NEW YORK – The Orioles escaped the oppressive heat in Tampa, knowing that temperatures would rise in the Bronx for afternoon and late-morning starts this weekend and possibly touch triple digits Tuesday in Baltimore. A stretch of consecutive games in a row will reach 16 before Thursday’s off-day, and interim manager Tony Mansolino talked about scraping guys off the grass.
He had to scratch Adley Rutschman, who was bothered by left abdominal tightness. And the Orioles had to face Yankees left-hander Max Fried, who brought nine wins and a 1.89 ERA into the series opener.
Adversity keeps stacking up for a team trying to claw its way out of a deep hole. It can be weather, health, exhaustion, opponent or something else, but the Orioles won’t always let it stall the momentum that might be building.
The Orioles jumped Fried early and lost their legs, but Coby Mayo delivered a game-tying single in the sixth inning and Ramón Urías led off the eighth with an opposite-field home run off Luke Weaver in a 5-3 victory over the Yankees before an announced sellout crowd of 47,034.
Urías fell behind 0-2 and worked the count full, and his 337-foot fly ball landed inside the right field foul pole. Gunnar Henderson extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a pinch-hit RBI single, and the Orioles (33-42) moved within nine games of .500 for the first time since May 11.
They improved to 18-14 under Mansolino and 7-15 against left-handed starters. They’re 18-12 against the Yankees since 2023.
Colton Cowser’s ground ball sneaked into right field in the sixth for a one-out single, Gary Sánchez reached on an infield hit and Mayo’s fly ball fell into center field for a 3-3 tie. Mayo has two career multi-hit games, the first on Saturday.
Fried allowed three runs, walked none and struck out seven in six innings. He threw 105 pitches.
Sánchez walked in the eighth after Urías’ homer and Ryan O’Hearn came off the bench and singled. Henderson, in need of a breather after the Rays series, lined an opposite-field single off left-hander Tim Hill for a 5-3 lead.
The bullpen gave Mansolino 5 1/3 scoreless innings. Scott Blewett earned the win after retiring all six batters, and Félix Bautista struck out two and notched his 16th save. Per STATS, he’s the first Orioles pitcher with saves on multiple birthdays.
Blow out the candles and rally past the first-place Yankees.
Aaron Judge hit a tie-breaking home run off Tomoyuki Sugano in the third, and the right-hander turned in his shortest U.S. start at 3 2/3 innings.
Mansolino removed Sugano after an intentional walk to Judge with two outs in the fourth and DJ LeMahieu on second base. Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled, but right fielder Ramón Laureano threw out LeMahieu at the plate for his seventh outfield assist to tie for the major league lead. The call stood after a challenge.
Sugano allowed three runs and seven hits, and his three walks set a career high. He threw 32 of his 89 pitches in the first inning and surrendered two runs to tie the game, with the first four batters reaching against him. Judge cleared the right field wall leading off the third for his 48th homer against the Orioles in 111 games.
Jackson Holliday was out of the lineup until Rutschman’s removal, taking him from bench role to leadoff hitter, and he responded with a 102.1 mph single in the top of the first inning. The Orioles loaded the bases with two outs against Fried, who hit Laureano and Cowser, and Sánchez lined a sweeper into left field for a 2-0 lead.
Sánchez got in a shot against his former team, and the Orioles got Fried to throw 29 pitches in the inning.
Sugano topped him by three, and it began with walks to Paul Goldschmidt and Trent Grisham. Judge singled to load the bases and Chisholm singled to score Goldschmidt. The game was knotted on Jasson Domínguez’s sacrifice fly to deep left-center field with one out.
Fried retired nine in a row after the Sánchez single. Mayo doubled down the left field line with two outs in the fourth.
The Orioles provided Sugano with an extra day of rest but he hasn’t completed the fifth inning in his last three starts. He’s allowed nine earned runs and 10 total with 21 hits in 12 2/3.
Keegan Akin walked two batters in the fifth and got a double play, and Yennier Cano stranded two in the sixth.
The Orioles can’t aim for contender status in the last month or two of the season. They need to be much quicker, before the July 31 trade deadline, or veterans could be moved and the white flag raised.
The goal is to become buyers or to stand pat by going on a tear.
“Honestly, I feel like we’ve been showing it this past couple weeks or month, however it’s been,” Henderson said earlier today. “We’ve got on a few good runs, and we’ve gone out there and put up a lot of runs. I feel like we’ve kind of hit our stride a little bit. We still have a lot of room to go, but we’ve been making strides in the right direction.”
* Down on the farm, Heston Kjerstad was out of Triple-A Norfolk’s lineup after fouling a ball off his right knee last night.
Dylan Beavers exited the game in the bottom of the first inning with a left shoulder injury after an outfield collision with Jordyn Adams resulted in Nathan Church’s inside-the-park home run.
Beavers, who’s batting .312 with an .881 OPS, walked off the field under his own power. MLB Pipeline ranks him as the No. 5 prospect in the organization.