BALTIMORE — Over the course of one inning Tuesday night, the Yankees touched home plate more times than they had in any single nine- or 10-inning contest during their four-game losing streak.
And that is how they snapped out of it.
An offense that had gone missing through the start of this road trip was resuscitated in a five-run third inning as the Yankees finally got back in the win column with a 6-2 victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards.
Trent Grisham’s three-run homer capped off the five-run rally — after the Yankees (27-16) had scored a combined eight runs over their last four games — which was enough support for Will Warren, who turned in another strong start across 5 ²/₃ innings before his bullpen shut the door.
“We know this game has a lot of ups and downs, so I think the mindset is just show up every day prepared and work hard and enjoy this game,” said Paul Goldschmidt, who set the tone with a home run on the first pitch of the game. “It’s called a game for a reason. We know there’s tough losses. It doesn’t take away any of the hard work or competitiveness, which is at an all-time high for myself and this team.”
A night after Ryan Weathers made his case for staying in the rotation when Gerrit Cole returns from the injured list in a few weeks, Warren did the same, and this time the Yankees did not waste it.
The right-hander, whose pitch count got driven up by a shaky defense behind him, gave up just two runs on four hits and a walk while striking out six.
The Orioles (19-24) did not score those runs until the sixth inning, at which point they merely cut into the Yankees’ 6-0 lead.
For the second time on the trip, the veteran Goldschmidt led off the game with a home run against a lefty, this time taking Trevor Rogers deep to left field for the 1-0 lead.
The Yankees then put together a rally in the third inning, which was set up by a single from a struggling Austin Wells and back-to-back one-out walks by Aaron Judge and Ben Rice to load the bases.
Cody Bellinger kept the inning alive by busting it down the line to beat out a double play — which Aaron Boone described as “massive” — driving in a run in the process to make it 2-0.
“To have that big inning, it could have been [over] right there and the game could have went either way,” Goldschmidt said. “I think it just shows the kind of player Belli is, the hustle there and how one pitch, one little play can break open a game, good for us, or the other way if it doesn’t happen.”
Amed Rosario followed with an infield single on a chopper down the third base line for the 3-0 lead.
Grisham, who has often hit the ball hard but not been rewarded for it, came up next and belted a three-run home run to center field off Rogers — his sixth of the year, second off a lefty — to make it a 6-0 game.
It was the kind of big blow the Yankees had been missing in key spots during this trip, but Grisham delivered it Tuesday to let everyone in a Yankees uniform breathe a little easier.
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“I thought we had some good at-bats, we were patient with Rogers, made him work, couple good walks to set things up, Belli beating that out and then a big swing there by Grish,” Boone said.
The other big swing came in the bottom of the third, after the Orioles loaded the bases on a walk and two ground balls that the Yankees misplayed for no outs — a wild flip from shortstop Max Schuemann and a throw from third baseman Ryan McMahon, after making a sliding play, to a well-off-the-bag Rosario.
But Warren buckled down, getting a fly ball to right field that the Orioles did not test Judge on, and then a grounder to second that was finally executed for an inning-ending double play.
“I think it’s a mentality thing,” Warren said. “I’m doing everything I can to throw strikes and stuff like that. You have to go in with the mindset that they’re going to make those plays. If they don’t, rarely, then you have to keep pitching and find a way out of it.”
