Shane Baz turned in one of his best starts of the season and still walked away with nothing to show for it. The Orioles lost 3-1 to the Yankees on Tuesday at Camden Yards, with Baz striking out a season-high 10 in a game Baltimore's offense simply couldn't back up.
Trent Grisham was responsible for all three New York runs. He led off the third with a solo home run off Baz, then delivered the decisive blow in the seventh — a two-out, two-strike, two-RBI single that snapped a tie and gave the Yankees the lead for good. Baltimore never found an answer at the plate when it mattered: the Orioles finished 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
Coby Mayo supplied Baltimore's only run with a solo homer of his own in the third off Carlos Rodón, his 13th long ball of the season against a left-handed pitcher — the second-most in baseball. It tied the game before Grisham's go-ahead, based-loaded single against Josh Walker put the Yankees back in front three innings later.
Baz's final line undersold how well he actually pitched and he took the loss to fall to an unfair 4-13 on the season with just under a 4.00 ERA. Baz went 6 1/3 innings, working well enough that the game stayed within reach into the seventh despite Grisham's early homer.
Rodón (5-2), making his first major league start since June 28 after an elbow injury, worked with an evident pitch-count plan of his own — he faced 17 batters before Yankees manager Aaron Boone turned to the bullpen for five innings, with Yerry De los Santos and Paul Blackburn throwing scorless innings and David Bednar getting his 28th save of the season.
The loss drops Baltimore to 61-65 and pulls the Orioles out of a wild-card spot entirely, at least for the moment — Baltimore now sits half a game back of the final AL wild card, part of a jammed group that includes four other teams within a game and a half of the cutoff. The Yankees improve to 70-55. Baltimore and New York play again Wednesday, with Chris Bassitt opposing Will Warren, before Kyle Bradish faces Gerrit Cole in Thursday's series finale.
“We just got to turn the page and focus on tomorrow,” Orioles manager Craig Albernaz said.