Good news and bad news as Yankees are shut out by Orioles to close series

Against arguably the worst team in Major League Baseball, the New York Yankees dropped two of three games over the weekend. The Baltimore Orioles blanked the Bombers for nearly the second time, allowing just one run in the first game of the series.

Despite a phenomenal performance from starting pitcher Nestor Cortes, the Yankees’ relief pitchers couldn’t get the job done, with Jonathan Loáisiga dropping his worst performance of the season at an inopportune time.

Good news:

As mentioned above, Cortes was outstanding yet again, allowing just three hits and one walk over five innings pitched. He collected 12 strikeouts, picking up one for every batter in Baltimore‘s lineup. He pitched a season-high 88 pitches, showcasing his longevity and quality down the stretch. While he would like to go a bit longer than five innings at that pitch count, he still hosts a 0.00 ERA and featured awesome break with his pitches, mixing in an unpredictable fastball as well.

Cortes is the poster boy for utilizing different arm slots to confuse batters, and if he continues to pitch this way, he could work his way up the Yankees rotation.

Offensively, DJ LeMahieu was the only batter to record more than one hit on the afternoon, elevating his average to .321 on the season. DJ also picked up a walk in the contest, showcasing his patience against flamethrower Felix Bautista.

Bad news:

Once again, the Yankees’ offense was lackluster, strung together their tenth consecutive game without recording seven runs or more (let alone just one run).

The only other batters to record hits on the afternoon were Aaron Hicks and Kyle Higashioka.

Aaron Judge, Josh Donaldson, and Giancarlo Stanton combined for six total strikeouts, with only one of them reaching the base paths.

The back end of the order was once again nonexistent, creating only two baserunners over 10 at-bats.

This season, the bullpen has been phenomenal but fell apart at the seams against the Orioles in the 5–0 defeat. Chad Green escaped narrowly despite a few hard-hit balls and a remarkable catch by Tim Locastro in the outfield. Loáisiga gave up four earned runs, two hits, and two walks over just an inning of play.

Lucas Luetge put the cherry on top, allowing a line drive down the left-field line to drive in the fourth and fifth runs of the game, putting the Yankees well beyond range for a potential comeback.