Orioles can’t hold late leads
The Orioles twice took late-inning leads Tuesday night in the Bronx. Neither survived the bottom half of the frame.
The New York Yankees walked off the Orioles, 7-6, to even the teams’ three-game series, with the Yankees answering Baltimore’s seventh-inning rally with one of their own before Jose Trevino’s game-winning single in the 11th inning after the Orioles plated a run in the top half.
Baltimore (18-26) put together its second four-run inning of the series thanks to home runs from Austin Hays and Rougned Odor to Yankee Stadium’s short right field porch, only for New York to even the game in the bottom half. Starter Bruce Zimmermann’s outing ended after a home run by Gleyber Torres, his second of the night after going without a longball against the Orioles in 2020 and 2021 following his 13-blast barrage in 2019. Zimmermann worked a career-high 6 innings but has allowed seven home runs over his past three starts after allowing one in his first six.
Hyde then turned to rookie Logan Gillaspie, making his third major league appearance, in a one-run game, saying later that typical backend options Félix Bautista, Jorge López and Cionel Pérez were unable given their recent usage. Gillaspie got a groundout and gave up a single before hitting Marwin G and he was unable to hold the lead. Keegan Akin and
Dillon Tate got the game to the 11th, where Hays’ groundout plated Baltimore’s automatic runner. But three straight hits off Bryan Baker in the bottom half cost the Orioles the lead and the game.
Create-a-comeback
The Orioles, it seems, have discovered the Yankees’ weakness: walls.
A week after New York slugger Aaron Judge and manager Aaron Boone complained about the Orioles’ changes to Camden Yards’ left field dimensions, Baltimore took advantage of Yankee Stadium’s layout. Hays and Odor’s home runs would have stayed in at any other major league venue, but they narrowly sailed over the short right field porch in a four-run inning for Baltimore.
Both long balls narrowly traveled over the short right field porch, with Hays’ traveling a projected 354 feet to knock New York starter Jordan Montgomery from the game and Odor sending a Michael King pitch one foot shorter for a go-ahead, three-run shot.
There was a clear irony to Judge’s and Boone’s comments last week, in which they referenced the Orioles’ decision to move the left field of home park back almost 30 feet and raise it more than 5 feet as “create-a-park” and “build-your-own-park,” respectively, after Judge lost a home run to the new wall. Earlier this month, Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward called Yankee Stadium a “Little League park” after a walk-off home run from Torres went over the ballpark’s right field wall, which is only 314 feet from home in the corner.
Around the horn
>> Orioles head athletic trainer Brian Ebel was named Monday to the Maryland Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame.
>> In his second appearance of his rehab assignment following a left oblique strain, right-hander Dean Kremer started for Triple-A Norfolk and pitched three hits and scoreless innings with six strikeouts.
>> Norfolk outfielder Kyle Stowers hit his seventh home run in eight games to take the system lead with 10, a mark matched later in the night by High-A Aberdeen infielder Coby Mayo.
>> In Double-A Bowie’s first game with four of the organization’s top infield prospect on the roster after César Prieto’s promotion from Aberdeen, Prieto played second base with Gunnar Henderson at shortstop, Jordan Westburg at third base and Joey Ortiz at designated hitter.