Gunnar Henderson recorded three of Baltimore’s 12 hits in the first four innings, helping the Orioles stop the New York Yankees from clinching the AL East title with a 9-7 win on Wednesday night, despite another home run from Aaron Judge.
Colton Cowser contributed three RBIs for the playoff-bound Orioles, who got to substitute starter Marcus Stroman early in the game. With this win, Baltimore improved to 8-4 against New York in their season series, with one game left to play.
“We’re just focusing on us,” Henderson said. “I feel like we’re starting to get it going at the right time.”
Judge hit his major league-leading 57th home run in the ninth inning, marking his fourth consecutive game with a homer. His three-run shot off Matt Bowman brought New York closer at 9-7, raising his career-high total to 142 RBIs, which is also the most in the majors.
“No quit in the team there all the way till the end,” Judge said. “I never feel like we’re ever out of a game no matter the score.”
Keegan Akin retired the next two batters to earn his third career save and his first this year.
Juan Soto also homered and drove in three runs for New York, which could have secured the AL East title with a win over the Orioles either of the last two nights. Anthony Volpe contributed with an RBI single.
“Nothing’s been easy for us this year. Shouldn’t expect it to be now. But we’ve kind of persevered and kind of grinded our way through all of it,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”
Baltimore closed the gap to four games behind the Yankees in the division standings, with four games remaining. Cedric Mullins went 3 for 4, walked once, scored three runs, and stole two bases.
The Orioles are guaranteed at least a wild card spot and secured their second consecutive trip to the postseason with a 5-3 win on Tuesday night.
Baltimore celebrated with a party in the visitors’ clubhouse after the game, but the Yankees seemed a bit out of sorts on Wednesday.
Marcus Stroman (10-9) stepped in as a last-minute replacement for the injured Nestor Cortes and gave up six straight singles to start the game. Many of those hits were not very hard, allowing the Orioles to take a 3-0 lead.
Rookie outfielder Jasson Domínguez misplayed a two-run single by Colton Cowser, letting the ball drop in the left-field corner.
“He’s missed some plays that he should make,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Domínguez, who usually plays center field, admitted he lost sight of the ball at the end.
“I have no excuse. That ball has to be caught like 100% of the time,” he said.
Ryan Mountcastle followed with an RBI single, and Henderson’s two-run single in the fourth inning knocked Stroman out of the game after his first start since September 10. He allowed 10 of Baltimore’s 17 hits, with 14 of them being singles, and was charged with six runs.
Anthony Santander and Cowser added back-to-back RBI doubles later in that inning. “Right away just really good at-bats from the first inning,” said Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde.
“We had a lot of clutch hits, kept the line moving. I thought our at-bats all night were really good, and you can never score enough here. We almost saw it. So it was a great night for us offensively.”
Stroman had been moved to the bullpen for the last two weeks of the season since the Yankees had six healthy starters before Cortes got hurt. He had thrown 64 pitches in a three-inning save on September 17 in Seattle.
With an 8-1 lead, Orioles starter Zach Eflin walked a career-high five batters and was taken out after 4 2/3 innings. Jacob Webb (2-5) retired Jazz Chisholm Jr. with the bases loaded to end the fifth and pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings.
“It was a great win,” Eflin said. “Offense had my back.”
