the Yankees six unearned runs.
The Orioles made two errors in the fifth inning, leading to four unearned runs, another in the sixth to help the Yankees to a fifth unearned run, and another in the eighth as the Yankees broke it open on Aaron Judge’s three-run homer in a non-classic that took 3:51 to complete.
The game featured five wild pitches, three by the Yankees. But they took it in what Anthony Rizzo called “a whole-team win” and they’re goin’ to Kansas City on a high.
“We got some help today with some misplays,” Boone said. “But they’ve been doing a lot of really good things to win games in every aspect.”
The Orioles also went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position in the first six innings. Baltimore scored three in the ninth against rookie Ron Marinaccio, who had to be pulled by Boone so Lucas Luetge could get the final out (but only after a walk and after Aroldis Chapman started warming).
Marinaccio was optioned to Triple-A after the game.
The Yankees used seven pitchers to cement their sixth win in a row and eighth in nine. Miguel Castro (2-0) was credited with the victory for getting one out in relief of Jameson Taillon, who allowed two runs in 4 2/3 innings.
The most important innings might have been thrown by Jonathan Loaisiga, who had been struggling mightily and came in with an 8.10 ERA. Loaisiga allowed just an infield single and struck out three in 1 1/3 innings.
The Yankees were trailing 2-0 in the fifth when Tim Locastro, who started in center with Aaron Hicks finishing his paternity leave, hit a grounder to third that Kelvin Gutierrez made an outstanding stop on. But Gutierrez’s throw was wild and he was charged with a tough error.
Marwin Gonzalez, who started at short with Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Gleyber Torres getting the day off, followed with an RBI double to left.
One out later, DJ LeMahieu reached on a clear error by shortstop Jorge Mateo, who booted a grounder in the hole. Judge (2-for-5, four RBIs) followed with a game-tying hot-shot single off the glove of second baseman Rougned Odor. Rizzo gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead and knocked out Zimmermann with a line single to left for his 19th RBI of the season.
Giancarlo Stanton made it 4-2 with a single off reliever Bryan Baker. Poor Zimmermann (1-1), who had shut the Yankees out over five innings on April 17, was charged with four unearned runs on Thursday and, eventually, the defeat.
“There’s no question there were some really good situational at-bats today and really over the past week,” Boone said. “That’s been an area of improvement.”
For example: Gonzalez capped an 11-pitch plate appearance with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-2 in the sixth. That run was unearned, too, thanks to a throwing error by pitcher Mike Baumann.
The Yankees’ sixth run was earned in the scorebook, but it was certainly aided by indifferent-looking Orioles defense.
LeMahieu led off the seventh with what should have been a ground single to left off Mateo’s glove. But when he saw Austin Hays taking his time getting to the ball, LeMahieu said, “Make mine a double!” and slid in safely to second base.
Two outs later, Josh Donaldson singled LeMahieu home to give the Yankees a four-run cushion.
In the eighth, Mateo committed another error on a LeMahieu grounder to load the bases with one out. Paul Fry threw a run-scoring wild pitch before Judge unloaded a three-run homer to left to make it 10-2. Judge’s fifth home run traveled an estimated 415 feet.
The Yankees scored a total of 46 runs in the six-game homestand, including three of the last four in double-digits against the Guardians and Orioles.
“Back-to-back sweeps,” Taillon said. “Both teams weren’t rolling over or anything like that. We got contributions from everyone up and down, from different guys in the bullpen, from different guys in the rotation. So just a lot of complete efforts. Some great defense in the series. I think more than anything, it’s that it’s coming from all the guys on the roster, not just a few.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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