Yankees crush Orioles 7-1 as Birds bats continue to struggle

That was a top to bottom spanking that the Yankees just laid on the Orioles. New York used timely hitting and lock-down pitching to beat a listless Baltimore team 7-1 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on Tuesday night.

They are who we though they were

Things went about as well as you would expect them to go on the pitching side of things for the Orioles. Vance Worley was given his third shot at starting this season and was not good.

For a guy coming from the long relief role, he put together a pretty predictable line: 4.1 innings and three runs off of three hits, four walks and three strikeouts. He did all of this in 88 pitches before being relieved by Odrisamer Despaigne.

The walks were the biggest problem for the O’s starterr; four in 4.1 innings is huge. It makes it worse that two of them came around to score. The first runs for the Yanks came in the second inning. Didi Gregorious put together a well-fought, 10-pitch at-bat to earn a two-out base on balls. A few moments later, Starlin Castro launched a long fly ball into the Bronx night for a two-run homer to left field. 2-0 New York.

The third and fourth innings went by with little issue for Worley, but the fifth would prove to be the end of his line. Rob Refsnyder led off with a walk and then stole second base. A batter later, Jacoby Ellsbury singled up the middle to drive in Refsnyder and give the Bombers a 3-0 lead. Despaigne came in after that to get out of the inning.

Offense, offense. Where for art thou, offense?

The Baltimore bats are in the midst of a cold spell following the All-Star break. Despite taking two out of three from the Rays over the weekend, the team only scored a total of eight runs in that three-game series. Last night in New York, they could only muster one run against Ivan Nova. Tonight, their issues continued.

The Yankees ran right-hander Nathan Eovaldi out to the hill. The 26-year-old hadn’t started a game in nearly three weeks, but looked as fresh as a daisy, tossing 5.1 innings and only allowing one run on four hits, two walks and one strikeout.

His one blemish came in the top of the sixth frame. It was an inning in which an Orioles offense that is clicking puts up three or four runs, but they could only muster one on this night. Ryan Flaherty started things with a one-out walk and Adam Jones followed with a single. A Joey Rickard double scored Flaherty from second to make it a 3-1 game. And then Manny Machado walked to load the bases with still just the one out.

That ended Eovaldi’s night as he was replaced by Anthony Swarzak, a righty who came in with a 4.70 ERA and was a part of that relatively weak bridge between the New York rotation and the back of their bullpen. But neither Mark Trumbo nor Jonathan Schoop could do any damage; both fouled out, Trumbo down the right field line and Schoop down the left field line.

Swarzak continued on for New York, pitching a perfect seventh and eighth inning as well. His line: 2.2 innings, no runs, no hits, no walks, two strikeouts. It was his longest outing of the 2016 season and his longest since making a start for the Twins back on September 26, 2014. Yeah.

Piling on

After getting out of the fifth inning, Despaigne stayed in to pitch the sixth inning, but that turned out to be a poor decision. He walked Brian McCann to open the inning. One batter later, Gregorius singled again, and then it was Castro producing more runs. The shortstop doubled to the right-center gap, scoring both of the base runners to extend the Bombers lead; 5-1. From there, Despaigne would work out of the mess to end the threat.

Left-hander Donnie Hart worked the seventh inning and did alright. Brett Gardner led off with a single and then moved to second on an Ellsbury sacrifice bunt. Hart then intentionally walked Carlos Beltran and got McCann to hit into a double play to finish the frame.

Mychal Givens was tasked with getting through the eighth inning, but struggled. He walked Alex Rodriguez (who was then pinch ran for by Ronald Torreyes). Then got Gregorius on a fly out and then Castro on a fielder’s choice. But Givens was unable to get past Chase Headley, who stroked an 85 mph slider into the bleachers in right field for a two-run round-tripper. 7-1 Yankees

Closing time

The O’s showed no fight on offense. Nick Goody came in to finish up the blowout for New York and did so in dominant fashion, striking out Machado, Trumbo and Schoop in order. Half of the Orioles strikeouts for the entire game came in that ninth inning.

As a team, the O’s had just four hits, two walks and the aforementioned six strikeouts. Only three player got hits: Rickard (2), Jones and Alvarez. The lineup is in a slump and currently playing without two of their everyday guys in Matt Wieters and Chris Davis as well as Hyun Soo Kim who may be the team’s biggest on-base threat. These are tough times.

Making things worse, Boston beat the Giants tonight. The Blue Jays are currently in a rain delay in Colorado. That means that the Orioles division lead is down to one-half game. Ugh. For some reason, that Van Morrison Song “Days Like This” keeps popping into my head when I think about this game. But that is my own issue to deal with.

Coming Up

It’s a match-up of under-performing hurlers tomorrow night. Yovani Gallardo (3-1, 5.77 ERA) heads to the bump for Baltimore. He will be opposed by righty Michael Pineda (3-9, 5.56). First pitch is set for 7:05 from Yankee Stadium and will be broadcast on MASN.