BALTIMORE — The Yankees suffered another big loss here Saturday night. Friday night, the managed to get a win on the field, but took a huge loss when reliever Michael King went down with a season-ending elbow injury. Saturday, they just got beat the old-fashioned way; on the field by a scrappy, hustling Orioles team. Baltimore rallied late for a come-from-behind to beat the Yankees 6-3 at Camden Yards.
The resurgent Orioles (47-47), who are in last place in the division, battled their way back to .500, showing how tough the American League East will be down the stretch for the Yankees.
The Bombers (65-31) have lost three of their last four games and six of their last 10. While they maintained the best record in baseball, they can feel the Astros, who beat the Mariners Saturday afternoon, breathing down their necks. Houston is just 1.5 games behind the Bombers for the best record and the home-field advantage that will come with it in the playoffs.
The Yankees have hit their first period of adversity this season in the last two weeks. They lost Luis Severino and Miguel Castro to the injured list with injuries right before the All-Star break and Friday night they lost Michael King for the rest of the season. Jameson Taillon has struggled for the last month and Aroldis Chapman and Jonathan Loaisiga have struggled all season.
So it would seem obvious that the Yankees are now looking more intensely for some pitching before the Aug. 2 trade deadline. As he did for almost 20 minutes before Saturday’s game, Cashman would not tip his hand.
“I’m not going to provide that type of information,” Cashman said. “I understand why you’re asking, but ultimately we’re going to give our information out (to other clubs) what is and what isn’t and receive that same information back. And hopefully we can find some things that can help us.
“We’ve had some success running into some things that have impacted us in a positive way. Also, we’ve had some things that we’ve run into that haven’t impacted us in a positive way.”
Sources said the Yankees have certainly shown more interest in relief pitching over the last 24 hours and that there is concern about the rotation
Gerrit Cole gave up four runs, three earned, on a season-high nine hits. He struck out six and walked two over six innings.
After the Yankees’ ace got two quick outs in the fifth, Jorge Mateo singled and then stole second base. From there, he scored the Orioles’ first run on Cedric Mullins single. Adley Rutschman, the Orioles’ highly-touted rookie catcher, brought Mullins in with a double.
In the seventh, Cole gave up a leadoff double to Ramon Urias and a single to Jorge Mateo before Aaron Boone went out to get him.
Albert Abreu tried to pick off Mateo and his throw went wild, allowing the Orioles speedy shortstop to reach third. He was able to score on Cedric Mullins sacrifice fly to center, just beating Judge’s throw to the plate.
Shane Greene, making his first appearance with the Yankees since Sept. 24, 2014, gave up a two-out, two run homer to Ramon Urias in the eighth.
Matt Carpenter hit his 14th homer of the season, a 370-foot shot in the second inning. That’s double the total he had in 418 plate appearances last season. He’s done it in 107 plate appearances since the Yankees signed him as a free agent in late May.
That was his 11th RBI in the last five games.
Aaron Judge doubled in the first, a line drive that rattled around the left-field corner to allow DJ LeMahieu to score from first. The Yankees had their first run before recording an out.
Judge also singled in a run on a pop up that dropped in between three Orioles in the fourth inning. With 79 RBI this season, Judge leads the majors in runs batted in.
LeMahieu reached on an error to lead off the top of the ninth, Judge singled off Orioles closer Jorge Lopez, bringing up the tying run with no outs. Anthony Rizzo grounded out to first base. Gleyber Torres fle
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