BALTIMORE, MD—For much of the summer, the Yankees have been asking their pitching staff to keep games close while waiting for the offense to find some consistency.
In Baltimore, the bats finally started to answer.
The Yankees swept the Orioles with wins of 3-1, 5-3 and 6-1, scoring 14 runs while allowing just five across the three-game set. New York improved to 72-55 and extended its winning streak to four games, while the offense showed increasing signs of life as the series progressed.
The pitching, meanwhile, continued to do what it has done for much of the season: keep New York in control long enough for the lineup to make something happen.
Game 1: Grisham Delivers in 3-1 Win
Tuesday’s opener was not an offensive breakout, but the Yankees did just enough behind Trent Grisham.
Grisham opened the scoring with a solo home run in the third inning before Baltimore tied the game on a Coby Mayo homer. The game remained deadlocked until the seventh, when Grisham came through again with a two-out, two-run single to give New York a 3-1 lead.
Those three runs were all the Yankees needed.
Carlos Rodón made his return to the rotation and worked four innings, allowing one run on two hits while striking out four. His pitch count was limited in his first Major League start since late June, but Rodón gave the Yankees exactly what they needed before turning things over to the bullpen.
Five relievers combined for five scoreless innings, and David Bednar closed it out in the ninth.
Game 2: Yankees Rally Late for 5-3 Victory
Wednesday brought more offense and another example of New York’s ability to win games late.
Baltimore scored first, but the Yankees responded quickly with RBI hits from Ryan McMahon and George Lombard Jr. in the second inning. Ben Rice added to the lead with his 34th home run of the season in the third, a 431-ft. blast to the Camden Yards concourse.
The Orioles eventually battled back to tie the game at three, setting up another late-inning test for the Yankees.
With two outs and the bases loaded in the eighth, Lombard beat out an infield single to bring home the go-ahead run. Jazz Chisholm Jr. then raced home on a wild pitch to extend the lead to 5-3.
Lombard’s ability to deliver in that spot has become increasingly familiar. In “late and close” situations this season, defined as the seventh inning or later with the team tied, ahead by one or with the tying run on deck, Lombard is hitting .353/.389/.589 across 18 plate appearances, per Katie Sharp.
The victory was also the Yankees’ 28th this season when tied or trailing in the seventh inning or later, the most in Major League Baseball.
The bullpen once again helped make the comeback possible. Brent Headrick recorded another scoreless appearance, giving him 54 on the season, the most in MLB. The Yankees’ single-season record is 65, shared by Tom Gordon and Mariano Rivera in 2004.
New York finished with 10 hits, with eight of its nine starters recording at least one.
Game 3: Cole Dominates as Yankees Complete Sweep
By Thursday, the Yankees were no longer simply doing enough offensively to survive.
They were producing up and down the lineup.
New York collected 11 hits in the 6-1 victory, jumping out to a three-run lead in the third inning and never looking back. José Caballero, Rice and Heliot Ramos each drove in runs, while Luis García Jr. and Spencer Jones added solo home runs in the sixth. Chisholm capped the scoring with an RBI triple in the eighth.
García went 3-for-4 and scored three times, while Jones also finished with three hits.
The run support was more than enough for Gerrit Cole, who turned in one of his sharper outings of the season.
Cole pitched six innings of one-run baseball, limiting Baltimore to four hits and one walk while striking out eight across 93 pitches. The only damage came on a solo home run by Dylan Beavers in the fifth inning.
He also generated 15 swings and misses, including seven on his fastball, and posted a 35 percent called-strike-plus-whiff rate. His fastball reached 97 mph, and he consistently put himself in favorable counts by throwing a first-pitch strike to 22 of the 23 batters he faced, a career-best 95.7 percent.
The eight strikeouts also moved Cole up the Yankees’ record book. He now has 1,015 strikeouts with New York, passing Roger Clemens for 12th place on the franchise’s all-time strikeout list.
It was Cole’s fifth consecutive start allowing two runs or fewer while recording at least five strikeouts, his longest single-season streak with those marks as a Yankee.
The outing improved Cole to 7-6 with a 3.11 ERA and 1.07 WHIP. Through 92 2/3 innings, he has recorded 100 strikeouts against just 20 walks.
Ryan Yarbrough handled the final three innings, retiring all nine hitters he faced to finish off the sweep.
For a Yankees team that has spent a good majority of its season leaning heavily on its pitching, Baltimore offered an encouraging glimpse of what this club can look like when both sides are clicking.
The pitching never really went anywhere. If the offense that showed up over the final two games of this series can stick around, the Yankees become a much more difficult team to deal with downj the stretch.
Up Next
The Yankees will have little time to enjoy the sweep, with a quick turnaround back home for a three-series homestand. New York opens the stretch Friday against the Blue Jays, hosts the Astros in a midweek set, and then welcomes the Red Sox to Yankee Stadium next weekend.
Injury Updates
Cody Bellinger:
Bellinger continued his rehab assignment Thursday night, serving as the designated hitter and going 1-for-3 with a single. Manager Aaron Boone said Bellinger could potentially rejoin the Yankees before the end of their weekend series against the Toronto Blue Jays if he continues to progress well through another rehab appearance.
Aaron Judge:
Judge has taken another step forward in his recovery from the stress fracture in his right first rib. Boone said Thursday that Judge has now hit off a tee multiple times, including another session that day, and that the early progression appears to be going well.
There is still no firm timetable for when Judge will advance to the next stage of his hitting program. The Yankees have maintained that they expect him to return this season, but at this point a return before September appears unlikely.
This week marked Judge’s first time swinging a bat since May 31. After being limited for weeks to lower-body work and light resistance training, he has also been cleared to resume playing catch, run outdoors and begin upper-body resistance training.
Giancarlo Stanton:
Stanton is nearing the final stages of his recovery from the severe right calf strain that has kept him sidelined since late April. Boone said Stanton has progressed to base-running work and high-intensity agility drills, another encouraging sign as he moves closer to a return.
The Yankees have not yet established an official timetable for Stanton’s activation, but his ability to ramp up the intensity of his running and agility work suggests he is entering one of the final phases of his rehab process.
