Grayson Rodriguez-Gerrit Cole showdown ends with Santander walk-off homer

It was a matchup of two right-handers who can bring 100 mph heat. One with a big career resume and one with big hopes for a brilliant MLB career.

On this night, the Orioles’ Grayson Rodriguez, once ranked the top pitching prospect in baseball, was matching Gerrit Cole, a six-time All-Star and six-time top 10 finisher in the Cy Young vote.

This classic old school pitchers' duel was turned over late to the bullpens and both kept the zeroes going well into the night and early Saturday morning. 

Then suddenly with one swing of Anthony Santander's bat, it was over.

He drilled a Tommy Kahnle 2-0 changeup over the right field wall with one out in the ninth for a 1-0 walk-off win over New York. It was Santander's second career walk-off homer and the 425-foot blast was his 18th on the year.

The O's needed the win to stay 1.5 games ahead of Tampa Bay, which won. The Orioles are now 63-40 with wins in six of nine and 15 of the last 19. They are now 20-12 in division games and 6-5 versus New York.

Rodriguez was throwing his high heat early on tonight and put away the Yankees on just eight pitches in the top of the first. Aaron Judge, playing his first game since June 3, lined out to right for the second out before Rodriguez threw a high fastball at 100 mph by Anthony Rizzo in a 1-2-3 first.

He would go three up and out against the New York lineup in the second and third innings as well, needing just 12 pitches in the second and eight in the third. He retired the first nine on just 28 pitches, with just four pitches that were not strikes.

Rodriguez had an ERA of 7.35 when he returned to the majors to face the Los Angeles Dodgers July 17. He would allow four runs but two scored after he left the game. He had a very strong outing at Tampa Bay, in his most recent game, allowing two runs over 5 2/3 innings which tied for the longest outing of his 12-start MLB career.

He rolled that outing and some confidence into his start tonight. Through six innings he had allowed no runs on just two singles and the Yankees were 2-for-19 tonight. But after needing just 43 pitches to sail through four innings, he needed 45 over the fifth and sixth frames.

When Rodriguez allowed a one-out single in the seventh he was pulled for right-hander Shintaro Fujinami, who walked a man but then got an inning-ending double play grounder to keep it a 0-0 game through the top of the seventh.

Rodriguez went a career high 6 1/3 innings with his third career scoreless start, and first versus an AL East opponent. The other two were both five-inning efforts and both against Detroit in late April. Rodriguez gave up just three singles with two walks and four strikeouts, throwing 97 pitches, 70 for strikes. He lowered his ERA from 6.91 to 6.21.

Cole began his night with a 9-2 record and 2.78 ERA. He had a career 2.80 ERA in 11 starts against the Orioles, but they were encouraged by hitting him well on May 23. On 99 pitches, he gave up six hits and five runs in five innings.

Cole went seven scoreless on three hits with no walks and five strikeouts on 110 pitches. 

This game remained scoreless to the last of the eighth thanks to some great O's defense. With Yennier Cano on in the eighth, Santander's diving catch in right took extra bases from Anthony Volpe. But after a single, groundout and walk, lefty Danny Coulombe came on for left-hitting Rizzo. He was robbed of a hit and the Yankees of gaining the lead on a glove-side diving stop by second baseman Adam Frazier. 

Coming into tonight, O’s starters had produced 22 quality starts their last 40 games and a rotation ERA of 4.02 in that span. Rodriguez added his first career QS to this list.

Winning pitcher Felix Bautista (6-1) pitched a 1-2-3 ninth getting two strikeouts on 11 pitches and lowered his ERA to 0.90. He set the stage for Santander to walk-off the Yankees. 

A heavy rainstorm delayed the start of tonight’s game. First pitch was at 9:37 p.m., a full two hours and 32 minutes after the schedule time.

It was the O's second 1-0 win of the year and fifth shutout. They beat Washington also 1-0 on April 18.