Yankees pound out six homers to beat Orioles in seventh straight win

BALTIMORE — A historically putrid Orioles pitching staff that surrenders homers in bushels matched against a Yankees team that hits them with regularity once again produced exactly what you’d expect.

After going deep five times Monday, the Yankees blasted six more home runs Tuesday night in winning their seventh straight, a 9-4 victory over the Orioles at their personal 2019 road launching pad, Camden Yards.

But the victory, which moved the Yankees to an AL-best 74-39, might have come with a significant cost.

Gleyber Torres, who left Sunday night’s game against Boston with what Aaron Boone called a “core issue” on his right side but returned to the lineup Monday night and again started Tuesday, was pulled from the game before the bottom of the third inning with what the club described as “core pain.”

The 22-year-old was sent back to New York for additional testing and a stint on the injured list loomed as a possibility.

“I don’t know,” Boone said afterward. “I certainly think it’s possible, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s back here and it’s a day-to-day situation. We’ll see. We’ll try to get our arms around it as best we can.”

Torres, who was checked out at a Manhattan hospital Sunday night before traveling with his teammates to Baltimore, went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts Monday as the DH and, starting at second Tuesday, was 0-for-2 with a strikeout before being pulled.

“When I saw him this morning, he felt good and really wanted to play the field,” Boone said. “We’ll just continue to see what it is as best we can.”

The game, meanwhile, again provided a stage for the burgeoning Bombers legend that is Mike Tauchman, who hit his third home run in two nights, doubled in a run and robbed the Orioles' Pedro Severino of a homer with a terrific leaping catch at full extension at the wall in left. Had the 28-year-old Tauchman not made the catch, the ball appeared headed for at least the second row of seats.

“Pretty special,” said Brett Gardner, who had a view of the catch from center. “I’m glad he was over there and not me.”

Said Tauchman, whose catch preserved a 5-2 lead: “I knew it was going to be around the wall so I just wanted to get to the wall fast and then [that] sort of gave me some time to time that jump rather than drift and try to make up that time at the end.”

Boone simply called it: “about as good a home run robbery as you’ll see.”

At the plate, the Yankees kept hitting them.

Coming into the night, the Orioles (38-75) had allowed 223 homers, by far the highest total in the big leagues (Seattle was next at 195) and the Yankees bumped that total to 226 in the third inning against righthander Asher Wojciechowski when Tauchman and DJ LeMahieu went back-to-back, and Didi Gregorius added another one batter later to make it 3-0.

Wojciechowski allowed five runs and six hits, including three homers, over four innings.

The six homers overall — Austin Romine, Gardner and Cameron Maybin also homered — gave the Yankees a remarkable 38 in nine games at Camden Yards, where they’re 9-0 this season and have won 14 straight overall.

The Yankees, who improved to 11-0 this season when using an opener (Jonathan Holder on this night) built their lead to 5-2 in the fourth on a two-run double by Romine, but Tarpley allowed a two-run shot to Anthony Santander in the fifth that pulled the Orioles within 5-4.

Romine’s homer to center in the sixth off righty Tayler Scott made it 6-4. Tauchman’s RBI double, which brought in Romine who led off the eighth with a double, made it 7-4, and Gardner and Maybin homered back-to-back in the ninth off David Hess to make it 9-4.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Gardner said of the homer brigade, “to be a part of.”