Barring a stunning collapse, chances are the Yankees still will wrap up the AL East at some point over the final four days of the regular season.
But Wednesday was an ugly pit stop on the way there.
The bad news started hours before first pitch, when Nestor Cortes was scratched and placed on the injured list with a left elbow flexor strain that jeopardizes his availability for the postseason.
Then his replacement, Marcus Stroman, gave up six straight singles to lead off the game — including a key defensive miscue from left fielder Jasson Dominguez — and it didn’t get much better from there as the Yankees missed a second straight chance to clinch the division in a 9-7 loss to the Orioles in front of 41,010 angsty fans in The Bronx.
“Nothing’s been easy for us this year,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Shouldn’t expect it to be now. But we’ve persevered and grinded our way through all of it. … We’ll be ready to go [Thursday].”
The Yankees (92-66) trailed 9-3 entering the bottom of the ninth and rallied to make things interesting, including a three-run shot from Aaron Judge for his 57th home run of the year.
But the champagne remained on ice for a second straight night as the Yankees’ magic number to clinch the division stayed at one, with the Orioles (88-70) climbing back to four games back with four to play.
The Yankees, whose magic number to secure the AL’s best record also remained stuck at three (now leading the Guardians by just half a game), will send Gerrit Cole to the mound on Thursday in a battle of the aces against Corbin Burnes, trying to avoid the sweep.
“They’re all tough,” said Judge, whose fourth straight game with a home run made him the first player since 2009 to record 142 RBIs in a season. “We’re playing a great team that’s battled with us all year long. So it’s never going to be easy, no matter if the magic number is down to one or if it’s five. We’re going to keep battling, do our thing and take care of business [Thursday].”
The Orioles tagged Stroman for 10 hits — all of them singles — and six runs across 3 ¹/₃ innings in his first start since Sept. 10, having been shifted to the bullpen since then.
Not all of the singles were bullets — a handful of them well-placed grounders — but they counted all the same on a rough night for Stroman.
Juan Soto delivered a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth off Zach Eflin to cut the deficit to 8-3 and the Yankees threatened to really get back in the game when they loaded the bases with two outs.
But Jazz Chisholm Jr. flied out on the first pitch he saw from new reliever Jacob Webb, letting all the air out of the building in the process.
The Orioles loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the first when Colton Cowser lifted a fly ball down the left-field line that should have been the first out.
But as Dominguez chased it down toward the corner, he ended up overrunning the ball and it fell just behind him for a two-run single.
The only solace on the play was the Yankees throwing out Santander at third.
“That ball has to be caught 100 percent of the time,” said Dominguez, who has been shaky in left field as the Yankees try to determine whether he or Alex Verdugo will start there in the playoffs.
The Orioles made it 3-0 before the end of the first inning and then got to Stroman again in the fourth, when they knocked him out of the game.
Gunnar Henderson’s two-run single made it a 5-1 game as Stroman walked off the mound to a smattering of boos from the crowd.
“It’s frustrating, but at the end of the day, I didn’t execute and do my job to keep my team in position to win,” Stroman said.
Eflin gave the Yankees chances to get back into the game early, walking five across 4 ²/₃ innings.
But they could not take advantage and then their ninth-inning rally was too little, too late as the wait continued to nail down the division.
“At the end of the day, [the Orioles are] playing good baseball,” Soto said. “I bet you everybody in this clubhouse wants to clinch, but it’s just part of it.”
