O’s overmatched at Yankee Stadium
Miley battered by Yanks in 1st inning, ending stretch of strong starts by rotation
NEW YORK – The Orioles’ starting rotation seemed to have turned the corner this week in Toronto, and even though the club dropped two of three at Rogers Centre, it received solid starting pitching in three one-run games.
But then the Orioles arrived in the Bronx, where Yankee Stadium’s typical volume was subdued early Thursday night by a malfunction in the ballpark’s sound system, leaving them listening to only the crack of the Yankees’ bats battering left-hander Wade Miley for six runs in the bottom of the first inning. That led to a 13-5 defeat, the latest in a string of lopsided losses in New York.
Miley (8-13) lasted just one-third of an inning, his shortest outing in 194 major league starts, pulled after six of the seven batters he faced came up with base hits.
The Orioles are still playing for an opportunity to play in a win-or-go-home American League wild-card game, and in all likelihood — as their postseason chances become more remote by the day — that game would involve a trip to Yankee Stadium.
If the Orioles’ games at Yankee Stadium this year — Thursday’s series opener included — are any indication, the Orioles have a better chance of winning on Mars.
Certainly, the Yankees’ domination of the Orioles (72-75) in New York this season is out of this world.
The Yankees have scored more than twice as many runs as the Orioles in their past seven meetings in the Bronx, outscoring them 81-35.
The Orioles have dropped six of seven at Yankee Stadium, losing those six games by an average of 8.2 runs. The Yankees scored
in double digits in five of those wins.
That stretch includes a threegame sweep in June in which the Orioles were outscored 38-8.
Miley’s brief outing marked the fourth time in seven games in New York that the Orioles starters failed to get through four innings, and the second time a starter couldn’t get through the second inning.
Miley was on the mound for the Orioles’ only win at Yankee Stadium this year, posting one of the team's better starts there — a five-inning, two-run outing in a 7-4 extra-inning win on April 30.
He also had a 3.25 ERA in his eight starts coming into Thursday.
But on Thursday, he lasted just 19 pitches. The Yankees put their first three batters of the inning on base and scored their first run after just six pitches, when Gary Sánchez’s double drove in Jacoby Ellsbury.
Miley’s high walks total have been his bugaboo this season — his 84 walks entering Thursday were the most in the major leagues — but the Yankees didn’t feel the need to work any counts against the left-hander, jumping on poorly executed pitches in the zone early on.
Miley’s four-seam fastball, which averages nearly 92 mph, reached 90 mph just twice through his first 11 fastballs. And once Todd Frazier hit a three-run homer over the center-field fence on a 3-1 92-mph fastball, manager Buck Showalter quickly jumped out of the dugout to pull Miley in favor of right- hander Mike Wright.
Miley’s six-run first inning wasn’t the first time the Orioles fell behind big at Yankee Stadium. In their past three games at the Yankees, the Orioles were outscored 17-0 in the opening frame.
Including Miley’s start, Orioles starters have a combined 13.50 ERA at Yankee Stadium this season and have allowed 12 homers in 251⁄ innings.
The Orioles have allowed more homers at Yankee Stadium this season than any opposing ballpark (26) — 17 more than anywhere else. For emphasis, Aaron Judge hit his 10th and 11th homers against the Orioles this season through the first six innings. He has no more than six against any other opponent.
Back in June, the Yankees’ three-game sweep of the Orioles served as an indicator of how far apart the two teams were at the time. This series could be a reminder of that, and by the end, could be the knockout blow to all but mathematically end the Orioles’ playoff hopes.