Albert Suárez got roughed up (figuratively) and several O’s and Yankees got beaten up (literally) in the opener of a huge three-game series.
Friends, we knew this Orioles/Yankees series was going to be a hard-fought, bloody scuffle. I just didn’t know the teams would take that description quite so literally.
The O’s lost the opener to the Yankees, 4-2, after their starting pitcher and their offense both short-circuited, but it was a pretty gruesome game on both sides. By the fifth inning, four different players had been battered, bruised, and bloodied. And we’ve still got two more games to play.
The carnage began in the top of the first inning with Adley Rutschman, who took a hard dive back into second base on a pickoff attempt and then came up with a bloody nose that required a visit from the trainer. Rutschman stayed in the game, and the Orioles’ two first-inning singles went for naught as Yankees starter Nestor Cortes escaped the jam.
In the bottom of the inning, the Yankees put together an identical rally to the Orioles’ — runners at first and second, one out — after Juan Soto walked and Aaron Judge singled. Just like Cortes, Albert Suárez worked out of it, but not without a cost. On Giancarlo Stanton’s grounder to the left side, Soto collided with Jordan Westburg as he tried to field the ball. Soto was ruled out for interference, but he knocked Westburg out in the process, with the O’s third baseman removed from the game with left hip discomfort. Soto! (shakes fist) Come on, man. This is why we don’t just barrel recklessly into fielders. Let’s hope Westburg is OK.
Oh, there’s more. Suárez opened the bottom of the third with a four-seam fastball that ran in too far on Judge, drilling him in the hand. Oof. You hate to see that, too. Judge was clearly in pain as the trainers checked him out at first base, and while he initially stayed in the game, he was pinch-hit for an inning later. The Judge injury, understandably, cast a gloomy pall over the crowd of 47,429 at Yankee Stadium. As of this writing there have been no updates about Judge’s status.
And we’re still not done. The fifth inning began with yet another Orioles pitcher missing badly inside and drilling a batter in the hand, this time Keegan Akin landing a fastball on Gleyber Torres’s pinky finger. You see what I mean about this game turning unexpectedly violent. Torres, at least, was able to stay in the game, but the Yankees were none too happy with the wildness of O’s pitchers. Yeah, neither were the Orioles.
When players weren’t getting hurt left and right, the Yankees were putting a figurative hurting on the Orioles, particularly Suárez, who stumbled through the worst outing of his O’s career. Only once in his first 14 outings had Suárez allowed more than two runs, and he’d gotten through at least four innings in every previous start, but that ended tonight. The right-hander simply had no command, issuing a galling five walks and six hits in just 3.2 innings of work. The Yankees tallied their first run in the second inning on an Anthony Volpe RBI single, then tacked on two more in the third when the first four batters reached base.
By the time Suárez walked the bases loaded in the fourth, Brandon Hyde had seen enough, as had we all. Suárez has otherwise been a sensational out-of-nowhere find for the Orioles this season, but his first experience at Yankee Stadium was not a good one. Keegan Akin helpfully stranded all three inherited runners to somewhat salvage Suárez’s pitching line, but gave up a run of his own in the fifth.
Meanwhile, Cortes was cruising. The Yankees left-hander, once a short-lived Orioles Rule 5 pick, has a long history of dominating the Birds, entering with a career 4-1 record and 2.45 ERA against Baltimore. The new and improved O’s offense had hit him a little better in his most recent outings against them, but you wouldn’t know it tonight. He was shutting down Orioles hitters like it was 2020-21 all over again.
After the top of the first, the O’s never managed even two baserunners in one inning against Cortes, who threw everything but the kitchen sink — cutters, four-seamers, changeups, sliders, sweepers — to easily dispatch one batter after another. He retired 10 batters in a row at one point, and the Orioles didn’t get another man in scoring position until the sixth, only for nifty plays by the Yankees’ middle infielders to keep him stranded. Also, after the Judge and Torres HBPs, Cortes fired an up-and-in fastball that knocked down Gunnar Henderson. The Yankee Stadium crowd reacted with cheers and applause, which is gross.
The Orioles at least made Cortes work for 105 pitches in six innings, which isn’t much consolation when you don’t score any runs. Relievers Michael Tonkin and Luke Weaver each pitched a scoreless inning, which included Ramón Urías getting picked off first base with the O’s down by four runs in the eighth, like, what are we doing here, Ramón?
The Birds’ offense finally showed signs of life in the ninth, when it was far too late to matter. Against Yankees closer Clay Holmes, pitching in a non-save situation, Henderson led off with a single to extend his league-leading on-base streak to 25 games in a row. Anthony Santander followed with a laser-shot home run into right field, the first dinger that Holmes has given up all season. That cut the Yankees’ lead to 4-2, but Holmes easily dispatched the next three hitters to finish the game.
Bleh. The Yankees were, by every measure, the better team in this game. But we’ve seen the O’s bounce back from rough losses before. They’ve got two more games to show the Yankees what they’re made of.