Yankees grab defeat from jaws of victory, fall 6-5 to O’s

Source: FanGraphs

You know what the worst thing about Friday’s come-from-ahead loss to the Orioles is? It’s that it doesn’t bother me. Usually a loss like that would make me feel annoyed, angry, frustrated, all sorts of things. Instead … nothing. I guess I’ve come to accept the Yankees being bad and am now numb to the brutal losses. Anyway, Friday’s final score was 6-5. Let’s recap with bullet points on this Friday night:

• OMG Dingers!: For the first time this season, the Yankees hit 3+ home runs in a game away from Yankee Stadium. Carlos Beltran and Alex Rodriguez went back-to-back in the fourth inning, then Austin Romine went deep in the fifth inning. The three homers accounted for four of the team’s five runs. (Beltran’s was a two-run shot.) The Yankees scored their fifth run when Chase Headley singled in Didi Gregorius in the sixth. That gave them what felt like a comfortable 5-2 lead.
• Nate Loses It: Through the first five innings Nathan Eovaldi made only one mistake, and Chris Davis hit it about 500 feet for a solo homer. The O’s built a run in the second when noted pull hitters Mark Trumbo and Pedro Alvarez took outside pitches the other way. Go figure. Eovaldi was pitching well (again), but things unraveled in the sixth. Four of the first first batters of the inning reached base, the last of which was Matt Wieters, who singled in a pair to cut the deficit to 5-4. That ended Eovaldi’s night.
• Bad Bullpen: The magic is starting to wear off Kirby Yates. He entered the game with two on and one out in the sixth, then allowed the game-tying run on a Jonathan Schoop double to left. Eovaldi was charged with five runs in 5.1 innings. With the score tied 5-5 in the seventh, in came Dellin Betances, who has been mortal in recent weeks. The O’s pushed across a run on a ground ball single, a flare single to left, and a soft ground ball along the third base line. Not exactly hammered, but still. That’s three straight games with a run for Dellin. He’s on pace for another 81 appearances. Maybe pitching ALL THE TIME is bad and his workload should be lightened?
• Leftovers: The Yankees had ten hits, including two each by Brett Gardner, Gregorius, and Headley. Gardner also drew a walk. Even with his recent slump, he still leads the team with a .350 OBP … Mark Teixeira left the game in the third inning with a knee injury, forcing Rob Refsnyder to play first base for the first time. He wasn’t tested with anything particularly tough. My guess is we’ll see more of him there going forward … the Yankees have lost seven of their last ten games to drop their postseason odds to 13.3%.

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Also check out our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages. The Yankees and Orioles will continue this series Saturday night (argh). Ivan Nova and Tyler Wright will be on the bump.