Champagne Stays On Ice: Yanks Drop Series Opener To O’s

Yankees watch from the dugout as the O’s take the series opener 5-3 on Tuesday night and clinch a postseason berth – Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports

BRONX, NY — The New York Yankees had an opportunity to pop champagne Tuesday night with the scene set in the Bronx. 

Celebrating an American League East division title as their magic number is down to just one, which would mark the Bronx Bombers’ 21st AL East division crown in their franchise history, to go along with three more wins to capture the top seed in the American League and secure home field advantage throughout the AL playoffs. 

However with poor offensive execution paired to mistakeful base-running in front of a crowd of 41,149, the Yanks were forced to wait and keep their champagne on ice for at least one more night, dropping the series opener to the O’s, 5-3.

“Obviously, we wanted to come and get it done tonight,” said Yankees’ manager Aaron Boone on the chance to clinch the AL East division Tuesday evening. “But credit to them (Baltimore), they held us down and we couldn’t play catch up quite enough.” 

Aaron Judge, who hit his 56th home run of the season in the loss, added to Boone’s sentiments, stating: “It’s disappointing but onto the next game. We didn’t get it done today, but we got an opportunity to do it tomorrow.” 

The Major League home run leader this season, Judge, currently up three HRs on LA Dodgers’ superstar Shohei Ohtani, later mentioned: “It’s step number one for us (winning the AL East), I know getting into the postseason is a big step but we’re always out here to hunt the division.” 

“It’s the toughest division in baseball and to be able to say that we’re division champs would be great, but we’ll talk about it more when we get there.”

Poor Offensive Execution 

At the plate, the Yankees combined for seven hits and four walks, while leaving 12 on base. Outside of Gleyber Torres, totaling three hits, to pair with Juan Soto (double), and Judge (HR), who each recorded an RBI, the at-bats from the lineup as a whole seemed strong, yet out of sorts — including a ‘golden sombrero’ from Giancarlo Stanton (four strikeout game though it must be noted he laced a handful of foul balls at over 110 MPH off the bat, just missing on home runs for several of them.)

Nevertheless, just three runs scored, a team RISP of 3-7, and 151 pitches seen by the Yankees throughout the night as Baltimore used seven pitchers — RHP Dean Kremer, LHP Keegan Akin, RHP Jacob Webb, LHP Cionel Pérez, RHP Yennier Canó, LHP Gregory Soto, and RHP Seranthony Domínguez. 

Mistakeful Base-running

In the bottom of the seventh inning with Torres on second, two down, and the O’s leading 4-3, Soto made Yankee Stadium shake by coming up clutch on a single to right-field, but on his way to first, decided to attempt to stretch his hit into a double, and Torres mistakenly got caught in between third and home plate in a back and forth rundown. 

At the same time, Judge was due up next — although looking back at it, Baltimore would have most definitely intentionally walked him to load the bases and opt to go at the four-hitter Austin Wells. 

“I just tried to protect Soto,” stated Torres on the base-running blunder. “In that situation, just protect him. I was a little in between to go to home plate, I feel like I went a little late, and after that, they made me out.”

“That’s my mistake tonight, and just get ready for tomorrow.” 

Judge when asked about Torres’ mishap on the bases: “It happened and we’ve got to move on and get ready for tomorrow.”

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