The Yankees walked it off against the Orioles on Friday, 4-3.
Here are the takeaways…
1. The Yankees couldn’t score a run against the bullpen with the worst ERA in baseball, so Aroldis Chapman entered the game in the ninth in a tie game. He put the lead run on with a one-out walk, but struck out the next two batters to send the game to the bottom of the ninth still knotted. However, the Yanks were retired in order to go to the 10th.
2. The 10th was Wandy Peralta‘s, and he allowed a one-out single to Ryan Mountcastle that scored inherited runner Ryan McKenna, and gave the O’s a 3-2 lead. Peralta lucked out with Trey Mancini, though, as he lined out hard to Gleyber Torres who doubled off Mountcastle to end the inning.
Tyler Wade was the runner on second in the bottom of the 10th, and the Yankees took advantage of the speedster as DJ LeMahieu singled the opposite way to tie the game – LeMahieu advanced to second on the play at the plate, and he advanced to third on a wild pitch. With two outs, the red-hot Aaron Judge came to the plate, but he grounded out to first to go to the 11th.
3. Clay Holmes entered the game in the 11th, and promptly faced runners on the corners with none out after allowing a leadoff single. But he induced a popout, a shallow flyout, and a strikeout to get out of the jam.
In the bottom half, Giancarlo Stanton came up with Judge on second, and singled right up the middle, driving in Judge and winning the game.
4. Nestor Cortes had the Orioles off-balance all night. He kept the Orioles scoreless through 5.2 innings before giving up a long solo home run to Mancini. That prompted Aaron Boone to go to the bullpen, but not before Cortes struck out seven batters – he allowed just four hits and walked two.
3. But the Yankees weren’t able to muster up much against John Means, until Stanton opened up the scoreboard with a two-out, solo home run in the fourth inning. With runners on the corners in the fifth, LeMahieu gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead with a sacrifice fly.
3. A former Yankee prospect came back to bite his old team, though, as Jorge Mateo tied the game with a solo home run off Jonathan Loaisiga. It was the first home run he’s allowed since May 7.
4. Chad Green came on in the eighth and quickly got two outs, but then allowed a double and a walk. However, he struck out Ramon Urias to work out of the trouble.
5. In his first game back from the IL, Torres went 0-for-4.
6. Joey Gallo continued to struggle in pinstripes, as he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
What’s next
The Yankees will continue their three-game set with the O’s on Saturday at 1:05 p.m. in the Bronx. Jordan Montgomery will take the bump for the Yanks, while Baltimore will return with Chris Ellis.