It was looking like there would be a good chance for a feel-good opening day at home for the Orioles. They were leading the Yankees 4-1 headed to the top of the sixth. But within a span of four batters the strong positive vibes hit a brick wall.
Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres delivered his second homer of the game and it was huge. His three-run shot off Mike Wright turned a 4-2 Orioles lead into a 5-4 Yankees lead. New York went on to win 8-4 in front of a sellout of 44,182 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
It came on an 0-2 pitch that catcher Jesús Sucre seemed to want off the outside corner. Wright missed the spot with a fastball up and in that Torres hit over left field wall to give the Yankees the lead. Torres produced his third multi-homer game and second against the Orioles.
O's starter Alex Cobb had gotten the first two out in the sixth, but then gave up a Gary Sánchez homer to center that cut the O's lead to 4-2. Wright came on but allowed hits to all four batters he faced. The Yankees went single, single, three-run homer, single, then John Means came on.
Cobb might have been headed for a win before the New York uprising. He continued the recent trend of solid O's starting pitching. He went 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs. And O's starters have now pitched to an ERA of 0.90 the past four games (two earned runs over 20 innings).
The Orioles are 4-3 and the Yankees are 3-4. Baltimore lost for just the second time in its last nine home openers.
The Orioles had taken a 3-0 lead in the first and Yankees pitcher James Paxton helped them do it. After Jonathan Villar's leadoff, opposite-field homer to right, Paxton unraveled. With the bases loaded and one out, he balked to make it 2-0, then threw a wild pitch on his next offering for a 3-0 Orioles lead. Joey Rickard struck out, but while he batted two runs scored.
New York added on in the ninth when Luke Voit hit a three-run homer off Miguel Castro for an 8-4 lead. The Yankees hit four homers today to account for all of their runs. They had hit six homers over the season's first six games and had scored just five runs over three games in their recent series with Detroit.
Chris Davis went 0-for-3 today and struck out in all three of his at-bats. He heard plenty of boos and was pinch-hit for by Hanser Alberto, who singled, in the last of the eighth. Davis is now 0-for-17 with 11 strikeouts.
Villar, Rickard and Renato Núñez had two hits each. Villar is now hitting .345. But the Orioles went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position as they fall to 2-2 versus the Yankees.
So after four straight wins, the Orioles have lost the last two games, and the season's first homestand is underway.