Orioles fall prey to Yankees’ bats in rain soaked 8-5 loss

On a soggy evening at Camden Yards, the Orioles and Yankees had to sit through a rain delay of 1 hour and 44 minutes before the first pitch. For much of that delay there wasn’t even any precipitation, just the looming threat of it. But once play did start, there was a steady rain falling throughout most of the game.

Generally, Kevin Gausman has pitched well against the Yankees over the course of his career. Coming into this game, Gausman had gone 7-5 against New York in 17 games started with a 3.53 ERA and 1.35 WHIP.

But the scoring started early in this one. Adam Jones was 9-for-24 with in his career against Masahiro Tanaka at the start of play, and he was able to continue that success. In the first inning, he deposited an 87 mph splitter into the first row in left-center field, right on the edge of the Orioles bullpen. 1-0, Orioles.

In the second inning, Miguel Andujar hit a two-run home run, his sixth of the year, after an Aaron Hicks single. 2-1, Yankees.

Brett Gardner was a thorn in Kevin Gausman’s side early in this one. Gardner has previously enjoyed success against Gausman, coming into the game with a .333 career batting average against him. He led off the game with a double but was stranded at third. He would double again to lead off the third inning for the Yankees, and that time he was driven in by Giancarlo Stanton’s home run. 4-1, Yankees.

At the start of play today, Aaron Judge was 7-for-14 with three home runs and six RBI in his career against Gausman. But Gausman got the better of this matchup early on. Judge struck out in his first two at-bats, both times with Brett Garnder in scoring position. He would later double in the fifth off Gausman though.

In the bottom of the third, Joey Rickard hit a solo home run to left field, reducing New York’s lead to two. 4-2, Yankees. Rickard has not had much success since he burst back onto the major league scene with a two home run performance on May 13 against the Tampa Bay Rays. In the last 15 days, he was hitting .235. In the last seven, he was hitting just .188.

Gausman flashed his ability to miss bats early and often. He had nine strikeouts through five innings. But his outing started to really go south in the sixth, mostly because of a spate of miscues in the field. There was a total of three errors in the inning that led to two runs (one earned) for Gausman.

Jonathan Schoop sailed a throw over Chris Davis’ head on the back end of a potential double play that allowed Gary Sanchez to advance to second. Adam Jones charged a sinking liner in center and had the ball skip past him, far enough to allow Gary Sanchez to score and to allow Didi Gregorius to advance to second. Aaron Hicks followed with a single and Gregorius scored on a throwing error by Jones that got past the cutoff man. 6-2, Yankees.

Gausman’s final stat line for the game looked like this: 5.1 innings, nine hits, six runs, five earned runs, zero walks, nine strikeouts and two home runs. He threw 97 pitches, including 64 for strikes. His ERA rose from 4.31 to 4.76.

Miguel Castro relieved Gausman with one out and a runner on second base in the sixth. Andujar then lined out, but Gleyber Torres reached first after being hit by a pitch. The Yankees executed a double steal, but Brett Garnder grounded out to Machado at short to end the threat.

Speaking of Machado, the guy just cannot be stopped. He led off the sixth by pulling a slider into the stands in left field. It was a low liner that sped out in a hurry. 6-3, Yankees. With Jonathan Holder coming on in relief, Danny Valencia had a two out RBI double to left field to bring the Orioles within two again. 6-4, Yankees.

Tanaka had an uneven performance for New York. In his career against Baltimore before this evening, Tanaka has started nine games, going 2-3 with a 3.65 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. He only allowed two runs in the first five innings in this one, but he gave up two more runs before being removed in the sixth. His final pitching line was 5.1 innings, eight hits, four earned runs, one walk, seven strikeouts and three home runs.

The game got further away from the Orioles in the eighth inning though. After Castro pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless ball, Mychal Givens came on and promptly gave up a pair of runs on three hits. Gregorius singled and stole second base, the Yankees third steal of the game. Hicks followed with an RBI single and Andujar followed him with an RBI double. 8-4, Yankees.

The Orioles scratched across a run in the ninth, but it was too little too late. With David Robertson pitching, Valencia led off the inning with a double and Adam Jones delivered an RBI single with two outs, making it 8-5 Yankees. Jones finished the night 3-for-5 with two RBI and one run scored. For the season, he has a batting average of .283. But Machado would end the game one batter later with a pop up to second base.

Between the weather and the competition, it was a tough game all around for the Orioles. They lost their seventh in a row and their second in a row to New York. The Birds will look to avoid getting swept in the series finale tomorrow afternoon at 1:05. Domingo German will oppose Alex Cobb.