After only giving one run in the first nine innings, Baltimore allowed six in the 10th to seal a 7-1 loss to New York.
After nine innings of excellent pitching, the Orioles’ bullpen fell apart in extra innings, giving up six runs in the 10th to hand the Yankees a 7-1 win.
After Kade Strowd struck out the side for the O’s in the 9th, interim manager Tony Mansolino decided to stick with Strowd in the 10th against the heart of the Yankees lineup. Strowd responded by walking Aaron Judge and giving up a single to Cody Bellinger to load the bases. Mansolino then pulled Strowd in favor of Keegan Akin, which only fueled the Yankees’ burgeoning fire.
After getting ahead of Ben Rice 1-2, Akin left a fastball over the middle of the plate, and Rice smashed the ball into the center-field bleachers for a game-breaking grand slam. Two batters later, Jazz Chisolm Jr. launched a solo HR onto the flag court to balloon the Yankees’ lead to 6-1. That spelled the end of Akin’s day, as Yaramil Hiraldo relieved him. Hiraldo would allow the sixth run of the inning, giving the O’s a mountain they couldn’t climb in the bottom of the 10th. Baltimore did manage to load the bases with a pair of two-out walks in the 10th, only for Ryan Mountcastle to strike out and end the game.
Up until the Rice home run, the Orioles and Yankees were mirror images of each other on Sunday. Both teams got excellent outings from their starters and both struggled to deliver clutch hits needed to back up their superb pitching staffs.
Both teams had a chance to break the game open before things go to extra innings. With two outs and a man on first in the 7th, Coby Mayo singled to right and Dylan Carlson walked to load the bases. However, Jackson Holliday couldn’t deliver a hit to break the 1-1 deadlock, grounding out to first to strand all three runners. The Yankees would repeat the feat in the 8th, loading the bases with two outs, only for José Caballero to end the inning on an unassisted groundout to third.
The early innings were defined by the excellence of Kyle Bradish and Yankees starter Cam Schlittler. The Yankees’ big right-hander cruised through the first four innings, punching out six Orioles in the process. Baltimore continued to struggle with the rookie’s high heat, with all six strikeouts coming on fastballs up in the zone. The only early blemish on Schlittler’s record came in the 2nd, when Jeremiah Jackson turned on a cutter and lined a double into the left-center gap. The two-out extra base hit was quickly erased, though, as Colton Cowser struck out on a high heater to leave Jackson stranded.
That aura of invincibility from Schlittler took a big blow thanks to Big Samuel Basallo. Leading off the 5th, Basallo got a first-pitch curveball and golfed the breaking ball 420 feet onto the flag court for a solo home run. The rookie’s fourth career long ball broke a 0-0 tie and breathed some life into Camden Yards.
That lead was short-lived as the Yankees finally scratched a run across against Bradish in the 6th. Bradish had dominated the Yanks for the first five innings, holding them scoreless while only allowing one hit and three total base runners. With one out, New York started their third trip through the order on a Trent Grisham walk and a Judge HBP, putting the tying run on second.
What followed for Bradish were a series of “oh, so close” defensive plays. Bellinger lined out to Gunnar Henderson for the second out, and Henderson almost doubled up Grisham at second, with the throw arriving a fraction of a second too late. Ben Rice then lined a shallow single to left that bounced just in front of Dylan Carlson. The short hop handcuffed Carlson and prevented him from making a throw home. A more friendly hop, and Carlson has a decent chance of throwing out the tying run at the plate—though he did make up for it with a nice running catch to end the 6th.
Bradish was unlucky that his offense couldn’t provide him more than one run of support, as the Orioles’ right-hander put forth his best start of the season. Whether it was his four-seamer, two-seamer, slider or curveball, Bradish had everything working Sunday as he shut down the Yankee lineup.
The Orioles’ rehabilitated ace was sharp from the first pitch Sunday, working a 1-2-3 inning to set the tone for his fifth start back from Tommy John surgery. His best pitch of the inning came against reigning AL MVP Aaron Judge, as Bradish punched out the Yankees’ superstar on a curveball that dove down and out of the zone.
It was his first K on the big breaking ball, but far from his best CB of the afternoon. Bradish worked around a Rice lead-off single in the 2nd, getting the second out of the inning on a curveball that dive bombed out of the zone and completely fooled Jazz Chisolm Jr. Bradish racked up another pair of Ks in the 3rd, punching out leadoff hitter Austin Wells on a tw0-seam fastball that tailed over the outside corner. After Ryan McMahon worked a four-pitch walk, Bradish unleashed another dive-bomb curveball to strike out Trent Grisham, before ending the inning on a Judge flyout to center.
The flourish to end the 3rd kick started Bradish’s dominant second trip through the Yankees’ order. The Orioles’ right-hander showed how dominant his slider can be in the 4th, book-ending the inning with a pair of Ks on back foot sliders to Cody Bellinger and Jasson Domínguez. He racked up another pair of punchouts in the 5th, blowing a fastball by Chisolm for the first out of the inning, before getting Caballero to swing over a front-door curveball. After Bradish struck out McMahon to lead off the 6th, it capped a second run through the order that saw him set down every Yankees he faced while striking out six of the nine.
Category: General Sports
