BALTIMORE — Despite the Orioles residing in the basement of the AL East through the first month of the season, Aaron Boone described them as “dangerous” on Monday afternoon.
Also dangerous: walking the first two batters of an inning and then leaving a sweeper over the heart of the plate against a cleanup hitter.
That is the path that Will Warren took in the third inning Monday night, and it ended predictably, sinking his outing and the Yankees in a 4-3 loss to the scuffling Orioles at Camden Yards.
Coming off a doubleheader sweep of the Blue Jays on Sunday, the Yankees (17-12) could not keep that momentum alive against the Orioles (11-17), who had lost six of seven coming into the night.
While Warren gave up four runs across 3 ¹/₃ innings — thanks in large part to Ryan O’Hearn’s three-run homer that followed back-to-back full-count walks in the third inning — the Yankees lineup was held in check early before a late comeback attempt came up just short.
Orioles right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano, not known as a strikeout artist in his first five outings as a big leaguer, sure looked like one on Monday night.
He had struck out nine in 28 innings before punching out eight across five innings and racking up 17 whiffs to stifle the Yankees.
The Yankees scratched one run across in the seventh inning on a fielder’s choice by Aaron Judge (2-for-4).
Then with one out in the eighth, Anthony Volpe, on his 24th birthday, and Austin Wells hit back-to-back RBI doubles to make it a 4-3 game.
But Jasson Domínguez struck out against lefty reliever Gregory Soto, with his struggles from the right side continuing, and Oswaldo Cabrera (who had pinch hit for Oswald Peraza an inning earlier) grounded out to end the threat.
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Devin Williams, making his first appearance since being removed from the closer role, retired the side on 14 pitches in the bottom of the eighth to keep the Yankees within striking distance.
But Orioles closer Félix Bautista shut down the top of the Yankees order in the top of the ninth to end it.
Warren played with fire early and lived to tell about it.
The Orioles put runners on second and third with no outs in the bottom of the first before Warren set down the next three batters in order, two of them on strikeouts, to keep the game scoreless.
Warren then retired the first two batters of the second inning before Jackson Holliday singled and Ramón Laureano doubled (on a fly ball that center fielder Trent Grisham did not appear to get a great read on) for the 1-0 Orioles lead.
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In the third, Warren walked Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman, which came back to hurt when O’Hearn clobbered a sweeper over the high wall in right field for a three-run shot.
After Warren gave up a one-run double in the fourth, Aaron Boone decided he had seen enough and pulled him for Ryan Yarbrough, who delivered 3 ²/₃ scoreless innings to give the Yankees a chance.
