The five innings that Corbin Burnes pitched were nice.
For five innings tonight, the Corbin Burnes and Gerrit Cole pitchers’ duel lived up to the hype. As they faced off against each other in their final starts of the regular season, both were about as sharp as they could be. But Burnes, who will be the game one starter in the Wild Card round, exited after five innings. Cole, whose team will get a first round bye, stuck around for 6.2.
After Burnes exited the game, all hell broke loose. Baltimore’s relief pitchers were so very bad. Once the smoke cleared, the Yankees got themselves a 10-1 win and the AL East title. They will get a first-round bye in the playoffs while the Orioles get the Wild Card series.
Burnes struck out nine batters, all on the cutter which was working excellently tonight. It started in the first inning when he struck out Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto, and Aaron Judge swinging. He struck out two more in the second inning, but unfortunately only after Giancarlo Stanton went deep. Burnes threw a slider down in the zone on the first pitch that Stanton swung through. The second pitch was similar, just a touch lower. Stanton got a hold of it for his 27th home run.
Jazz Chisholm followed with a single but after that Burnes was back in control. He struck out the final two batters and went on to face just nine batters over the next three innings. He walked Aaron Judge in the fourth before getting Austin Wells to ground into a double play.
After the fifth inning the cameras found Burnes and Brandon Hyde talking in the dugout, presumably about how they wanted to proceed knowing that Burnes is on tap to pitch game one of the Wild Card series on Tuesday. The question was answered shortly after when Yennier Cano began to warm in the bullpen. Burnes’s final pitching line: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 9 K.
I’m not saying that pulling Burnes was necessarily the wrong decision. I wanted to see the Orioles sweep. I wanted to see them clinch the first Wild Card spot. But the Wild Card game is infinitely more important than tonight’s game. If a little bit of extra rest does Burnes well, then it makes sense. But what followed his exit in this game was just disgusting.
Cano started the sixth inning and it was all a disaster from there. He retired the very first batter he faced, then put Torres, Soto, and Judge on base with a walk, a single, and a walk. He was pulled in favor of Cionel Pérez, which was a head scratcher for me in a one-run game.
Pérez has not been reliable of late. To simply say he was not reliable today feels like an understatement. With the bases loaded, Pérez immediately walked in a run on pitches that were not particularly close to the strike zone. That brought Stanton back to the plate. Stanton absolutely smoked a middle-zone sinker from Pérez out to centerfield. It left the bat at 116 mph and easily cleared the bases to give the Yankees a 5-0 lead.
Stanton is a shell of the player he was in his younger years but he can still put a hurting on a team in the right conditions.
After Pérez retired Jazz Chisholm for the second out of the inning, Hyde decided to wave the white flag. At least I think that’s what it means when you bring Bryan Baker in to a major league ballgame.
Baker was as you expect. He walked Jasson Domínguez, who then stole second base and came in to score on a single from Anthony Rizzo. Baker came back out for the seventh inning and gave up Aaron Judge’s 58th home run. Like I said, white flag. Matt Bowman, who tried to blow the game yesterday, gave up a home run to Alex Verdugo in the 8th inning.
As for the Orioles offense, Cole kept them well in check, as did the group of Yankees relievers. The first eight Orioles went down before James McCann worked a two-out walk in the third inning, but Gunnar Henderson flew out to end the inning.
Ramón Urías broke up the no-hitter in the fifth inning with a two-out single, but Cedric Mullins grounded out. James McCann picked up the team’s second hit with a leadoff single in the sixth, but Cole retired the next five batters. He excited the game with two outs in the seventh inning to a huge ovation from the crowd. His final pitching line: 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K.
Unlike the Orioles bullpen, the Yankees bullpen kept things in check. Tommy Kahnle took over and ended the seventh for Cole, then started the eighth with a strike out of pinch hitter Emmanuel Rivera. After Mullins singled, the Yankees brought in former closer Clay Holmes to pitch in garbage time.
He struck out McCann. Pinch hitter Jackson Holliday chopped a ball to the right side that got knocked down in the infield but no play could be made. But Jordan Westburg grounded out to keep the Orioles off the board.
Just when I was all ready for this game to wrap up, the Orioles decided to score a run. Back-to-back-to-back singles from Austin Slater, Rutschman, and Ryan Mountcastle loaded the bases for Rivera. A long fly ball brought in the only run of the game for the Orioles. Mullins grounded out to end the game.
The Orioles lost a tough one tonight but ultimately one that won’t matter in a week. They finished the year with an 8-5 record against the Yankees and now head to Minnesota for the final three games of the regular season. They need to win just one to clinch home field advantage in the Wild Card round.