On Easter, Yankees Go Out of Baltimore Like a Lamb

The Yankees concluded a weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles by proving just how big a difference the Orioles moving the fences out has made.

Since Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992, and especially in the Joe Torre Era from 1996 to 2007 and since the Baby Bombers Era began in 2017, the Yankees have used the place as their personal shooting gallery. But in this series, the team as a whole batted 22-for-102, for a .216 batting average.

Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson each had 2 RBIs in the series. Anthony Rizzo, 1. The rest of the team, none. (One run scored on an error, so no RBI was awarded.)

Stanton had 4 hits in the 3 games; Donaldson, DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Hicks, 3 each; Jose Trevino (who only batted in 1 of the games), Kyle Higashioka and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, 2 each; Aaron Judge went 1-for-7 (albeit with 2 walks), Rizzo 1-for-9, Joey Gallo 1-for-10 (with the RBI).

Most glaring of all: Gleyber Torres, who previously torched the Inner Harbor, famously breaking a slump there, went 0-for-11 in the series, reaching base only on 1 walk. Maybe the additional outfield space should be renamed "Gleyber's Gardens."

Nestor Cortes started the Easter Sunday finale, and went 5 innings, allowing no runs on 3 hits and 1 walk, striking out 12. But Aaron Boone (or is it Brian Cashman?) wouldn't allow him to pitch the 6th (he had thrown 88 pitches).

At first, that didn't matter: Chad Green pitched a scoreless 6th and got the 1st 2 outs in the 7th, before Jonathan Loáisiga was brought in. He finished the 7th, but imploded in the 8th allowing 4 runs before being removed for Lucas Luetge, who allowed the last. No errors, either: 3 singles, a double, and 2 walks.

To put it another way: The Yankee pitchers struck out 16 batters, and had 8 scoreless innings out of 9, and the final score was Orioles 5, Yankees 0. WP: Jorge Lopez (1-1). No save. LP: Loáisiga (0-1).

It was Easter, and while the Yankees might have come into Baltimore like a lion, they went out like a lamb.

The Yankees have today off. Then they start a series away to the Tigers. I'm reminded of a Reebok commercial in which a man who looks like a genie is instructing basketball players on how to embrace the shoes to become better players.

One of the players looks up at him, and asks, "But, master, what if we behave badly?" And the genie lowers his sunglasses, and says, "You go to Detroit." (In context, this wasn't that bad of a threat: While the city of Detroit was, and remains, a hole, the Pistons were still pretty good, only a few years removed from their "Bad Boys" titles.)

But the Yankees are 5-5. They do not look like they will become better than a .500 team anytime soon.

Hail the Yankees as They Win in Baltimore

Cliché Alert: In baseball, you never know when you're going to see something you've never seen before.

Last night, in the middle game of a 3-game visiting series for the Yankees at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, I saw something I'd never seen before: A baseball game interrupted by the falling of hailstones.

The Yankees were trailing the Orioles 2-0 with 1 out in the bottom of the 5th. Had the Orioles gotten 2 more outs before this happened, it would have been an official game, and, with the Yankees' luck, it might have been called and the Orioles the official winners.

Anyway, the YES Network cameras picked up what looked, at first, like rain. Then broadcaster Michael Kay suggested that the rain looked "chunky." A moment later, he suggested it was actually hail, and he turned out to be right.

It reminded me of Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent routine on The Tonight Show:

A: Hail, Caesar.

Q: What's that stuff coming out of the sky, Cleopatra?

The umpires halted play, and the Camden Yards grounds crew reacted as if it was rain, getting the mini-tarps onto the pitcher's mound and the home plate area very quickly, with the main tarp to follow.

Up to that point, it looked like it would be another game in which the Yankees simply didn't hit. The Aarons, Hicks and Judge, led off the game with singles, but the Yankees couldn't score. They loaded the bases in the 3rd, and got nothing out of it. Just before the delay, Hicks drew a 1-out walk. Once the delay began, I figured that was it: Any chance of this turning into a rally was gone.

Certainly, given Brian Cashman's idiotic pitching philosophy Aaron Boone's curious pitching predilections, Jameson Taillon would not still be pitching if the game were resumed. He gave up a 2-run home run to Cedric Mullins in the 3rd, but had otherwise pitched well.

The hail turned to rain within 5 minutes, and the delay lasted about 45 minutes. Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, the Yankees came back out smoking: The "rain" had been chunky, and the Yankees got funky.

Judge drew a walk, Anthony Rizzo singled Hicks home, and Giancarlo Stanton hit a double that scored Judge, although Rizzo was thrown out at the plate. (I thought he was out when it happened, but the plate umpire ruled him safe, the Orioles asked for a review, and the call was correctly reversed.) The next man up was Josh Donaldson, and he crushed one into the bleachers, making it 4-2 Yankees.

If Rizzo had stopped at 3rd on Stanton's double, it would have been 5-2. With these Yankees, the thought that such a mistake would come back to haunt us was in the front of the mind.

Taillon was sent out to pitch the bottom of the 5th. He got an out, then allowed a single. He got a 2nd out, then allowed a walk. That's when Boone took him out, denying him the chance to be the winning pitcher. JP Sears -- like CC Sabathia, John Patrick does not use periods for his initials -- in only his 2nd major league appearance, walked the bases loaded, before getting out of the inning without allowing a run.

The Yankees added a run in the 6th, and Sears, Michael King, and Clay Holmes took the worry about Rizzo's failure to score away. Yankees 5, Orioles 2. WP: Sears (1-0, his 1st major league win). SV: Holmes (1). LP: Travis Lakins (0-1).

The series concludes this afternoon, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:05. Nestor Cortes is listed as the Yankees' starter, and Bruce Zimmerman for Baltimore. Happy Easter.