Luis Gil, bullpen touched up in Yankees’ 17-5 loss to Orioles

The Yankees dropped the rubber-game of their three-game set with the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday afternoon with an ugly 17-5 loss, allowing three home runs in the process and making three errors in the field.

Here are the takeaways…

–Luis Gil got the starting nod for New York and turned in his worst outing of the season, failing to get out of the second inning. It was the shortest start of the right-hander’s career as he only lasted 1.1 innings, allowing seven earned runs on eight hits, including a home run, a walk and a strikeout. Gil’s ERA climbed from 2.03 to 2.77 after the rough performance.

It all started in the first inning after Juan Soto misjudged a bullet to left field off the bat of Gunnar Henderson that went for a leadoff double. Gil had a chance to pick up his outfielder and get out of the inning unscathed after recording the next two outs, but Ryan O’Hearn lined an RBI single into center on a 3-2 pitch that opened up the scoring.

The wheels completely fell off in the second as Gil surrendered six hits, two walks and hit a batter en route to six runs scored in the inning. The biggest blows came by Cedric Mullins who had a two-run shot that extended Baltimore’s lead to 3-0 and Ryan Mountcastle‘s bases-clearing double that gave the Orioles a 6-0 advantage. The final run of the frame came off a bases loaded hit-by-pitch to Jordan Westburg that ended Gil’s disastrous day.

-With the bases still loaded and only out, Michael Tonkin was the first reliever called upon and did a good job of getting out of that jam with a popout and strikeout. Asked to go multiple innings, Tonkin was back out for the third but allowed a run thanks to two walks, a ground-rule double and a sacrifice fly.

-The Yankees chipped away as early as the second inning, getting on the board with Gleyber Torres‘ solo home run. They added two more in the third with another long ball, this time off the bat of Aaron Judge who hit his major-league leading 27th home run in his return to the lineup after a one-game absence due to getting hit on the hand in the series opener on Tuesday night. The injury obviously didn’t affect the slugging outfielder as he finished the day 2-for-3 with three RBI to add to his case for another MVP award.

-Down 8-3 entering the fifth, reliever Tim Hill, who was signed by New York earlier in the day, entered the game to make his pinstripes debut. It didn’t go as planned. Things got off to a rocky start as Henderson led off with his second double of the game. After stealing third, Henderson was gunned down at home by Torres at second base on a fielder’s choice. The next batter also reached on a fielder’s choice after third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera decided to throw to second base and get the lead runner out on a weak ground ball instead of taking the sure out at first base. The throw was not a good one and everybody was safe on the error.

Cabrera made up for it slightly on the next batter with a nice leaping grab on a liner which would’ve been the final out of the inning had he made the proper throw a batter before. Instead, after fouling off four straight pitches, Anthony Santander lifted a three-run home run to right center field that gave Baltimore an eight-run lead.

-The Yanks continued to fight, though, getting two of those runs right back in the bottom half of the inning to cut the deficit to 11-5. But it wouldn’t matter as the Orioles continued to pile on, scoring one in the sixth, two in the seventh, two in the eighth and one in the ninth. Austin Hays hit the third Baltimore home run which made it 14-5. O’Hearn drove in two more with a single in the eighth.

-Meanwhile, New York couldn’t get out of its own way, making three errors on the day — two by Cabrera and one by Torres who left the game in the sixth with groin tightness.

-Overall, the Yankees allowed 17 runs on 19 hits (10 extra-base hits), seven walks and two HBPs as the Orioles scored in all but one inning in a very poorly played game by New York.

-The team used eight pitchers with the last one being catcher Jose Trevino who pitched the ninth inning, allowing a run on three hits and a walk.

-The Yankees are now 2-5 against Baltimore this season as the two teams are separated by just 0.5 games for the top spot of the AL East.

Game MVP: Gunnar Henderson

Henderson set the tone atop the Orioles lineup, finishing 3-for-5 with two doubles, a walk and scoring three runs, including the first run of the game in the top of the first inning.

Highlights

What’s next

The Yankees begin a three-game weekend series with the Atlanta Braves at home, starting on Friday night at 7:05 p.m.

A couple of successful southpaws take the bump as LHP Carlos Rodon (9-3, 3.28 ERA) matches up against LHP Chris Sale (9-2, 2.98 ERA).