Birds Watcher Postgame: Yankees Defeat Orioles 7-2

A ninth-inning rally falls short as the Orioles suffer their second straight loss

On Tuesday, the Baltimore Orioles clashed with the New York Yankees in game two of their three-game series in the Bronx, having been shut out the night before. In this one, the Orioles did manage to get on the board, courtesy of a ninth-inning rally, but the 7 runs surrendered to the Yankees were insurmountable for the second game in a row.

Against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, who struck out 13 batters over 7 shutout innings on Tuesday, the Orioles handed the ball to Dean Kremer, whose outing turned out to be more favorable in terms of runs allowed than his hits and walks totals would suggest. Over 3.0 innings of work, Kremer allowed 3 runs on 5 hits and 4 walks, tight-roping his way out of a jam several times throughout the game.

In the fourth inning, the Orioles called on Adam Plutko out of the bullpen. In his 3.0 inning stint, Plutko pitched very well, allowing just 2 hits and hanging 3 zeroes on the scoreboard. The appearance was Plutko’s second of the season, as well as his second shutout performance, moving his season-long scoreless streak to 5.1 innings.

Following Plutko in relief, the Orioles issued an inning each to Tyler Wells and Wade LeBlanc. The Yankees were capable of scratching across 1 run against Wells in the seventh inning and 3 runs against LeBlanc in the eighth. The run allowed by Wells was the first of his Major League career, coming on a Giancarlo Stanton RBI double.

The Orioles’ bats were held scoreless until the top of the ninth inning on Tuesday, as Rio Ruiz hit the team’s first home run of the season to keep Baltimore from being shutout on back-to-back nights. In total, the team pieced together a combined 7-hit performance, including multi-hit games from Maikel Franco and Ryan Mountcastle. The hit-streak continued for Cedric Mullins as well, as Mullins sliced Cole’s knuckle-curve into center field to lead off the game with a single and extend his streak to 5 games.

The Orioles will wrap up this three-game series with the Yankees on Wednesday with John Means returning to the mound for his second start of the season. Means will face-off with New York’s Jameson Taillon with first-pitch scheduled for 6:35 PM ET.