Rizzo homers as Yankees rally from three-run deficit to beat Orioles
An aura of inevitably hung over the Stadium Wednesday night.
Even as the Orioles took an early three-run lead, a Yankees comeback seemed only a matter of time.
Maybe it was Anthony Rizzo grinding out a 13-pitch plate appearance in the first inning against Matt Harvey, one that included him fouling off eight pitches, that resulted in a walk (speaking of inevitable, the number of foul ball rockets the first baseman hit hinted at a homer coming off his bat at some point in the night, too).
Or the Orioles not scoring more early against Jameson Taillon, the Yankees’ best pitcher of late who was not sharp out of the gate but would soon settle down.
Finally, there was the general awfulness of the Orioles, who brought the worst record in the American League into the evening, that made a rally seem all but a certainty.
All of it, including the Rizzo homer, came to fruition, as expected.
The Yankees slowly clawed their way back to tie things up by the middle, innings then erupted for five runs in the seventh that helped them coast to a 10-3 victory in front of 30,055 at the Stadium.
The Yankees (58-49), who got the home run from Rizzo as well as three hits and four RBIs from DJ LeMahieu, two hits and three RBIs from Giancarlo Stanton and two hits and two RBIs from Gleyber Torres, improved to 17-8 in their last 25 games. They outhit the Orioles, 12-6.
Rizzo’s homer, his third as a Yankee and first at the Stadium, cut the Yankees’ deficit to 3-1 and gave the him at least one RBI in each of his six games as a Yankee, the only player in franchise history to accomplish that feat since RBIs became an official statistic in 1920.
Taillon, meanwhile, just named the AL Pitcher of the Month after going 4-0 with a 1.16 ERA in five July starts, wasn’t as sharp as he’s been but was still good enough. The righthander allowed three runs (two earned) and four hits over 6 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out a season-high 10 in lowering his season ERA to 4.04 (it was as high as 5.74 after lasting one-third of an inning June 12 in Philadelphia).
Yankees starters have allowed three runs or fewer in 23 of their last 24 starts and two earned runs or fewer in 20 of those outings.
Harvey, who beat the Yankees April 26 in Baltimore when he allowed one run over six innings, allowed two runs and three hits over four innings Wednesday but was hit hard throughout the outing.
Two batters in Taillon was in trouble.
Cedric Mullins stung a leadoff single to right and Ramon Urias lined one to left where Joey Gallo mishandled it, the error allowing the lead runner to take third without a throw and the trail runner to pull into second.
But Taillon got ahead of Trey Mancini 0-and-2 before striking out the DH with a 1-and-2 curveball in the dirt. Ryan Mountcastle’s sacrifice fly to right brought in Mullins, who just slid in ahead of Aaron Judge’s strong throw home to Kyle Higashioka. Austin Hays then flared a single to left that brought in Urias for a 2-0 Baltimore lead.
But Rizzo’s homer got the Yankees on the board in the fourth and Torres RBI single later in the inning made it 3-2. Kyle Higashioka led off the fifth with a double and came in two batters later on LeMahieu’s RBI single that tied it at 3-3.
It stayed that way until the seventh when
LeMahieu opened the floodgates of the five-run inning with an RBI single that made it 4-3. Stanton’s blooped three-run double with two outs later in the frame made it 8-3.
Two more came in in the eighth on LeMahieu’s two-run double that made it 10-3.
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.
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