Beating the Baltimore Orioles should be as easy as stealing candy from a baby, but the Yankees turn it into astrophysics without fail, every time. Last season, the Bombers hosted the worst record of any AL East team against Baltimore, and they’ve proven to be their kryptonite once again to start the 2022 season.
If the Yankees would’ve sweeped the Orioles to end the 2021 season, they could’ve skipped out on a hostile Wild Card game against the Red Sox at Fenway. Nonetheless, we know how that panned out.
On Friday afternoon, the Yankees fell 2–1 to Baltimore, failing to get the job done in extra innings.
Good news:
There were a few quality individual performances from the Yankees in the defeat, notably Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Castro, who worked his way out of a tough 7th inning where he walked two batters but struck out three. Castro currently hosts a 0.00 ERA on the season and has been one of the Yankees’ best middle relief pitchers.
On the other hand, Stanton was the only Yankee batter to get things going offensively, recording three hits and an RBI, raising his average to .300 on the year. However, only four other Yankees recorded hits on the day, including Josh Donaldson, Joey Gallo, DJ LeMahieu, and Kyle Higashioka.
Against a pitcher who gave up five earned runs and seven hits against the Rays in his first start of the year, the Yankees couldn’t get anything going offensively, which is simply inexcusable given the tremendous bats they have.
Bad news:
As a whole, the team recorded seven hits but struck out 13 times. The bats were simply quiet against Baltimore, and once again, the bottom of the order plagued the team with runners in scoring position. Aaron Hicks grounded into a double-play with the bases loaded in the 6th inning, and management pulled Isiah Kiner-Falefa with the game on the line instead, giving Marwin Gonzalez a chance at the plate.
As for the team’s pitching, the Bombers relied on Clarke Schmidt to try and close the game, loading the bases before they called upon Aroldis Chapman to try and get them out of trouble. Chapman struck out the first batter but walked the second, driving in the winning run for Baltimore, who picked up their second win of the season.
Overall, Aaron Boone faces a tremendous problem with his offense failing to open up early in the year and his closing pitchers struggling to get the job done.