The New York Yankees improved to 5-3 on the season with a 4-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday night at Camden Yards.
Here are some takeaways…
– After throwing five scoreless innings in his big league debut, Jhony Brito impressed again in his second start.
The right-hander ran into some early trouble, as Cedric Mullins and Adley Rutschman led off the bottom of the first with back-to-back singles. Brito did a good job of working out of danger, though, holding Baltimore to just one run on an Anthony Santander sacrifice fly.
He settled into a nice groove after that, keeping the O’s off the board in the second and third. Brito was helped out by a terrific diving catch in right field by Oswaldo Cabrera leading off the bottom of the fourth. Baltimore was able to put a man in scoring position in both the fourth and the fifth, but Brito battled to strand him there.
Despite lacking his fastball command for most of the night, Brito allowed just the one run on three hits and a pair of walks while striking out two over five innings of work. The righty is the first pitcher in franchise history to throw 5+ innings and allow one run or fewer and three hits or fewer in his first two big league starts.
– The Yankees were finally able to scratch a run across against Orioles starter Cole Irvin in the top of the fourth. Aaron Hicks got the Bombers on the board with his first hit of the season, a big two-out RBI single.
– An inning later, the Yanks were able to take the lead for good. Anthony Volpe missed his first career home run by a matter of inches, but had to settle for a leadoff triple. He finished the night 1-for-4.
Volpe came in to score on a DJ Lemahieu double one pitch later, giving New York the lead. Aaron Judge increased that lead to 3-1 a few pitches later with a sacrifice fly to center.
Two batters later, Giancarlo Stanton put an exclamation point on the inning after crushing a 436 foot homer over the left-field wall. Stanton finished the night 2-for-3 with his third homer of the season. Judge added a double later in the game, he went 1-for-2 with a walk.
– Michael King struck out three and allowed just one hit over a pair of scoreless innings in relief of Brito. After a strong outing on Wednesday, Clay Holmes pitched a scoreless ninth and secured the win with his second save of the season.
Highlights
What’s next
Nestor Cortes takes the ball for the Yankees as they look to defeat Tyler Wells and the Orioles in the rubber game of this three-game set on Sunday afternoon at 1:35 p.m.
