The Yankees will have to wait at least one more day to clinch the AL East title, as they were defeated by the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3, on Tuesday night in the Bronx.
Here are some takeaways…
– Aaron Judge continues to build onto his tremendous American League MVP candidacy, as he got the Yankees on the board by leading off the bottom of the fourth with his 56th home run of the season. The big man finished the day 1-for-3 but he has now recorded 14 RBI and a 1.229 OPS over his last 15 games and he’s reached base safely in all but one game during the final month of the season.
– Gleyber Torres has been doing a tremendous job setting the table atop the Yanks’ lineup and he continued that in this one, singling in each of his first two at-bats. The red-hot second baseman wasted an opportunity in the fourth, but he came up a few innings later with a man in scoring position and he lined an opposite-field ground-rule double to cut into the lead.
Torres remains scorching hot at the plate, but his overly aggressive base-running on a Juan Soto double got him caught in a rundown at third, and potentially cost Judge an at-bat with the go-ahead run in scoring position. He has now made an ugly six outs at home this season, which is tied with Tampa Bay’s Yandy Diaz for the most in baseball.
– Alex Verdugo got the start in place of youngster Jasson Dominguez and had a massive opportunity in the bottom of the fifth. After Dean Kremer walked back-to-back batters to lead off the inning, the outfielder grounded into a double play to kill the potential rally. Verdugo did spark a bit of a rally and ended a 0-for-10 skid over his last four games with an infield single two innings later, but he flew out to left-center representing the tying run in the bottom of the ninth.
Dominguez had a chance prior to that coming off the bench as a pinch hitter, but he grounded out.
– Despite being handed the loss, Clarke Schmidt threw relatively well for the Yankees tonight. The right-hander allowed a run in the second on a Heston Kjerstad groundout and then another two innings later on a Ryan O’Hearn run-scoring single. He returned for the sixth but was pulled after allowing Anthony Santander‘s 44th home run of the season to give Baltimore their third run of the game.
– Tim Mayza and Ian Hamilton both allowed homers during their innings of work out of the bullpen.
Game MVP: Colton Cowser
The Yankees appeared to have been picking up the momentum in the late innings, but Cowser’s moonshot solo homer increased the lead back to two and put this one away for good.
Highlights
Upcoming schedule
Nestor Cortes (9-10, 3.77 ERA) takes the mound against trade deadline acquisition Zach Eflin (10-9, 3.63 ERA) as the Yankees and O’s continue their three-game set on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m.