Yesterday the New York Yankees came away with the series win against the Baltimore Orioles, but they failed to sweep the lowly Baltimore team. In years past, the Yankees have been dominant against the team both at Yankee Stadium and at Camden Yards. In the past, Camden Yards was called either the south Bronx or the Yankees south. But this year, in three series, they have not been able to sweep a series against them.
Yesterday was the same—poor starting pitching, a bullpen that failed, and hitters that couldn’t get any timely hitting. There is no explanation for the poor pitching, but several missing players may have hurt the hitting. Without Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, and Aaron Hicks, the team put out their B lineup to face the Orioles.
“Monty” failed mightily
From the start, the New York Yankees starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery just didn’t have it. When he took to the mound in the bottom of the first inning, he did so with a 4 run advantage before throwing the first pitch. But in that half, he gave two runs back to the Orioles. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what was wrong because everything was wrong.
He got through the second inning but gave up another three runs in the third inning, completely wiping out the Yankees’ early five-run lead. He had little command over his pitches; he looked wobbly and uncomfortable on the mound. In his season debut win, he used 73 pitches in his 6 inning outing. Yesterday it took 76 pitches just to get through the 3rd inning. What makes this display of pitching even more of a mystery, is that Montgomery was coming off a game in which he got a career-high 9 strikeouts. This was such a mess it is surely a game he will want to put behind him.
The New York Yankee bullpen failed miserably
Unfortunately for Yankee starter Jordan Montgomery, the bullpen was missing in action to save the starter that couldn’t get into the fourth inning. In the fourth, Michael King came out and gave up another run. He was followed by Lucas Luetge, who pitched a clean sixth inning, but it was all downhill from there. Wandy Peralta gave up another two runs in the seventh, followed by the usually dependable Luis Cessa giving up another two runs in the eighth.
Inconsistent hitting led to another loss
The New York Yankees hitters came out like gangbusters in the first inning last night, scoring 4 runs right off the bat. DJ LeMahieu led off against Adam Plutko and walked. Luke Voit followed with a single moving DJ to second base. Aaron Judge singled to load the bases with no outs. Gio Urshela hit into a double play, but DJ scored. Gary Sanchez homered to far left, pushing in two more runs. Clint Frazer followed with a back to a back homer of his own. Miguel Andujar hit a long ball to the center-field warning track for the final out of the inning.
In the third inning, Aaron Judge had a solo 443′ home run to make him tied #1 for home runs in the 2021 season. After that, as the Yankee pitching failed, the Yankees bats went silent until an impotent mini rally in the top of the ninth inning. Last night just two hitters drove in 4 of the Yankees six runs. All of this being said, you can’t really blame the hitters for the Yankee loss. Six runs should get you a win, but not last night.