Yankees again fail to clinch AL East after losing to Orioles despite Aaron Judge's 57th home run
The Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. throws his helmet down after flying out with bases loaded to end the sixth inning against the Orioles in an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Maybe Thursday.
For the second straight night, the Yankees needed a victory to clinch the American League East crown. For the second straight night, they lost to the second-place Orioles. On Wednesday, Baltimore beat the Yankees, 9-7, before 41,010 at the Stadium.
The Yankees still have a magic number of one going into Thursday’s series finale. They lead the Orioles by four with four games to play. Baltimore owns the tiebreaker with an 8-4 season-series lead.
Aaron Judge homered for the fourth straight game, his 57th of the season. Judge’s three-run blast into the Orioles bullpen in left-center with one out in the ninth brought the Yankees, who had once been down 8-1, back to within two runs.
But lefthander Keegan Akin got Austin Wells on a fly ball to left and Giancarlo Stanton on a pop to second to end it.
The day started for the Yankees with bad news and only got worse once the game started.
Nestor Cortes, who was supposed to start, instead went on the 15-day injured list with a strained left flexor tendon.
The injury elevated Marcus Stroman from the bullpen to become Cortes’ replacement. It was Stroman’s first start since Sept. 10 and his first appearance since Sept. 17, when he threw three innings of relief and earned his second career save in Seattle. Manager Aaron Boone said he let Stroman know Tuesday night he would be starting.
Stroman allowed hits to the first six batters he faced, although one of them was courtesy of another misplay by Jasson Dominguez in leftfield. The Orioles scored three runs in the first and another four in the fourth as they knocked out Stroman and took a 7-1 lead.
Stroman (10-9, 4.31), who was charged with six runs in 3 1/3 innings, was booed in the first and again as he walked off the mound after getting replaced by Clayton Beeter.
The Orioles, who clinched a wild-card spot on Tuesday, opened the game with six straight hits to take a 3-0 lead.
Leadoff man Gunnar Henderson beat out an infield single to short. Jordan Westburg singled, as did Anthony Santander, to load the bases.
Colton Cowser followed with a twisting fly ball deep into the leftfield corner. Dominguez, whose play in left has been consistently poor since his recall, overran the ball. It fell behind him as two runs scored.
Fortunately for the Yankees, Santander was thrown out at third for the first out. Catcher Wells received a late relay throw from Anthony Volpe and threw it back to third. Santander was approaching, but no one was actually covering the base. Volpe sprinted in from the lip of the outfield grass, caught the throw on the run and slapped the tag on Santander while tumbling over the baserunner.
Ryan Mountcastle followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0. Ryan O’Hearn singled. Stroman had yet to retire a batter, and that almost didn’t change when Jazz Chisholm Jr. booted Ramon Urias’ potential double-play ball before throwing to second.
O’Hearn was called safe. The Yankees challenged, and O’Hearn was deemed out by replay for the second out. Stroman then got Cedric Mullins to ground to first to end the nightmare inning.
In the second, Volpe lined a two-out RBI single to left to make it 3-1.
But the Orioles’ four-spot in the fourth and single run in the fifth put the Yankees in an 8-1 hole. Baltimore finished with 17 hits – 14 singles and three doubles.
Juan Soto hit his 41st home run, a two-run shot to right in the fifth, to make it 8-3. The Yankees loaded the bases with two outs later in the inning, but Chisholm skied to right for the third out.
On Thursday, the Yankees will try, try, try again in a battle of aces: Gerrit Cole vs. Corbin Burnes.
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.
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