Birds Watcher Postgame: Yankees Defeat Orioles 7-0

The Orioles drop their first game of the season in the Bronx on Monday

After starting the 2021 season with three consecutive wins, the quest for a perfect 162-0 has come to an end for the Baltimore Orioles, who were shut out on Monday night in game one of their three-game series with the New York Yankees in the Bronx.

Jorge Lopez made his first start of the season against a potent Yankees offense, allowing 3 hits and 3 walks over 4.2 innings of work, notching 5 strikeouts along the way. Lopez was credited with the loss, having surrendered 4 earned runs in the outing.

A single swing by Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton was responsible for 2 of the 4 earned runs on Lopez’s ledger: a grand slam in the fifth inning off of Shawn Armstrong that left Stanton’s bat at a scorching 115.1 MPH and traveled 471 feet. Armstrong recorded the final out of the fifth inning on a Gleyber Torres strikeout before being relieved by Paul Fry, who recorded just one out of his own in the sixth.

From the sixth inning on, Mac Sceroler handled the pitching duties for the Orioles, allowing just a pair of walks and striking out 4 Yankees hitters in the mop-up role. This outing was the first of Sceroler’s Major League career, becoming just the third pitcher in franchise history to allow no hits in a Major League debut of at least 2.2 innings according to a tweet from Roch Kubatko of MASN.

As for the Orioles’ offense, it was a quiet night as the team combined for just 4 hits in the game. Cedric Mullins extended his hit streak this season to 4 games, singling off of Jordan Montgomery in the sixth inning while Freddy Galvis recorded the team’s first stolen base of the season in the third inning.

The Orioles will continue this three-game series on Tuesday night in game two, where the Yankees have scheduled Gerrit Cole to start versus the Orioles’ Dean Kremer. First-pitch is set for 6:35 PM ET.