The Orioles’ brief burst of momentum from last weekend vanished fast Tuesday night, and the Yankees made sure of it. Baltimore was swept with a 6-1 loss that checked just about every box for an ugly game: Kyle Bradish had another rough outing, Gerrit Cole shut down the bats, and one costly defensive mistake opened the door for trouble.
Bradish never really settled in. He worked a tense first inning that started with a six-pitch walk to Trent Grisham, and even though Carlos Narváez challenged ball four and lost, the inning still had an uneasy feel. Ben Rice followed by going 3-2 before swinging at ball four and popping out, and Heliot Ramos then grounded into the first of three Yankees double plays to end the frame.
The third inning turned into the damage inning, and Gunnar Henderson was right in the middle of it. Back-to-back singles put runners on the corners with nobody out, then José Caballero hit a ground ball to Jackson Holliday.
Holliday threw to Henderson to start what should have been an inning-ending double play, but Henderson missed the catch. No outs were recorded, a run crossed, and the inning unraveled from there.
The next batter also hit into a double play, but Bradish couldn’t escape cleanly. Three batters and three hits later, Baltimore was staring at a 3-0 deficit.
He got some help from the double-play ball again in the fifth, where two more baserunners were erased. Bradish finished that inning at 89 pitches, and it felt like his night might be done.
Instead, he returned for the sixth and ran into immediate trouble. He faced four batters, retired two, and watched the other two leave the yard.
He was pulled after the second homer. His final line: 5.2 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.
Henderson’s error created the unearned runs, but Bradish also gave up three more hits after the miscue, so the inning never really had a chance to stabilize.
Baltimore’s offense, meanwhile, never gave him much of anything to work with. The Orioles had a small opening in the first when Pete Alonso singled and Gunnar Henderson walked, but that went nowhere.
Starting with Samuel Basallo’s strikeout after the Henderson walk, Cole retired 11 Orioles in a row. That stretch lasted through the end of the fourth inning and kept the game firmly in New York’s control.
Dylan Beavers finally broke through in the fifth, and he did it emphatically. He jumped on a 97 mph fastball up in the zone and sent it into the flag court, trimming the deficit to 3-1. Cole responded by retiring the next three hitters.
Cole’s final inning looked a lot like his first. After a Jackson Holliday strikeout, Alonso and Henderson reached base again, but Basallo struck out for the second time and Christian Encarnacion-Strand flew out to end the threat. That was the last real opening Baltimore got against him.
Grant Wolfram gave the Orioles a clean lift out of the bullpen, retiring all four batters he faced on 17 pitches with two strikeouts. Albert Suárez was less sharp, allowing a run on three hits in the eighth before tossing a perfect ninth.
After Cole departed, Ryan Yarbrough took over and the Orioles couldn’t touch him. Baltimore went down in order against him in all three innings, and he finished off the game with a rare three-inning save.
The Orioles fell 6-1, their fourth straight loss. They open a three-game series with the Rays tomorrow.
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