The Yankees fought back to take a late lead, but their defense let them down in the ninth inning as the Baltimore Orioles cruised to a dramatic 6-5 victory on Sunday afternoon.
Here are the key takeaways…
-A pair of big defensive errors cost the Yankees the game in the ninth inning. With a 5-3 lead and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Orioles had the bases loaded against clay holmes. A routine grounder to the shortstop should have been all the Yankees needed to end the game, but Antonio Volpe let the ball touch him and his mistake kept the game alive.
Now clinging to a 5-4 lead, Holmes allowed a flyball from the Cedric Mullins, which again should have been a routine play to end the game, but Alex Verdugo Completely misjudged the ball, first going in before retreating. The ball went over his head, giving the Orioles a remarkable 6-5 victory.
-Perhaps what hurts most about Sunday’s ninth-inning debacle is that it erased an incredible moment from the rookie Ben Rice. With the Yankees down a run in the ninth inning and Craig Kimbrel on the mountain, Trent Grisham walked to get to the base for the fourth time (more on that in a moment), and another walk from Kimbrel to Oswaldo Cabrera set the stage for Rice, and the young first baseman had a big hit, hitting a three-run homer to right to give the Yankees a two-run lead.
Rice now has six home runs in his brief major league stint and has advocated for the Yankees to continue starting him at first base for the rest of the season.
-Grisham has drawn the ire of Yankees fans this season, entering the game with a .173 average, but the left fielder had a productive day at the plate on Sunday. Grisham drove in the Yankees’ first run of the day with a two-out single from Dean Kremer in the second round, capitalizing on a double by Volpe.
Then, with the Yankees trailing in the fifth, Grisham launched a solo shot to right, arguably tying the game at 2-2.
Grisham later scored, giving him his first three-hit game in a Yankee uniform. He reached base four times.
–Carlos Rodon generally relies heavily on his slider, coming into play Sunday after throwing the breaking ball 25.7% of the time. But facing an aggressive O’s lineup, Rodon was even heavier than usual, throwing 22 sliders on his first 45 pitches and finishing his afternoon with 40 sliders on 98 total pitches (41 percent).
The slider was a weapon at times, as he generated seven hits and missed the slider while striking out seven batters on the afternoon. But sometimes he hurt him too, like in the third round when Gunnar Henderson stood on a hanging slider and threw his 28th home run of the season, maybe some practice for Monday’s Home Run Derby in Arlington, Texas.
Rodon ended up throwing just 4.0 innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits with seven punchouts and three walks.
-Protection behind Aaron Judge continues to be a problem for the Yankees. Judge reached base three times on Sunday with two walks and a hit by pitch, and on each of those occasions Verdugo reached the bottom of the inning.
Who was the game’s MVP?
If you ask Baltimore fans, it was the Yankees’ ninth-inning save.
Highlights
What is the next?
The Yankees enter the All-Star break with a 58-40 record, second in the AL East.
They will begin the second half of the season on Friday in the Bronx when they host the Tampa Bay Rays for four games, starting on Friday at 7:05 p.m.
