Yankees 9, Orioles 4, and Cody Bellinger made it look like a long afternoon for Baltimore's entire pitching staff before the third inning was over.
Four at-bats, two home runs, a double, four RBI. Bellinger was playing a different game than everyone else on the field Saturday at Yankee Stadium -- and the Orioles never really found a way to slow him down.
The Moment That Closed It
Pete Alonso tried to make things interesting. The Baltimore first baseman tagged Ryan Weathers for his sixth homer of the year in the top of the fourth -- a solo shot to left that cut the deficit to 3-1 and gave the Orioles dugout something to stand up for.
Then Trent Grisham hit a two-run shot to right center in the bottom half, and that was the ballgame.
The Grisham homer was the highest win-probability swing of the game -- a 12.1% WPA event that turned a reasonably competitive afternoon into an inevitability. (The drama index was 105.0, which is a lot of drama for a play that felt, in the moment, like you already knew what was going to happen.) McMahon was on base, Grisham got a Bradish pitch he could pull, and he didn't miss it. Yankees 5, Orioles 1. Bradish didn't see the fifth.
Bellinger's Afternoon
It's hard to write a Bellinger section when the whole recap is basically about Bellinger, but here we are.
He opened the scoring in the second with his fourth homer of the year -- a fly ball to right center off Kyle Bradish that had the easy carry of a ball hit flush. Solo shot, 1-0 Yankees, and the tone was set.
In the third, with Grisham on second, Bellinger lined his seventh double of the season to center and drove Grisham home. Two runs in the inning, three on the board, and Bradish was already well past his threshold for bad days.
Bellinger added his fifth homer in the fifth, a solo shot off Keegan Akin to make it 6-1. At that point he'd personally driven in three of the Yankees' six runs and was the only person in the Stadium who didn't look tired.
For a lineup that didn't have Aaron Judge in the hit column -- Judge went 0-for-3, though he drew two walks and scored -- it didn't matter. Bellinger covered enough ground for everyone.
Weathers, the Pen, and the Seventh
Ryan Weathers was the right guy for a Saturday afternoon game that didn't require heroics -- just innings and one-run ball while the offense did the heavy lifting.
He gave the Yankees exactly that. Five innings, five strikeouts, two walks, and just the one Alonso shot. He wasn't dominant, but he didn't need to be. (That's what a 5-1 lead does for a starter's mental health.)
The bullpen handled the last four innings, though the Orioles made them work for it a little. Baltimore scored two in the sixth -- a Pete Alonso double-play grounder that scored Ward, and a Samuel Basallo double that scored Gunnar Henderson -- then pulled to 6-4 on a Dylan Beavers run in the seventh. Tight enough to raise an eyebrow.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. solved that in a hurry. A ground ball single to right in the bottom of the seventh scored both Judge and Bellinger and pushed the final to 9-4.
The Yankees are 22-11, still in first in the AL East by two games over Tampa Bay, and they've won two in a row. Series with Baltimore continues Sunday -- and after today, Bradish's day is probably going to come up in a very uncomfortable film session.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
