BALTIMORE — Round one of 17 went to the defending AL East champs.
In the first showdown between the division rivals — and the top two offenses in the American League — the Orioles inched past the Yankees, 2-0, Monday night in front of a lively 23,184 at Camden Yards.
Clarke Schmidt and Grayson Rodriguez engaged in a pitchers’ duel in which the only blemish was Gunnar Henderson’s leadoff home run in the bottom of the first inning.
The Orioles (18-10) added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning, scoring from third when Anthony Volpe booted a ground ball with two outs.
But it did not end up mattering as the Yankees (19-11) — who racked up 30 runs between Saturday and Sunday against the Brewers — were shut out for the fifth time this season.
“Obviously, tough way to lose, but we’re in a good position for the series,” Schmidt said. “We’ll be all right. Thankfully it’s four games.”
The Yankees put 10 runners on base but stranded all of them and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Rodriguez shut them out for 5 ²/₃ innings before three Orioles relievers handled the rest.
“We’ve had some of those nights where we’ve gotten shut down when we’ve had a lot of traffic and we just didn’t come up with the big hit,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously, they kept us in the ballpark. Just gotta keep giving ourselves a chance like that and trust we’ll break through. … One of those nights, frustrating because you put together some good at-bats but aren’t able to break through.”
The Yankees brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning after Gleyber Torres led off with a single.
Oswaldo Cabrera then hit a deep fly ball to left-center field, but it fell short of the wall that got pushed back 26 ½ feet in 2022 — and just to the left of where the fence juts back in.
“[If] it was just a couple feet to the right, maybe closer to center field, we got a different ballgame,” said Aaron Judge, who flew out to the right-field warning track twice. “But he took a good swing on it. That’s all you can do in that situation. Guys were taking good swings all night and we couldn’t get anything to fall. We’ll fix that tomorrow.”
Lefty reliever Danny Coulombe — closing in place of Craig Kimbrel, who had blown back-to-back save opportunities — then retired the next two Yankees to end the game.
Schmidt turned in a strong effort across 5 ²/₃ innings, keeping one of the majors’ most dangerous offenses in check.
The lone damage came on the first batter he faced, as Henderson crushed a low-and-inside curveball for his league-leading 10th home run and the quick 1-0 lead.
“I got it down, but not down enough,” Schmidt said of his third curveball of the at-bat. “I think that’s kind of his honey hole down and in. So yeah, credit to him, he’s a really, really good hitter.”
The next two batters made loud contact as well before Schmidt — who took a line drive off the ribs in the fourth inning but said he would be fine — settled in and cruised until the fifth, when he issued his first two walks that turned into runners on second and third with one out.
But he got out of that jam by inducing a pair of pop-ups.
The Yankees had one of their best chances to score in the third inning, when Volpe walked and Juan Soto hit a long single off the high wall in right field to put runners on the corners with one out.
But Judge chased a 3-2 changeup below the zone and Anthony Rizzo grounded out to third base to end the threat.
“You got to tip your cap sometimes,” Judge said. “They were making their pitches, but guys were putting the ball in play. That’s all you can ask for in that situation is keep getting guys on base and try to drive a pitch when you get one. Couple guys hit some balls hard and they just didn’t fall. It wasn’t our night tonight, but we gotta show up [Tuesday] and do our thing.”
