NEW YORK – Adam Frazier pulled Nestor Cortes' fastball down the right-field line and worried.
“You see the wind pushing it foul,” he explained. “It wasn't a very good feeling until it hit.”
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His drive clanked off the foul pole in front of the second deck, turning a Yankees runaway into what became an Orioles thriller. Frazier's three-run homer pulled Baltimore within a run and pinch-hitter Gunnar Henderson followed with a go-ahead, two-run double in an eight-run seventh inning. Baltimore's 9-6 victory Wednesday night stopped New York’s season-high winning streak at five games.
“Ton of fight. Ton of energy in our dugout,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.
Baltimore (32-17) has come from behind in 19 of its wins. The Orioles sent 12 batters to the plate in the seventh against Cortes and the bullpen, their highest-scoring inning since September 2021. The franchise matched its most runs in an inning at the Yankees, on June 5, 1989, and by the St. Louis Browns on June 12, 1929, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“Don't count us out. We'll battle back. There's no quit in this team,” Henderson said.
Gleyber Torres homered twice and drove in three runs, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa tripled and homered as the Yankees (30-21) built a 5-1 lead against Tyler Wells.
New York’s bullpen leads the major leagues with a 2.80 ERA but it rose to 2.94.
Cortes had allowed only Ryan Mountcastle’s fourth-inning homer before walking Anthony Santander leading off the seventh. Austin Hayes smoked a 109.6 mph grounder that could have been a double play but short-hopped under the glove of rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe and rolled into left.
Frazier 's homer chased Cortes.
“Just unlucky there," Cortes said. “If that ball is 2 inches away, he probably pops it up."
Slumping James McCann, batting just .182, and Jorge Mateo singled off Jimmy Cordero (3-2).
Henderson had been 0 for 6 in his career as a pinch hitter. He went to the indoor batting cage at the start of the inning and faced about 10-15 fastballs before stepping up to the plate and pulling a sinker down the right-field line for a 6-5 lead. That ended a 22 1/3-inning scoreless streak for Yankees relievers.
Wells started screaming at the clubhouse television.
“I really felt like when I came out of the game I didn't give them much of a chance to come back,” Wells said. “It's great to really just see the guys pick me up.”
Mountcastle's sacrifice fly against Albert Abreu and run-scoring singles by Santander and Hays built a 9-5 lead.
Mike Baumann (4-0) pitched a 1-2-3 sixth. After New York loaded the bases in the seventh against Mychal Givens in the seventh, Anthony Rizzo hit a one-out RBI single against Danny Coulombe, who stranded the bases loaded by striking out DJ LeMahieu and inducing Harrison Bader to ground into a forceout.
Félix Bautista got three outs for his 12th save in 16 chances, a night after giving up Aaron Judge’s tying, ninth-inning homer in the Orioles’ 6-5, 10-inning loss.
Wells was again hurt by the long ball. He has allowed 13 in 10 appearances — 18 of 22 runs off him this season scored on the homers.
“Leaving pitches down the middle in the big leagues against a team like that full of insanely respectable hitters, you're going to get punished,” Wells said.
In a game that started after a 1-hour, 36-minute rain delay, Torres hit a two-run homer in the third and a solo drive in the fifth, giving him nine homers this season and 14 career multihomer games.
Kiner-Falefa hit a two-run homer earlier in the fifth. Playing occasional outfield after losing the shortstop job to Volpe in spring training, Kiner-Falefa is 5 for 13 with a double, triple and three home runs in his last six games.
“I wasn't really clear on what exactly my role was," IKF said, "but now I think with two months, a month-and-a-half into the year I have a better understanding of when those opportunities could arise and when I could be used.”
FIRST TOSS
Princeton basketball coach Mitch Henderson threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Henderson was a 29th-round draft pick by the Yankees in 1994 from Culver Academy, alma mater of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Orioles: Baltimore hasn’t said whether it will activate or option RHP Dillon Tate, sidelined since spring training with a right flexor strain. He has a 14.04 ERA in 8 1/3 innings over 10 minor league rehab appearances.
Yankees: 3B Josh Donaldson will start a minor league injury rehabilitation assignment on Thursday at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and could be activated during next week’s series at Seattle or the set at Dodger Stadium starting June 2. Donaldson has sidelined since April 5 by a strained right hamstring. OF-DH Giancarlo Stanton, sidelined since April 15 by a strained left hamstring, could start a rehab assignment this weekend.
UP NEXT
New York RHP Clarke Schmidt (2-4, 6.00) and Baltimore RHP Kyle Gibson (5-3, 4.27) are scheduled to start Thursday night’s series finale.
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