About Last Night: BAL 7, NYY 6

By Ethan Semendinger

June 20, 2024

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The day after Aaron Judge was hit by a pitch and removed from the game, how did the Yankees retaliate? By letting the Orioles mistakes go and making a crucial mistake late themselves.

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Quick Stats -

• Winning Pitcher: Craig Kimbrel (5-2, 2.63 ERA)

• Losing Pitcher: Clay Holmes (1-3, 2.53 ERA)

• Save: Dillon Tate (1)

• Home Runs (Baltimore): Ramon Urias (4)

• Home Runs (New York): Giancarlo Stanton (18)

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Big Story - Leading up to the game, anywhere you looked for coverage there was one big storyline, and it wasn't the return of the 2023 AL Cy Young Award Winner, Gerrit Cole, to the rotation for his season debut.

The question was: Are the Yankees going to retaliate against the Orioles for hitting Aaron Judge?

In case you missed it, on Tuesday night, the Orioles came high and inside to Aaron Judge, hitting him on the bottom of his left hand. Not too long after, the Yankees pulled Judge from the game and sent him for testing.

Later on in the game, the Orioles did the same thing to Gleyber Torres. (Though, Torres did not come out of the game.)

Yesterday morning, reports came out that the tests for Aaron Judge all came negative, though out of precaution, the Yankees opted not to send him out for the Wednesday night game.

This was the line-up for the middle game of the series against the Baltimore Orioles:

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Player(s) of the Game -

• Anthony Volpe: 3-4, 2 Runs, Double, BB, Great Defense

• Giancarlo Stanton: 2-4, 1 Run, 3-Run Home Run, 4 RBI's, 1 BB, 1 K

Notable Performances -

• Gerrit Cole: 4.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R (2 ER), 1 BB, 5 K's

• Caleb Ferguson: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB's, 0 K's

• Anthony Misiewicz: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K

• Juan Soto: 1-4, 2 Runs, BB

• DJ LeMahieu: 2-5, K

• Ben Rice: 1-3, RBI, BB

• Alex Verdugo: Bases-Loaded Game-Saving Catch in the Top of the 9th

Better to Forget -

• Ron Marinaccio: 1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R (2 ER), 1 BB, 2 K's

• Victor Gonzalez: 1.2 IP, 0 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB's, 1 K

• Clay Holmes: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R (1 ER), 0 BB's, 0 K's

• Jose Trevino: Overthrew 3rd Base, Allowed (eventual) Winning Run to Score

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The Game - It was really good to see Gerrit Cole back on the mound for the Yankees...even if his first inning back did not go entirely to plan. The Orioles quickly scored a run off of two doubles from Gunnar Henderson and Ryan O'Hearn, giving them a quick 1-0 lead. However, the Yankees quickly loaded the bases in their half of the first inning, and were able to squeak across a run via a Gleyber Torres sacrifice fly to tie the game up at one a piece.

Then, the game got boring. Yes, Anthony Volpe made a highlight reel play to end the 2nd inning, and then Cole proceeded to rack up 3 strikeouts in the 3rd inning...and get another 2 K's in the 4th. But, this was happening on both sides of the ball. The Orioles were unable to get anything going, and the Yankees matched them. Neither team got a runner to third across the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th innings.

In the 5th, Gerrit Cole got a short leash and was removed after a lead-off single by Cedric Mullins. Ron Marinaccio came in as relief and proceeded to give up a 2-run home run to Ramon Urias to give the Orioles a 3-1 lead...which after a few more at-bats turned into a 4-1 lead via a Ryan O'Hearn double (again), scoring Jorge Mateo. The Yankees didn't respond in the 5th, or the 6th.

The Orioles padded their lead in the 7th with (yet another) RBI double, this time from Ryan Mountcastle to bring the score to 5-1 Orioles. This run was scored Gunnar Henderson who was hit-by-a-pitch (in what looked to be the retaliation from the hit-by-pitch to Aaron Judge on Tuesday night). If retaliation needed to happen, it happened far too late.

Luckily, the Yankees had the top of the line-up set. After back-to-back singles from Anthony Volpe and Juan Soto (both aided from poor play by the Orioles), Giancarlo Stanton hit a HUGE 3-run home run into Monument Park. The Yankees had energy and were then trailing only 5-4.

The 8th inning came and went without much cause, but the Orioles nearly broke the game open in the 9th against Anthony Misiewicz, who loaded the bases with just one out. Austin Hays then pinch-hit for Ryan O'Hearn (who had 2 RBI doubles), but he struck out. And then Alex Verdugo made a game-saving catch to prevent three runs from scoring to end the inning.

The Yankees top of the order came back to work in the bottom of the 9th, with an Anthony Volpe lead-off double and then a Giancarlo Stanton RBI single to tie the game at 5-5, but they couldn't push across the winning run. Then, it was onto extra innings.

The Yankees sent out Clay Holmes...who allowed Cedric Mullins to single, bringing home ghost runner Anthony Santander, to give the Orioles a 6-5 lead. Mullins advanced to 2nd on the attempt to throw out Santander at home. Then, Mullins attempted to steal 3rd base, to which Jose Trevino threw the ball over DJ LeMahieu's head...7-5 Orioles.

In the bottom of the inning, DJ LeMahieu singled to bring the Yankees' ghost runner- Gleyber Torres- to third, and then Ben Rice brought him home with a sacrifice fly. Oswaldo Cabrera (pinch-running for DJ LeMahieu) was thrown out trying to steal second base (it was the right call to send him) before Jose Trevino walked. And then, Jahmai Jones struck out on 3 pitches to end the game.

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The Yankees had so many things go right in this game. The bulk of the bullpen (Gonzalez, Kahnle, Ferguson, Misiewicz) held the Orioles to just 1 run in 4 innings of combined work after Gerrit Cole got the early hook.

Giancarlo Stanton had two insanely clutch hits.

Anthony Volpe made tough plays look routine. As did Trent Grisham. As did Alex Verdugo. (As did Gleyber Torres with one slick catch.)

The Yankees bats showed heart, late in the game.

But, too many things also went wrong.

Jose Trevino can't throw anybody out. The Orioles went 4-4 in stolen base attempts.

Gerrit Cole was pulled after 62 pitches. To me, if he can't go more than that, he's not ready for the MLB rotation.

Clay Holmes showed more vulnerability.

The Yankees, as a team, had three errors to the Orioles 0.

The line-up was short in presence, with the absence of Aaron Judge.

The retaliation efforts came too late, and ended up giving the Orioles a free run.

The Yankees are, and can be, great, but the holes this team has are becoming more and more apparent with each passing game.

Let's go Yankees.

Let's hope they win this series against the Orioles and go into Friday on a high-note!

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Next Up - The Yankees (51-24) will finish the three-game series against the Orioles (47-25) with a Thursday afternoon game in the Bronx. The Yankees will send Luis Gil (9-1, 2.03 ERA) on the mound against Cole Irvin (6-3, 3.03 ERA). The game will be televised locally on YES, starting at 4:05 PM.