Rare off night for Yankees' bullpen in loss to Orioles at the Stadium

A Yankees’ bullpen that has been one of the best in baseball all season experienced a few hiccups Wednesday night.

And with their bats reverting to slumber mode, it proved too much to overcome as the Yankees lost, 6-3, to the Orioles in front of 36,022 at the Stadium.

After rookie Randy Vasquez threw five scoreless innings and Josh Donaldson, with a solo homer, and Kyle Higashioka, with a two-out single, gave the Yankees (48-39) a 2-0 lead through five, lefthander Nick Ramirez was the first out of manager Aaron Boone’s bullpen.

But Ramirez, who brought a 1.69 ERA in 17 games into the night, allowed a one-out double to Cedric Mullins, an infield single to former Yankee Aaron Hicks and an RBI single to Colton Cowser that made it 2-1.

Michael King came in to face Jordan Westburg and the third baseman lasered a first-pitch sinker into the gap in left-center where leftfielder Jake Bauers just missed on a diving attempt. The ball skittered away, allowing Hicks and Cowser to score to give the Orioles (50-35) a 3-2 lead and Westburg to pull into third with a triple.

“It looked like he had a chance at it, so I can’t fault him for that,” Boone said of Bauers’ attempt.

Said Bauers: “I got a good jump on it, took a good route to it. Right when I went to dive, it got stuck in lights and I was kind of flying blind at the end there, trying to knock it down, do anything I could. Unfortunately, it got by me. I feel like it would have been a different game had I come up with it.”

With the infield in, Adam Frazier grounded one to short where Anthony Volpe fielded the ball and threw home, but catcher Kyle Higashioka could not hang on to it as he tried for a sweep-tag (the sliding Westburg appeared safe anyway) and Baltimore led 4-2.

Volpe’s 12th homer, a solo shot leading off the eighth against righthander Yannier Cano, made it 4-3 but that was all for the Yankees. Felix Bautista retired Giancarlo Stanton a soft flyout to end the eighth and, after Ryan O’Hearn’s two-run homer in the top of the ninth off Ian Hamilton made it 6-3, the righty worked around a one-out walk to Donaldson, who had two hits, in the bottom half for his 23rd save in 28 chances.

Baltimore righthander Dean Kremer, who came in 8-4 with a 5.04 ERA, allowed two runs (one earned) and four hits over seven innings in which he walked one and struck out a career-high 10.

Vasquez, though not as sharp as in his previous spot-start – June 8 against the White Sox when he allowed two hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings of a 3-0 victory – was plenty good Wednesday.

The righthander, battling command issues at times, allowed three hits and three walks over five innings in which he struck out one. Vasquez, now with a 1.17 ERA in three starts, threw 75 pitches (49 strikes).  

“That’s what I want to show, that I can come up here and help this team in any way possible,” Vasquez said through his interpreter. “I’m going to keep working hard to keep getting that trust from the team.”

After Vasquez stranded a runner in top of the fifth, his final inning, he was in position to pick up his second straight win, courtesy of Donaldson’s ninth homer of the season and Higashioka’s single to right that brought in Volpe to make it 2-0.

A 17-minutes delay preceded the Higashioka hit as, before his at-bat, a YES Network cameraman at the far end of the Yankees’ dugout was hit by an errant relay throw by Orioles shortstop Gunner Henderson on a Volpe grounder to second that had the looks off the bat of a 4-6-3 double play (Volpe was awarded second on the throwing error). The Orioles were pulled off the field as the cameraman, whom the network identified as Pete Stendel, was tended to – with plenty of concerned Yankees players and staff standing quietly nearby. Stendel acknowledged the cheers – which included both dugouts – as he was driven off the field on a stretcher.

The network tweeted shortly after the game Stendel was “conscious and undergoing tests” in a hospital.

“That was scary,” Bauers said of the incident. “I think I speak for all of us when I say our thoughts are with him. I hope he’s doing all right, I hope he’s feeling better…he had a pretty bad reaction when he got hit. It was a scary scene.”