This Is How

Over the 3 games the Yankees played at Camden Yards, the Yankees outscored the Baltimore Orioles, 22-12. But this is baseball: We don't assign series wins based on aggregate scoring. It doesn't work that way.

Will Warren started on Monday night, and didn't get out of the 4th inning. The Yankees were down, 4-0 after 3 innings. They closed to within 4-3 in the 8th, but got no closer.

Tuesday night was when the Yankees unloaded the lumber. Trent Grisham led off the game with a home run. Aaron Judge hit one. Ben Rice hit one. Paul Goldschmidt grounded out, then Cody Bellinger hit one. Jazz Chisholm doubled, but he had to leave the game due to an injury. Oswald Peraza pinch-ran for him, and Anthony Volpe doubled him home. It was 5-0 Yankees before Carlos Rodón threw a pitch.

And when he did start throwing pitches, he was dealing. He had a perfect game going for 5 innings. He started the 6th by walking Emmanuel Rivera, then allowed a double to Jorge Mateo, and then an RBI groundout to Dylan Carlson. Rice hit another homer in the 2nd inning, and Austin Wells hit one in the 9th. The Yankees won, 15-3.

Carlos Carrasco started on Wednesday night, but he allowed 4 runs in the bottom of the 2nd, and that was pretty much it. Judge and Goldschmidt hit home runs, but the Yankees lost, 5-4.

The Yankees go into tonight's home series with the Tampa Bay Rays at 18-13, 2 games ahead of the hated Boston Red Sox in the American League Eastern Division. But Chisholm was put on the Injured List, and Giancarlo Stanton was just moved to the 60-Day version of it. How is it hard to be optimistic about a 1st-place team? This is how.