New York Yankees 5, Baltimore Orioles 3
BALTIMORE — The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-3 on Sunday to wrap up their first on-road series 2-1 against the Orioles. Aaron Judge hit two home runs, and Nestor Cortes dominated into the sixth inning though umpires made him erase a mark on his glove.
Aaron Judge leads the Yankees offense
Judge hit a solo home run off of Tyler Wells (0-1) in the third inning and another off Logan Gillaspie in the eighth inning. This was Judge’s 28th multihomer game and his first of the season in pinstripes. He is hitting .364 and has four home runs in nine games. Last year, he hit his fourth home run in game 17 and went on to set an American League record with 62. The Yankees power hitter took 14 games in 2022 to have a multi-homer game.
“They have great pitchers that come after you, They really don’t back down from anybody,” Judge said. “You like that as a competitor.”
Judge has hit a home run in 10 of his last 18 games against the Orioles. He has hit 37 home runs against them. Judge got three hits and is now up to bat. In 47 games at Camden Yards, the Yankees slugger hit 315 with 21 home runs and 42 RBI. He moved past Don Mattingly and into 11th place on the Yankees’ all-time list of home runs with 224.
Cordero pays the Orioles back
Franchy Cordero also hit a home run for the Yankees, who have now hit a home run in their first nine games for the fourth time.
With a two-run homer in the fifth, Cordero, who was let go by the Orioles on March 28, pushed the lead to 4-0.
With a 6-3 record, New York is only the third team in the last 20 years to win its first three series. The Yankees’ first five games in 2010 and their first four games in 2020 were wins.
Adley Rutschman went 4 for 4 and hit a home run off Jimmy Cordero in the eighth inning, which brought the Orioles back to 5-3. He is hitting .389 so far.
Stanton joins the fest
Giancarlo Stanton‘s RBI single in the first inning and Judge’s home run in the third made the crowd chant “MVP.” Last year, Judge went 6 for 10 with two home runs and four RBIs against Wells. One of his home runs went 465 feet. In 42 games, that is the most he has ever reached base.
Cortes overcomes glove alteration allegations
Cortes (2-0) is now 4-0 and has struck out 56 batters in eight games against Baltimore. In 5 1/3 innings, he gave up two runs on four hits, struck out five batters, and walked two.
After the first inning, plate umpire Bill Miller covered up a white “44” on Cortes’ glove because Baltimore seemed to be upset about it.
“I wasn’t bothered by it,” Cortes said. “I’ve been pitching with a white ‘44”’ forever. The fact that he came over to me and said that it was a problem kind of (made me mad), but other than that, I don’t have a problem with it.”
Cortes wore cleats with mustaches on them for the second game in a row.
Clay Holmes saved the game with a perfect ninth inning in which he threw eight of his nine pitches for strikes. This was his third save.
Wells gave up four runs and six hits over six innings in a game between two starters who were picked at the winter meeting draft.
Before leaving with two on and one out in the sixth, Cortes had not given up a run against the Orioles since the beginning of last season. Albert Abreu got two outs from Austin Hays and Ramón Uras before Anthony Santander hit a two-run double.
UP NEXT
Domingo Germán, a right-handed pitcher for the Yankees, will start the first game of their series in Cleveland on Monday. In his first start, against Philadelphia, he gave up four runs over 4 2/3 innings.
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