The Yankees fell behind early and rallied late, but couldn’t punch through, leaving nine runners on base and going 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position in a 4-3 loss to the Orioles on Monday night in Baltimore.
The O’s entered the game with one win in their last seven and losers of three straight, but behind five scoreless innings from Tomoyuki Sugano, improved to 11-17 on the year. New York fell to 17-12. Baltimore entered the game 6 for their last 60 with RISP, and the Yanks held them to 1-for-7 in those situations, but the lone knock proved to be the difference in the game.
Yankee batters whiffed 30 times on 74 swings.
Here are the takeaways…
– Will Warren was greeted by a Cedric Mullins single to center and a Gunnar Henderson double to the left-center gap to put two in scoring position in the bottom of the first. But the young righty got Adley Rutschman to pop out, Ryan O’Hearn swinging on a fastball, and Ryan Mountcastle swinging on a sweeper to strand two.
Warren got the first two in the second, before Jackson Holliday cracked a single and then came around to score the game’s first run when Ramón Laureano drove a ball over Trent Grisham’s head in center. The double made it six hard-hit balls of at least 98 mph off the Yanks starter in the first nine batters.
Warren was the architect of trouble in the third as he walked the first two batters and left a 2-2 sweeper over the middle of the plate that O’Hearn pulled over the wall in right for a three-run shot to put Baltimore up 4-0. He bounced back to strike out the side.
The righty was pounding the zone – throwing first-pitch strikes to 16 of 18 batters – but a one-out double by Laureano down the third base line in the fourth ended his night early.
– Some sloppy defense hurt the Yanks’ 25-year-old starter. On the first double, Grisham got a terrible jump and was twisted around by the 380-foot liner that had a 95 percent catch probability, per Statcast. Warren also had Laureano picked off second in the fourth, but the ball came out of Oswald Peraza’s glove at third on the tag. Warren’s final line: 3.1 innings, four runs, six hits, two walks, five strikeouts on 72 pitches (47 strikes).
– Aaron Judge had a pair of softly hit singles his first two times up; the first dumped into left and the second just passed the outstretched glove of Henderson at short. He now has 45 hits on the year, but went down swinging on a splitter from the O’s starter his third time up.
Judge had a big chance with one out in the seventh and runners on the corners, but he bounced a ball to third, just beating the relay throw at first to score a run on the groundout. The reigning MVP’s last chance came against Baltimore’s 6-foot-7 closer Felix Bautista with one out in the ninth, and he went down swinging on a splitter. He finished 2-for-5 with two strikeouts.
– Anthony Volpe, on his 24th birthday, had a bases-loaded chance with two down in the first, but grounded out to short. He grabbed an RBI double into the corner with one down in the eighth to finish 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
– Austin Wells was hitless in three at-bats with a strikeout before he notched an RBI double to make it a one-run game in the eighth.
– Paul Goldschmidt struck out swinging with two on and one out in each of his first two at-bats, Sugano getting him on a four-seam fastball in the first and on a splitter in the third. His third time up, he smoked a high fastball, but Mullins made a leaping grab in center to steal a potential two-run dinger for a 402-foot out to save the O’s starter. Goldschmidt singled to center and scored in the eighth to finish 1-for-4.
– Jazz Chisholm Jr., plunked his first time up, swung through a splitter to strand two in the third. He finished 0-for-3 with three strikeouts.
– Jasson Domínguez singled in the fourth, but struck out three times swinging, including for the second out in the eighth with a runner on second.
– Grisham went 2-for-5 with a strikeout, grabbing a hit with a RISP, but didn’t get an RBI as Oswaldo Cabrera got a bad jump from second. Cabrera, who singled in the seventh after entering the game as a pinch-hitter, tapped out to third to end the eighth.
– Cody Bellinger walked and singled on his first two trips to bat, but finished 1-for-4 and struck out swinging to end the game.
– Ryan Yarbrough was first out of the bullpen and issued a walk, but got Henderson swinging on a nasty sweeper and Rutschman to fly out to strand a runner at third. Pitching on six days’ rest, the lefty looked fresh, retiring eight straight with three strikeouts on 41 pitches.
He allowed a pair of singles in the seventh, but a double-play ball in between meant he was never in danger. Yarbrough kept the Yanks in the game, setting up the possible comeback, and saved the rest of the bullpen after Sunday’s doubleheader. His final line: 3.2 innings, two hits, one walk, three strikeouts on 53 pitches (35 strikes).
– Devin Williams, who recently lost his role as closer, started the bottom of the eighth with a strikeout on a nasty changeup below the zone and needed 14 pitches (nine strikes) for a 1-2-3 inning.
Game MVP: Tomoyuki Sugano
The 35-year-old MLB debutant held the Yankees in check despite giving up some traffic in his five innings of work, stranding seven runners after allowing five hits and a walk. The right-hander, who had just nine strikeouts entering the game, tallied eight. Sugano got nine whiffs on 12 swings against his splitter.
New York batters struck out 15 times on the night, with Keegan Akin adding three in 1.1 innings, Gregory Soto two in 1.1 innings of hairy relief, and Bautista two in a 14-pitch ninth.
Highlights
Anthony Volpe with an RBI double to cut it to 4-2 pic.twitter.com/GAiJt4NNFV
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 29, 2025
Austin Wells follows up Anthony Volpe’s RBI double with one of his own!
It’s now a 4-3 game pic.twitter.com/yHDnC5ricP
— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) April 29, 2025
What’s next
The two teams renew their hostilities on Tuesday night with another 6:35 p.m. first pitch in Charm City.
Left-hander Carlos Rodon (3.50 ERA, 1.056 WHIP in 36 innings) gets the ball for the Yanks. Veteran righty Kyle Gibson (4.24 ERA, 1.350 WHIP in 169.2 innings last year for St. Louis) makes his first start of the year for the O’s.
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