The New York Yankees entered a Friday doubleheader in Baltimore with two storylines hanging over them. One was the need to sweep the two-games, to draw themselves closer to the first-place Tampa Bay Rays. The other was to become the winning most team, with the number of straight wins over an opponent in baseball. They entered the day having won 18 straight games against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. The results of that hope almost came true when the Yankees won game one, but when they lost game two, that hope was dashed. That second game loss also meant, no sweep of the Orioles.
Both of those hopes may have been unrealistic as the Yankees found themselves with no regular starting pitchers for either game and a completely warn out bullpen. The Yankees waited to the very last minute to announce that Micheal King would start game one. King has shown flashes of pitching brilliance, yet he has never had a scoreless outing. All but two of his games were as a reliever. Going into the game he has never pitched more than four innings in a game.
In the first, Cedric Mullins homered to give the Orioles the early lead. In the second inning, the silent bat of Gary Sanchez came alive and answered with a homer of his own, deep to left field, tying up the score. In the third with the bases loaded, Brett Gardner singled, driving in two runs. That knocked the O’s start, Eshelman, out of the game. Kline came in with the bases still loaded and allowed an additional run, and it was 4-1 Yankees. But the Yankees missed a big opportunity to blow the game open. The O’s picked up another run before King was replaced by Ben Heller at the bottom of the sixth inning. Heller allowed Nunez to tie up the game with a homer.
The game would remain tied and go into extra innings. In the ninth inning, Miguel Andujar who had been inserted as a pinch-running in the seventh, singled in the tie-breaking run. Clint Frazier had an RBI single and it was 6-4 Yankees. At the bottom of the frame, the O’s picked up a run, but that wasn’t enough as the New York Yankees squeaked out a one-run victory. Latkins took the loss for the Orioles and Jonathan Holder the win for the Yankees. Chad Green recorded his first save of the season.
Game two:
Game two marked the second start of the year for the 21-year-old pitching sensation, Deivi Garcia. Garcia pitched brilliantly in his first start, with the 40-year-old Erik Kratz behind the plate, although it was a no-decision for Garcia. Kratz was also behind the plate for this second start. The young pitcher was greeted with a two-run homer in the second inning by Ryan Mountcastle, giving the Orioles a two-run lead. At the top of the third Thairo Estrada drove in a run for the Yankees and it was 2-1 O’s. At the top of the fourth Erik Kratz would support his pitcher by driving two runs giving the Yankees their first lead of the night, 3-2 Yankees.
At the bottom of the fifth, Ryan Mountcastle would tie it up at 3 apiece, knocking Garcia out of the game. The triple-A starter Clarke Schmidt, who had never relieved in a game came in to replace Garica. With men on base Schmidt allowed a tie-breaking single to Rio Ruiz. The O’s would score another run, both charged to Garcia. The Orioles would end up scoring four runs in the fifth, giving them the split of the doubleheader. Lopez got the win, Valdez the save, and young Deivi Garcia suffered his first loss in the major leagues.
With the Yankee loss, they remain tied with the Toronto Blue Jays for third place in the East Division behind the East-leading Rays and the second-place Philadelphia Phillies. The Orioles are only four games behind the Yankees.
The New York Yankees will again face the Baltimore Orioles in a 7:35 pm game Saturday. The Yankee’s ace Gerrit Cole will face the Orioles Keegan Akin. They will wrap up the four-game series with a Sunday matinee, with Masahiro Tanaka on the mound for the Yankees and Asher Wojciechowski for the O’s.