Yankees drop the series to the Orioles as Carlos Rodon struggles

BALTIMORE – Not good enough.

Not yet.

That was the takeaway from the first of four series meetings the Yankees will have against the defending American League East champion Orioles this season, who entered 2024 as heavy favorites to repeat as division champs.

The Yankees lost three of four at Camden Yards, getting dominated in the series finale, 7-2, Thursday afternoon in front of a spirited crowd of 27,299.

“We got punched in the face,” said Gleyber Torres, whose first homer of the season, a solo shot in the sixth, was offset by a sloppy error that contributed to a four-run Orioles fourth that essentially put the game away.

The Yankees, who lost two close games to start the series but simply didn’t hit enough in those losses, finished this seven-game trip 3-4.

But, deep breath, they’re still a more-than-respectable 20-13.

The young, athletic and deep Orioles – who won 101 games last season in running away with the division – lead the Yankees by a game at 20-11.

Though they have some lingering questions with their rotation and bullpen, the Orioles appear to have little in the way of weaknesses while exploiting those of the opposition.

Monday and Tuesday the Yankees were done in by a popgun offense in 2-0 and 4-2 losses, a surprise if only because of what preceded it: games in Milwaukee Saturday and Sunday in which they scored a combined 30 runs.

Thursday was more of the same from the first two losses of this series and that no doubt led to the generally mild-mannered, but sneakily intense, first-year hitting coach James Rowson getting ejected in the seventh inning by plate umpire Dan Iassogna after objecting to a borderline strike call on Juan Soto.

Still, Thursday’s loss was just as much about Carlos Rodon’s worst start of the season.

The lefthander, who entered 2-1 with a 2.48 ERA, missed few barrels over four innings in which he allowed seven runs (six earned) and eight hits, including three homers.

Rodon escaped a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the second, but the Orioles seemed fueled rather than frustrated by it.

Ryan Mountcastle rifled a 1-and-0 slider out of the park in the third to tie it and the Orioles blasted two more homers in the fourth – Jorge Mateo on a first-pitch, 94-mph fastball and Ryan McKenna on a 1-and-1, 93-mph cutter.

“Stuff was good, [some] pitches I’d like to have back,” Rodon said, mentioning the slider to Mountcastle as one example. “They’re strong top to bottom. We hadn’t seen McKenna for three days, they throw him in the lineup and he had some good swings. Mateo hits one out as well. I just wasn’t good enough.”

Rodon wasn’t alone. There was Torres’ error when he tried to barehand Anthony Volpe’s flip from short in order to hasten his chance at a double play on an Anthony Santander grounder in the fifth and ended up dropping the ball.

“That type of error, there’s no excuse,” Torres said.

But with Soto once again reaching base twice to raise his batting average to .331 and OPS to 1.030 – the rightfielder tripled and singled, making it 30 of 33 games he’s reached base at least once and 21 of those 33 in which he’s done so multiple times – more and more attention is falling on Aaron Judge’s early-season slump.

The centerfielder, who had shown recent signs of busting out, had a quiet series, going 1-for-13, which lowered his season batting average to .197 and OPS to .724.

Judge has had lengthy stretches before in his career in which he’s struggled – including during his 2022 AL MVP season – but this one has been magnified because of when it’s taking place.

By all accounts, publicly and behind the scenes, Judge is healthy. Organizationally, the widespread expectation is that it's only a matter of time before a hot streak arrives.

“He’ll get it going,” Aaron Boone said Thursday. “And look out when he does.”

As for the Orioles, Boone called them “a complete team.”

No one currently would describe the Yankees, who next see the Orioles June 18-20 at the Stadium, as such but there is plenty of season left for them to get to that point. And by that next meeting, this series may well be a mere footnote. That’s the nature of the 162-game season. Narratives of certainty, especially from April and May, are often washed away.

But, given the Orioles roster and determination born from being swept in the Division Series by the eventual champion Rangers last October, there’s no reason to expect them to be anywhere other than at or near the top of the division during that next series.

It'll be a chance for the Yankees to see if they measure up any better than they did this time.