NEW YORK -- The task awaiting the Orioles at Yankee Stadium on Friday night wasn’t an easy one: Beat Max Fried. Or at least, keep the game competitive until they could chase the Yankees' left-hander, who has been among MLB’s best pitchers this season.
The O’s -- 10 games into a stretch of 16 in a row without an off-day -- also didn’t arrive in New York until the wee hours of Friday morning after earning a series split with the Rays in Tampa on Thursday night. They were a bit banged up, too, hence the decision to leave star shortstop Gunnar Henderson, All-Star candidate Ryan O’Hearn and center fielder Cedric Mullins out of the lineup while scratching Adley Rutschman (left abdominal discomfort).
However, every game matters to Baltimore as it tries to salvage its season. It needed to scratch out a win in the Bronx to keep its recent positive momentum going despite any fatigue it felt.
And the Orioles did exactly that.
Ramón Urías led off the eighth inning with a tiebreaking home run as the O’s held on for a series-opening 5-3 victory over the American League East-leading Yankees. It marked the sixth win in eight games for Baltimore (33-42), which improved to 3-1 vs. New York this season.
The Orioles are only nine games below .500 for the first time since they were 15-24 on May 11.
“We just keep believing in ourselves, keep believing in what we’ve got,” Urías said, “and finally, it’s showing up.”
Baltimore held its own against the red-hot Fried, who labored during a 29-pitch first inning that featured a pair of hit batters and a two-run single by former Yankee Gary Sánchez. Coby Mayo knocked a game-tying RBI single in the sixth, then Fried (who threw 105 pitches) didn’t return to the mound for the seventh with the contest knotted at 3.
It was only the second time in 16 starts this season that Fried (who entered with a 1.89 ERA) has allowed more than two earned runs. The 31-year-old yielded six during a five-inning start against the reigning World Series champion Dodgers on May 30 in Los Angeles.
“The game plan for us to go in was just to battle. Be aggressive 0-0, but if you get to two strikes, just battle and try to take some pitches with you,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said.
“We had a lot of energy today. In a strange way, coming from the vibe in Tampa -- which was dead, to say the least -- and then you walk into Yankee Stadium today after nobody got more than probably four, five, six hours of sleep, everybody’s out there in BP and they’re flying all over the field. So you had a good feeling.”
With the game still tied entering the eighth, the Yankees deployed high-leverage right-hander Luke Weaver, who was reinstated from the injured list earlier in the day after missing more than two weeks due to a left hamstring strain. It didn’t take long for the Orioles to strike.
Weaver’s sixth pitch (a 3-2 four-seam fastball) was deposited over the right-field wall by Urías for a Statcast-projected 337-foot homer.
In the third-base dugout, members of the O’s tried to will it out of the ballpark with a bit of extra wind on a warm night.
“We were all blowing as hard as we could,” Mansolino said.
But Urías instantly thought he had given his club the lead.
“It’s a short porch,” Urías said. “I was pretty sure that it was going.”
Baltimore padded its lead with another run via a rally that featured both O’Hearn and Henderson coming off the bench. Each delivered a single, with Henderson’s opposite-field knock to left extending his hitting streak to 14 games.
Meanwhile, four O’s relievers combined for 5 1/3 scoreless innings after right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano allowed three runs over 3 2/3. Félix Bautista closed the door with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 16th save.
“This team’s gritty,” said right-hander Scott Blewett, who tossed two perfect innings to earn the win. “To get in late, and you have a lack of sleep, and show up and go put your best effort on the field and get a win at Yankee Stadium on a Friday night, it’s pretty awesome.”
With less than six weeks until the July 31 Trade Deadline, the Orioles must continue to make up ground. They’ll need to show the front office this is a team that should add (or at least stand pat) rather than sell off key pieces.
“Honestly, I feel like we’ve been showing it,” Henderson said. “I feel like we’ve kind of hit our stride a little bit. We still have a lot of room to go, but we’ve been making strides in the right direction and we’ve been winning a decent amount of games.”