Gleyber Torres' big day gives Yankees second straight win over Orioles
Gleyber Torres #25 of the New York Yankees celebrates his first inning two run home run against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, July 4, 2023 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Credit: Jim McIsaac
It was Independence Day in America on Tuesday. At Yankee Stadium, it was also Gleyber Day.
Gleyber Torres, the often-frustrating Yankees second baseman, went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run, double, a walk, and three runs.
Most importantly, he scored the tie-breaking run with a mad dash from first base on a single to center in the fifth inning and the Yankees went on to beat the Orioles, 8-4, before 43,876 in the Bronx.
The Orioles had rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie the game on a pair of homers in the fifth – the first by Aaron Hicks – when Torres drew a two-out walk in the bottom half.
Giancarlo Stanton followed with a ground ball single past a diving shortstop Gunnar Henderson. Torres, who was running on the 3-and-2 pitch, kept right on going as centerfielder Cedric Mullins – who was playing deep with Stanton at the plate – retrieved the ball and threw to second base.
Torres, running with his head down, barreled right through the stop sign of third base coach Luis Rojas and scored with an unnecessary – but quite stylish – headfirst slide as second baseman Adam Frazier fumbled the throw from center.
Torres, who is often guilty of baserunning blunders, was welcomed by his joyous teammates in the dugout after giving the Yankees a 4-3 lead.
“I saw him with his head down [around] shortstop and I said, ‘He’s going,’" manager Aaron Boone said. “He is very instinctive and that is a very instinctive play. It gets him in trouble sometimes and had they thrown him out at the plate . . .”
Torres knew what would have happened if he had been thrown out at the plate. It would have been “a bad situation,” he said. But he made it.
“I saw the outfield really deep with Stanton hitting and, when I passed second base, I believed he was going to throw to second,” Torres said. “So I just took advantage and scored in that situation. I know Rojas threw up the stop sign.”
Said Boone: “That’s how he plays. And that’s why he’s Gleyber Torres. He’s a good player.”
Jose Trevino made it 5-3 with a short-porch homer to right in the seventh, the catcher’s fourth home run of 2023. Harrison Bader added a two-run double later in the inning. An additional run came home in the eighth when Anthony Rizzo grounded into a forceout.
Clarke Schmidt (4-6, 4.43 ERA) gave up three runs in five-plus innings for the victory. Schmidt allowed five hits, didn’t walk a batter, and struck out seven.
The Yankees won their second in a row against Baltimore to move to within two games of the Orioles, who are in the No. 1 spot in the AL wild-card race. The Yankees improved to 13-13 since Aaron Judge went out with his injured toe.
“I think everybody had to make an adjustment without Judge and try to win anyway,” Torres said. “The crowd is coming to support us, so try to show them what we can do on the field.”
After a 33-minute rain delay before first pitch, the Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the first. Rizzo, installed as the leadoff batter for the first time this season, took a four-pitch walk. Torres followed with a 436-foot two-run homer to the leftfield bleachers off Kyle Gibson (8-6, 4.73 ERA) to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. It was Torres’ 13th home run.
The Yankees made it 3-0 without a hit in the bottom of the fourth after a walk to Jake Bauers, a hit by pitch of Harrison Bader, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s sacrifice fly.
The Orioles tied the game with three runs in the fifth. Hicks, the former Yankee and current Yankee Stadium boo-bird target, hit a one-out homer to right to cut the lead to 3-1. Fans jeered when Hicks hit his fifth home run in 86 at-bats for Baltimore (he had one in 69 with the Yankees) and cheered when a fan threw the baseball back onto the field.
After the homer, Jordan Westburg lined a double over the head of Oswaldo Cabrera in leftfield. Cabrera started in on the ball and then watched in horror as it sailed over his futile leaping try. Frazier tied things up with a two-run homer to right.
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.
