BALTIMORE — Gerrit Cole didn’t have his sharpest stuff Wednesday night, but he really didn’t need it. The Yankees bats were not as loud as they have been, but it didn’t matter. It was enough to beat the Orioles, 3-2, at Camden Yards Wednesday night.
The Yankees (28-9) have won four straight, nine of their last 10 and are 20-4 in their last 24 games. They maintained the best record in baseball and concluded their 12th series win this season. The Yankees have lost just one series this season, here to the Orioles (14-23) last month.
Like they have throughout this young season, the Yankees found another way to win. On Tuesday night, Aaron Judge’s brute force carried them to a win. Wednesday night, they capitalized on the Orioles' mistakes, scoring all three of their runs in the first inning and two on one Orioles misplay.
Gerrit Cole allowed two runs, both earned, on a season high-tying six hits. He did not walk a batter and struck out five. His fastball was his best weapon, using it for eight of his swing-and-misses and 17 called strikes. He threw 97 pitches, 70 for strikes Wednesday night.
Cedric Mullins led off the sixth with a single and Austin Hays doubled him home for the Orioles’ first run. The Baltimore left fielder scored on a Trey Mancini ground-ball fielders choice to a shifted first baseman. Anthony Rizzo fielded the ball quickly and fired to home, but Hays’ slide beat the tag.
Cole seemed to get better as the night wore on, but ultimately a 30-pitch first inning taxed him.
He gave up a one-out double and had runners on the corners in the first and had to work out of that. He did not strike out a batter through the first three innings, but then struck out five in a row. He struck out the heart of the order in the fourth and Rougned Odor and Jorge Mateo in the fifth, before Tyler Nevin — son of former Yankees third base coach Phil Nevin — singled off him. He got a harmless ground ball to first from Anthony Bemboom to end the inning.
Cole was coming off allowing a season-high tying three runs on a season-high six hits in Chicago.
That came after he had looked like himself for two straight scoreless starts against the Guardians and Royals. Cole began the season with an ugly 6.35 ERA through his first three starts and then went 3-0 with a 1.42 ERA and 34 strikeouts in 25 1/3 innings pitched over his four previous starts.
“I think he’s just put it all together a little bit better,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Cole. “Probably had some better counts to work in, so I think he’s had that count leverage that he talks about a lot. He’s had that more consistently. So sometimes that starts with strike one, sometimes just starts with more of those one-two counts, where you can kind of be aggressive with how you want to be. I think he’s done a better job on that.
“But as I was saying, even his first few starts, I felt like right underneath the surface ... we were seeing everything that suggested that this was coming. So it was a great pitcher with great stuff, but I think him dictating counts a little more frequently, really allows him to take off.”
The Yankees gave Cole three runs to work with from the start of his night. With two outs, Rizzo singled, Gleyber Torres doubled and Josh Donaldson singled. Rizzo scored on Torres’ double. Torres scored on a wild pitch and Donaldson scored on Orioles catcher Bemboom’s wild throw on the same play.
Clay Holmes picked up a six-out save, his third career save overall. He allowed one single on a chopper that died in the grass to the third base side of the mound, but Rizzo’s diving grab of Anthony Santander’s line drive for a quick double play got the Yankees out of trouble.
