Akin, Stewart show their stuff in victory
Pitcher carries shutout into 6th, OF blasts 2 home runs
ORIOLES 6, YANKEES 1
When a team puts as much stock in the future as the Orioles have, it’s asking a lot of fans to believe that all the losing in the interim is worth the wait.
Nights like Saturday are when a little bit of that patience pays off. The Orioles posted a 6-1 win over the New York Yankees with well-regarded pitching prospect Keegan Akin carrying a shutout into the sixth inning and the team’s young bats finally breaking the game open against ace starter Gerrit Cole.
The Orioles waited weeks to add Akin to their starting rotation, breaking him in slowly as a reliever before unleashing him as a starter this week. He struck out eight Yankees while allowing three hits and walking four.
DJ Stewart waited weeks, on either side of a minor-league demotion, for an elusive first hit of the season. It came in his 31st plate appearance in the form of a home run off Cole, the most expensive pitcher in the world. Stewart added a second home run in his next at-bat to continue making up for lost time.
Like Akin, outfielder Ryan Mountcastle had to wait for his debut too. The reigning International League Most Valuable Player spent the first month-plus of the season polishing some rough edges at the team’s secondary camp in Bowie. His two-strike, bases-loaded single off Cole broke the game open in a five-run sixth inning. He later scored on a two-run double by Rio Ruiz.
It didn’t initially look like a day youth would prevail. While Akin started strongly, so too did Cole, striking out eight of the first nine batters he faced and not allowing a baserunner until José Iglesias’ two-out double in the fourth inning.
Cole wasn’t any less dominant after that, but the sixth inning, which began with Stewart’s improbable home run, seemed to knock the entire game off kilter.
Hanser Alberto went on to reach on a throwing error by Yankees third baseman Thairo Estrada. Iglesias, who entered the game with one walk in 92 plate appearances, drew a second walk.
Mountcastle’s single came on a 0-2 fastball that was several inches above the strike zone. The ball boy down the first base line picked up Ruiz’s double, but two runs scores. Cole left with a five-run inning full of the bizarre on his resume.
Dillon Tate, who finished Akin’s sixth inning, struck out two in the seventh before walking two and leaving some traffic for Paul Fry. That was enough to earn Tate his first career win.
A home run by Clint Frazier in the eighth inning accounted for the Yankees’ lone run. Fry pitched two innings before journeyman right-hander César Valdez came in for the final out.
Akin attacks
Akin, making his second start after going 4 1⁄3 innings without allowing an earned run Monday against the Toronto Blue Jays, showed much of the same repertoire and plan against the Yankees on Saturday.
He located his fastball, which hitters have a hard time squaring up, high in the strike zone. This time around, he used his changeup much more effectively, getting five swinging strikes on 19 changeups against right-handed hitters.
With the win, Akin lowered his ERA to 2.08. His 16 swinging strikes were tied for second-most by an Orioles pitcher this season.
Stewart swings
Manager Brandon Hyde assured after Friday’s doubleheader that Stewart’s hitless season wasn’t the product of bad at-bats and that he’d been putting together good plate appearances. Stewart’s nine walks in 28 plate appearances indicated as much.
But Stewart broke out in a big way with his first career multihomer game Saturday. With those two big swings, he raised his OPS from .385 entering the game to .835 after he was substituted in the eighth inning.