The Yankees lost to the hapless Orioles on Saturday
The Yankees lost 4–3 to the Orioles on Saturday at Yankee Stadium in a game that they should have won since the Orioles are 50 games below .500. The Orioles were 2–15 in their last 17 games at Yankee Stadium coming into Saturday’s game.
The Yankees did not get their first hit until Gleyber Torres’s pinch hit RBI single in the 7th that went up the middle to score Anthony Rizzo to make the score 3–1. Luke Voit then pinch hit and hit into a inning ending double play. He had been a good pinch hitter in his career.
The Yankees are 49–29 in games decided by one or two runs. That’s best record in those situations in the majors. Joey Gallo hit a big 2-run homer to tie the game at three in 8th inning. He was 0–17 coming into that at bat and going back farther he was 4 for 53 coming going back to the middle of August. He is a very streaky hitter who now has 31 homers this season and six with the Yankees.
Jordan Montgomery did not have his best stuff in this game but still was effective enough as he pitched 4.2 innings and only allowed one run. He allowed six hits and two walks and left with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth.
He had first and second with one out and then he made a play on a cue shot down first base line to get Austin Hays out at first. He then had second and third with two outs. Montgomery left the game with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth after walking Trey Mancini on a 3–2 pitch on a wild curve ball. His curve was good most of the game.
The Orioles had one extra base hit off of Montgomery and that was Pedro Severino’s double. After Montgomery was taken out of the game, Clay Holmes then struck out Ramon Urias on three pitches to strand the three runners. Holmes really stepped up to keep Montgomery’s earned run total at one and continue pitching really well with the Yankees.
Holmes has lots of confidence in his sinker and has been throwing it well. He was a great find by Yankees and is attacking strike zone. Holmes impressively struck out all four batters he faced.
Montgomery has now allowed one earned run or less in six of his last seven starts. He has lowered his ERA from 4.18 to 3.47 in that span. He could not get the win since the Yankees gave him very little run support once again.
When Montgomery left the game, the Yankees were still being no hit by Chris Ellis. Montgomery has had 19 of 24 games with three or fewer runs of support this season. It is tough to pitch with so little run support but Monty has still had a very productive season.
Jordan Montgomery was inducing a lot of soft contact in this game like usual. Montgomery has 14 no decisions, which is tied with Rich Hill for most in MLB.
The Yankees were only 1–6 with runners in scoring position, which hurt their chances.
The Yankees were in position to possibly win the game in the bottom of the ninth with a run or go to extra innings but Aroldis Chapman had yet another shaky performance. Chapman struck out three batters in the ninth, but he allowed Ryan Mountcastle to reach on a wild pitch to start the ninth, then allowed a single to Hays, then walked Mancini and Severino hit a sacrifice fly to score Mountcastle.
Chapman has been struggling some recently since has allowed one earned run in three of his last seven games. In those 6.1 innings, he has allowed six hits, one homer and five walks. In his previous 11 games, he had only allowed one earned run, four hits and nine walks.
It would have made sense if Jonathan Loaisiga replaced him as the closer because of his recent ineffectiveness, but Loaisiga on Sunday morning was placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained right rotator cuff. This is unfortunate because he has been the team’s best relief pitcher this year.
Loaisiga has a 2.25 ERA this season, nine wins, five saves, a 1.029 WHIP, only three homers allowed and 66 strikeouts in 68 innings. He leads the Yankees with 18 holds. He allowed a homer run in his last game on September 3 in the extra inning win over the Orioles on Friday for only his third homer of the season. However, in August he only had a 0.63 ERA in 14.1 innings (one earned run)
Saturday was the anniversary of Jim Abbott no-hitter in 1993 against the challenging Indians offense. He had five walks and three strikeouts when he put his name into history. He only has one hand, so he is very inspirational.
Abbott was only the 8th Yankee to throw a no hitter when he accomplished the feat in September 4, 1993 against an Indians team that featured Kenny Lofton, Carlos Baerga, Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez and Jim Thome.
The Yankees have an important game this afternoon since they do not want to lose the series to Baltimore, who is the worst team in MLB. They will be facing one of the worst pitchers in the league since Keegan Akin has a 6.90 in 20 games (13 starts).
In holding the Yankees to four runs on Friday & three runs on Saturday, it’s the first time the Orioles went back-to-back games without allowing at least five runs since July. This means the Yankees are due to score a lot of runs today against the team with the worst ERA in the American League.
