The scoring strategy Friday night in the Bronx was fairly simple for both teams, hit the ball over the fences in Yankee Stadium. Ten of the twelve total runs scored in the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 loss to the New York Yankees (92-68) came via the homerun. A pair of homeruns accounted for all of Baltimore’s four runs and three homeruns scored six runs for the New Yorkers.
In what was an uncharacteristic start based on recent history, Orioles starter Trevor Rogers (9-3), surrendered all three homeruns in an abbreviated 3.0 inning start. It simply was not the Rogers fans have grown accustomed to seeing as the southpaw allowed 6 runs on 3 hits , walked 3 and struck out 3. The Yankees wasted no time against Rogers with Giancarlo Stanton hitting a two-run homerun in the first inning after Rogers allowed a two-out walk.
Rogers faced the minimum in the second inning thanks to an inning-ending double play that erased a baserunner that was the result of a Jordan Westburg throwing error. The Yankees said “boom boom, out go the lights” in the third inning as Aaron Judge hit his 52nd homerun of the year, a solo shot to center, and Stanton added another two-run homerun of his own. Stanton’s blast once again followed a walk.
“Really, stuff just wasn’t crisp tonight. Tried to rear back and give it a little something extra, and just the life wasn’t there tonight. Just one of those nights. Got to tip your cap. It’s really, really difficult to face a team twice back-to-back starts, and they made a good adjustment. There were some calls that just didn’t go my way, and they made really good swings on bad pitches on my part. Just tip your cap. Not the way I wanted the season to end, but use it as motivation for the offseason.” said Rogers of his start.
Interim Manager Tony Mansolino added, “Just didn’t have his best stuff tonight, strangely. Out of all the starts, it kind of turned out to be the last one where the best stuff didn’t show up right there. The way they were handling him, being as good as he’s been for us all year, we didn’t feel like we wanted to kind of expose him to more of that at this point. He’s just been so good and we felt like it was wise to pull him right there and kind of take care of him. Felt like it was the right thing to do.”
Westburg, who went 3 for 5 with a run and 3 RBI, preceded the error with a three-run homerun to left in the Orioles’ half of the third inning.
A Westy Weaver
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— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) September 26, 2025
Tyler O’Neill added a sixth inning solo homerun, his ninth, to the Baltimore ledger.
Envisioned as a replacement for Anthony Santander, O’Neill has played in just 52 games this season due to a variety of injuries and has been paid 1.83 million dollars per homerun. After the game he addressed his season so far, saying, “It hasn’t been easy. Very stop and go. Tough to get into a rhythm. Just when I felt like I was having it a couple months ago, obviously freak accident happened. Obviously, like I said, I’m just happy to be back and I’m just focused on the day by day and trying to be around these guys and be a good teammate.”
The Orioles were not without ample scoring opportunities throughout the game. Colton Cowser doubled with two outs in the fourth inning and the Birds loaded the bases following O’Neill’s homerun in the sixth. The team also placed a pair of runners on base in both the seventh and ninth innings but in each case failed to add to the scoring, finishing the game 2 for 5 with runners in scoring position and having left 5 runnuers on base.
After Rogers’ premature exit Colin Selby managed to hold the Yankees in check in the fourth and fifth innings. Yennier Cano, however, allowed two runs on 4 hits in the sixth and part of the seventh inning. Cano turned the game over to Jose Castillo with two on and none out in the seventh and Castillo mopped it up from there. Despite facing the bases loaded with no outs and once again with one out, Castillo allowed just one inherited runner to score on a third to first groundout.
With the loss the Orioles remain 2.0 GB of the Tampa Bay Rays (77-83) for last place in the AL East and have allowed the Yankees to keep pace with the Toronto Blue Jays (92-68) in the race for the AL East crown.
2025 Record: 75-85
Next Game: Sat. 9/27 @ 1:05 pm vs. Yankees in New York