The Yankees shutout the Baltimore Orioles in a 6–0 victory on Sunday afternoon, as lefty starter Nestor Cortes continued his impressive season, while slugger Aaron Judge piled on yet another home run and Jose Trevino added 4 hits.
Cortes took the mound for the first 6 innings of the contest in Baltimore, marking his 18th start of the season, and gave up just 6 hits while striking out 7 batters on 94 pitches.
The starter found himself in trouble just once during the game, which came in the 2nd inning after a double from Adley Rutschman, followed by a Ramón Urías single to bring runners to the corners — but Cortes struck out the following 2 batters to get out of the inning without injury.
Clarke Schmidt would take over in the 7th on the mound for the Yankees, and continue Cortes’ shoutout performance for the final 3 innings — surrendering 2 hits and striking out 3 batters on 56 pitches.
Meanwhile, on offense, the Bronx Bombers began their 6-run performance in the 3rd inning, when Trevino reached base on a single to right field off Baltimore righty Dean Kremer, before DJ LeMahieu sent him around the bases on a double that nearly sailed over the center field fence against an 84 mph cutter.
The next at-bat saw Judge add his 27th home run of the season to 456 feet over the left field wall.
No. 37 for Aaron Judge was CRUSHED. 😳
(MLB x @FTX_Official) pic.twitter.com/wM20mYEGAV
— MLB (@MLB) July 24, 2022
That marked the slugger’s 4th long ball in just 5 games since the All-Star break last week, and brings him 7 homers ahead of Philidelhpia’s Kyle Schwarber for most in the MLB this year.
Judge played most of the contest as the designated hitter, before taking to center field on defense after Aaron Hicks left the game in the top of the 9th inning with what appeared to be leg cramps.
The next Yankee run came in the 6th inning, when Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch, and Matt Carpenter hit a single to bring him to 2nd base. Short stop Isiah Kiner-Falefa then singled to score Rizzo, and Trevino’s 3rd hit of the game (a double to deep right) brought Carpenter across the plate.
Trivino finished the game with his 1st-ever game with 4 hits.
That put the Pinstripes up 5–0 — a score that would continue into the 9th inning, when Judge walked, Gleyber Torres singled, and Hicks hit an RBI to center to add a 6th-run cushion.
Every Yankee run of the game was scored on a hit with 2 outs in the inning.
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The game was a scorcher, both for the Yankees’ performance, but also inside the Baltimore ballpark, where temperatures hovered around 100 degrees.
The will now have a day of rest to recover from the intense heat, before heading back to New York for the 1st of 2 games in Queens against the Mets in a much-anticipated Subway Series.
Pinstriped ball players have propelled the Yankees to a 66–31 record on the season — the best in the MLB. The Mets, meanwhile, are sitting with the 4th-best record in baseball at 58–37 heading into their Sunday night contest against the Padres.
