The Orioles relievers picked up Tomoyuki Sugano while the bats cashed in a few major opportunities to win the first of three in the Bronx this weekend.
Timely hits and a lockdown night from the Orioles bullpen led them to a 5-3 win over the Yankees on Friday night in the Bronx.
The Orioles came out swinging against Max Fried. Jackson Holliday, who was a last-minute substitute for an ailing Adley Rutschman, led off the game with a single. A pair of hit by pitches for Ramón Laureano and Colton Cowser would later load the bases ahead of ex-Yankee Gary Sánchez. The backstop looked locked in against his former club and put together an impressive at-bat before he singled into left field to score the first two runs of the game.
Tomoyuki Sugano headed to the mound for the O’s in the bottom of the inning. The 35-year-old was not on his game in this one. He walked the first two hitters he faced, and then served up singles to the next two, making it a 2-1 score. Sugano did better from there, retiring the next three hitters in a row, although a run-scoring sac fly was mixed in to tie things up at two runs apiece.
The early success that the Orioles found against Fried did not show up again between the second and fifth innings. They had just two base runners in that span, none of which got beyond second base.
Meanwhile, the Yankees had taken the lead back with an Aaron Judge solo homer to begin the third inning.
In the fourth, Sugano returned to mound, but would not last long. He served up a double to DJ LeMahieu to begin the frame and after recording two outs then issued an intentional walk to Judge before he was removed in favor of Keegan Akin.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. welcomed Akin to the game with a single into right field. LeMahieu was off on contact, but that didn’t give him enough of a head start to out run Ramón Laureano’s arm. Laureano collected the hard-hit single, barely even set his feet, and fired home. Sánchez collected the throw on the first base side of home plate and dove over to the third base side to tag LeMahieu out at the plate. The play was reviewed, but the outcome did not change. Akin had wriggled his way out of the jam.
From there on out, everything fell in the Orioles favor.
With one out in the sixth inning, Cowser, Sánchez, and Coby Mayo delivered three straight singles to tie the game at 3-3. Mayo’s single was particularly impressive. The youngster was down 0-2 in the count, fouled off a 98-mph fastball, and then dunked a 79-mph curveball into shallow center field. Cowser read the ball beautifully off the bat to score with ease. It would have been nice for the Orioles to add even more to the lead, but a long fly out for Dylan Carlson and then a Luis Vázquez strikeout gave them no chance to do so.
The Orioles retook the lead in the eighth inning. Ramón Urías hit a solo homer to right field off of Luke Weaver to make it 4-3 O’s. Weaver then issued a walk to Sánchez, gave up a single to pinch hitter Ryan O’Hearn, and retired Carlson before Aaron Boone pulled him in favor of Tim Hill. The lefty was brought on to face Gunnar Henderson, who came off the bench to hit for Vázquez. Give Tony Mansolino the win for that decision. Henderson sliced a single into left field, scoring Sánchez for a 5-3 lead.
It seemed like a bigger rally was brewing when Holliday followed with an infield single to first base. But some questionable baserunner by O’Hearn put a stop to that. Holliday’s grounder was fed to Hill, who was late covering the bag. Hill caught the ball, but was then aware enough to spot O’Hearn stray too far from third base. He fired across the diamond and caught him for the final out of the inning.
There was little drama beyond that. Scott Blewett worked two perfect innings in relief to earn the win. And then Félix Bautista came on for the save and made quick work of the middle of the Yankees order, including strikeouts of Judge and Chisholm.
What a win! This is not the sort of game that the Orioles of April or May pull off. On offense it required them to be resilient, to pick away at a really good lefty starter, and to torment one of the game’s best relievers. The bullpen had to carry a big load, tossing 5.1 innings with very little room for error. They responded with a spotless game. It was impressive all around.
Holliday collected three hits in this game despite thinking he was gonna enjoy an evening off just minutes before first pitch.
Mayo and Sánchez continue to revitalize their seasons. Mayo had another extra-base hit and delivered a crucial RBI off of Fried. Sánchez reached base three times against his former club, drove in a pair of runs, and helped on that throw out of LeMahieu at home.
Mansolino deserves an individual shout out as well. He was smart to pull Sugano when he did. He pulled the right strings on the pinch hitting of O’Hearn and Henderson. And he made all of the right calls with the relievers and when he used them. It was a flawless night of managing from the dugout.
The Orioles just keep winning games. They are nine games under .500 for the first time since May 9. It has taken a long time to get back to this point. But if they can keep winning two-thirds of their games, which is what they have done for all of June, they will be right on track to be .500 by the trade deadline. There’s still a ways to go, but it has been something to behold.
These two teams play again on Saturday. Zach Eflin (6-3, 4.81 ERA) will head to the hill to face off with Clarke Schmidt (3-3, 3.16 ERA). First pitch is 1:05 from Yankee Stadium.