Certain people who hate the Yankees, especially Met fans, claim that Yankee Stadium II is "a little league park," where it's too easy to hit home runs. They forget that the short porch in right field gets canceled out by "Death Valley" in left and center.
If there's "a little league park" in the American League East, it's not The House That Steinbrenner Built. Nor is it Fenway Park, the little green pinball machine in Boston's Back Bay: Center and straightaway right field offset the Green Monster in left field and the right-field corner. It's Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the Baltimore bandbox.
Baseball giveth and baseball taketh away: Will the 2026 Yankees ever have their starting rotation fully healthy? Max Fried went on the Injured List on Tuesday, but Carlos Rodón came off it. He was only risked for 4 innings and 66 pitches, and he allowed 1 run.
But the bullpen was fantastic. Yerry de los Santos allowed just 1 hit in 2 innings, Brent Headrick got out outs and Fernando Cruz the 3rd in the 7th, Paul Blackburn pitched a hitless 8th, and David Bednar pitched a perfect 9th.
That performance deserved run support. Trent Grisham provided it, as he hit a home run in the 3rd, and singled 2 runs home in the 7th. Yankees 3, Orioles 1. de los Santos was credited with his 1st win as a Yankee, the 2nd win of his career.
Will Warren started on Wednesday night as if he was debuting off the IL, allowing 2 runs in 4 innings. But, again, the bullpen did the job, allowing just 1 run the rest of the way. The Yankees picked up 2 runs in the 2nd inning and got a homer from Ben Rice in the 3rd.
In the bottom of the 3rd, Pete Alonso homered for the Orioles. In the 7th, with the scored 3-3, the man the Mets let get away last off-season after becoming their all-time home run leader -- just barely surpassing the total Derek Jeter had for 10th place on the Yankees' list -- came up again, and hit a drive down the left-field line. Most observers, those in the ballpark and those watching on TV, thought it landed fair. To me, it looked like the ball scraped the foul pole, which would have made it a home run. But the umpires ruled it foul, and after a video review, they upheld the call.
Yankee-Haters online went ballistic. Met fans on Facebook were saying the umpires were fixing the game in favor of the Yankees. Which is ridiculous: Since when have the umpires favored the Yankees, rather than their opponents?
The Orioles melted down in the top of the 8th. With 1 out, Cam Sanders hit Heliot Ramos with a pitch, and walked Jazz Chisholm. Sanders struck Spencer Jones out, but then he hit José Caballero to load the bases. Oriole manager Craig Albernaz took him out, and brought in Yennier Cano (no relation to Robinson). George Lombard Jr. hit a grounder to 3rd, and Coby Mayo fielded it, but couldn't make a play at any base, and Ramos scored to make it 4-3. With Austin Wells up, Cano threw a wild pitch to score Chisholm.
That 5-3 margin made Alonso's would-be home run meaningless, and held up as the final score. Headrick, who pitched a perfect 7th, was the winning pitcher.
Gerrit Cole pitched like an ace last night: Limited by his injury rehab to 6 innings, he allowed 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk, striking out 8. Ryan Yarbrough, not exactly having impressed me so far this season, pitched 3 perfect innings to finish the game off.
The Yankees picked up 3 runs in the 3rd, got home runs by Luis García Jr. and Jones in the 6th, and an RBI triple by Chisholm in the 8th. Yankees 6, Orioles 1.
The Yankees have 35 games left in the regular season. In the American League Eastern Division, they trail the Tampa Bay Rays by 4 games, both straight-up and in the loss column. The Boston Red Sox are 8 games behind, the Toronto Blue Jays 14, and the Orioles 15 1/2. The race is far from over.
The Yankees begin a 3-game home weekend series tonight, against those pesky Blue Jays. Come on you Pinstripes!
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