The Orioles have undoubtedly been one of if not the most disappointing team this season, but they still have plenty of talent, and you still can’t make mistakes and expect a win. On Friday night, the Yankees made plenty of mistakes.
Between two errors, costly walks, allowing two-out runs, and generally not doing much at the plate, the Yankees didn’t give away the game, but they didn’t do much to help themselves. Despite a perfectly solid game from Will Warren, Orioles starter Trevor Rogers was that much better, continuing his sterling 2025 with a start that put the Yankees in a whole they could never completely escape, falling 4-2 in Baltimore.
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After Max Fried kept the Orioles off the scoreboard all night on Thursday, they struck first in the second game. A second-inning home run from Ryan Mountcastle put the O’s in front early, 1-0.
Rogers has been one of the few bright spots for Baltimore this year, as the 2024 Trade Deadline bust returned from Triple-A obscurity a few months ago and now has a 1.35 ERA in 17 starts. He demonstrated why for much of the game. Through the first five innings, the only offense he allowed to the majors’ best team against southpaws came on two walks and a hit-by-pitch. Two of them came in one inning, the third, but both came with two outs, and neither runner got closer than 180 feet to scoring.
New York’s first hit didn’t come until Austin Wells led off the sixth with a single. The Yankees might have gotten on the board then were it not a couple of nice plays from Baltimore left fielder Dylan Beavers.
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Rogers ended his day with six shutout innings of one-hit ball, fanning seven Yankees in the process. It still likely smarts the Baltimore front office to have traded away 2025 All-Star Kyle Stowers for him, but if Rogers can pitch like this for them in 2026 (his last year before free agency), then the O’s will be delighted.
Baltimore immediately took advantage of Beavers’ glovework in the bottom of the sixth. After Jordan Westburg reached on a Warren error to start the inning, Gunnar Henderson hit a slow roller to second. Jazz Chisholm Jr. did a bit too much in trying to make a play that was probably a lost cause, and his attempted flip was off and went for an error. That allowed both runners to move up another base, and Westburg proceeded to score on a sacrifice fly right after that.
Warren then walked Beavers, bringing an end to his day. Fernando Cruz then came in, but issued another walk. That also came back to hurt the Yankees, as while Cruz got a grounder, the infield couldn’t turn a double play on it, leading to another Orioles’ run scoring. In 5.1 innings, Warren allowed three runs on four hits and two walks, though only one of those runs went down as earned.
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The Yankees then finally got some real offense going in the seventh. With Austin Slater on after a single, Chisholm made up a bit for his error, homering to right. The dinger was his 30th of the season, taking the Yankees’ second baseman into the 30/30 Club for the first time in his career. Chisholm is the first Yankee to accomplish the feat since Alfonso Soriano did so in 2003, and just the third overall.
After Cruz and Tim Hill got the first two outs of the bottom of the seventh, Hill gave up a single to Westburg. Once again, just one wrong move proved costly, as the lefty Henderson then got a double down into the left-field corner. Westburg managed to motor all the way around from first to tie the game up.
In the top of the eighth, the Yankees left two runners in scoring position, and that ended up being the real death knell for the game. They still trailed by just two runs going into the ninth, but they went down in order there.
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Having failed at a chance at making up more ground in the AL East with Toronto getting lit up in Kansas City, the Yankees will now continue the series in Baltimore tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m. ET. Carlos Rodón and Tomoyuki Sugano are scheduled to be the starting pitchers for that matchup.