Orioles shut out for 15th time in 7-0 loss to Yankees

The quest for a .500 season just got a little harder.

A 7-0 loss to the Yankees tonight, played before an announced crowd of 25,253 at Camden Yards, left the Orioles at 72-81 with only nine games remaining in the season. They need to run the table to post a non-losing record.

The schedule includes six more games with the Yankees, including the final series in the Bronx, and three versus the Rays at home. 

Cade Povich allowed three runs and five hits with four walks and five strikeouts in five innings and carries a 5.06 ERA into his final start, assuming that the six-man rotation remains untouched. He couldn’t keep up with Yankees left-hander Max Fried, who tossed seven scoreless innings and tied his career high with 13 strikeouts.

Coby Mayo had the only hit off Fried, a one-out single in the second, until Ryan Mountcastle’s single with one out in the sixth. Twelve Orioles in a row were retired.

He set an example for Povich, who paid close attention from the dugout.

"Similar pitch styles, similar movements on stuff," Povich said. "Obviously, a guy that I watched when I was in college and he was first coming up. I think there’s a lot of stuff to learn from him, how he grew when he first got in the league to where he is now, how he kind of pitches guys. And I think it’s really any left-handed pitcher, too, that’s really good.

"We had (Clayton) Kershaw here a couple weeks ago. He’s obviously been here for 18 years. So seeing how they throw, how they attack guys, what adjustments they’ve made throughout their career, whether it’s from having a rough start or a rough inning and kind of how they bounce back and attack and they’re able to work around certain things."

Fried won his 18^th game, lowered his ERA to 2.92 and stayed in the thick of the Cy Young race.

“It was so tough," said interim manager Tony Mansolino. "We’re so used to seeing him hammer the right-handed hitters on the inning half, and it was completely different tonight. He just hammered down and away with that sinker. And he painted. I looked at a few, the pitches, on the iPad, just trying to figure out what he was doing different. That catcher’s setting up on the black and he’s hitting the glove most of the night. The changeup was really good. That is an ace right there without a doubt.”

Amed Rosario’s two-out, two-run double in the first provided a lead that the Orioles couldn’t snatch. They were shut out for the 15th time.

Paul Goldschmidt led off the game with a single and Aaron Judge struck out looking. Cody Bellinger walked, Giancarlo Stanton flied to the warning track and Rosario lined a changeup into the left field corner.

Rosario was slashing .318/.345/.514 against left-handers before tonight.

A caught stealing and double play bailed out Povich in the second and third innings, and he struck out the side on the fourth on a sinker, fastball and curveball. But Anthony Volpe led off the fifth with a double and stole third base, José Caballero walked and Austin Wells dumped a single into right field.

Pitching coach Drew French came to the mound and Goldschmidt grounded into a double play.

"They have a lot of really good hitters top to bottom, a lot of big names you might say, so it's cool to face a lot of those guys," Povich said. "Some guys I watched when I was younger that were on teams that I grew up watching. So yeah, good lineup. It is really good to kind of see where I was at so far against them and come in prepared and just attack them.”

Povich was removed after 89 pitches, and the Yankees built on their lead in the seventh by scoring four times against Chayce McDermott. Goldschmidt had an RBI single, Judge a 106 mph sacrifice fly and Giancarlo Stanton a two-run double.

“I thought he hung in there," Mansolino said of Povich. "That first inning, didn’t have any command, kind of got behind, gave up two runs real quick. I thought it was in maybe the fourth inning it felt like he got a couple pitches over. He started to land the breaking ball. Feel like the stuff sharpened up on the fourth inning and you felt pretty good about it. In the fifth inning it got a little bit rocky again.

"At that point I think we’re down three runs and still in the game. Go to (Yennier) Cano and kind of see where that thing goes. It just didn’t really go our way.”

McDermott walked three batters in the inning and retired only one. His ERA is 15.58 in two appearances since the Orioles recalled him, and he could be sent down in exchange for a fresh arm.

“I feel for him right there," Mansolino said. "That’s a couple outings. ... It’s tough. This is a really tough level. I think he’s got decent stuff, it’s just gonna be whether he can throw the ball over the plate or not. And he knows that, and he’s a good kid.

"We’re in a tough spot right there because we’re trying to cover the last four innings with three guys. I didn’t want to use (Kade) Strowd in that situation at all. We’re trying to avoid him because the bullpen’s so banged up from this stretch and the close games we’ve played. So we’re hoping that Chayce can give us one, one-plus right there. I think under certain circumstances you leave him out there longer, but being that he’s a homegrown kind of developed guy – I know that he came over in a trade, but he's one of our guys – it’s just hard to watch him get beat up, so we had to pull the plug, and kind of put us in a tough spot to have to use Strowd out there in the ninth down seven instead of eight, where you could have used a position player.”

José Castillo became the 69^th player used by the Orioles, one short of the Marlins record set last year, and he struck out the next two batters.

Jeremiah Jackson walked and Mayo singled with one out in the second inning and were stranded. Mayo collected his ninth hit in 21 at-bats.

Mountcastle raced to third base with two outs in the sixth on Gunnar Henderson’s bouncing single into center field, but Tyler O’Neill chased a 98.5 mph fastball out of the zone for Fried’s 11th strikeout.

Two more followed in the seventh, and Wells fielded Samuel Basallo’s tapper in front of the plate and threw him out to complete Fried’s night – an 87-pitch gem. 

“He’s one of the best guys in the game," O'Neill said. "He’s got eight or so pitches and he’s able to locate them, good movement, deceptive windup, so it’s always a battle facing him.”

The Orioles had at least 15 strikeouts for the seventh time this season and have struck out 10-plus on 27 occasions since the trade deadline.

“I would probably say that tonight is all about Max Fried," Mansolino said. "That was about as good as you’re gonna see him and I’ll be curious to see what kind of the comments come from over there, how good he really was. But it’s not so much the swing-and-miss but just the overall under-performance from some of the key guys that we’re gonna need to turn this thing around, similar to the way Toronto kind of turned around their key guys. We need our key guys to turn it around this winter and into next year. And there’s probably a variety of things that need to get turned around with some of those guys. And they will. I’ve got faith in those guys, I’ve got faith in the staff.

"That’s really going to be the No. 1 thing for us this winter is in-house getting these guys moving on the right track.”

An experienced bat might be on the winter shopping list.

“We love veteran players, yes," Mansolino said. "We love our young kids a lot, but we also know that veteran hitters are different guys. I firmly believe that you don’t get the best out of hitters until probably years five, six, seven, eight. And that’s just my opinion, but I’m sure there’s probably some data that backs that up. So to find a guy that is in that kind of stage of their career, yeah, would I think that would help out the lineup? Without a doubt.”