Chris Ellis continues to impress for the Baltimore Orioles, he continues to face prolific offenses and is earning his spot in the rotation. Ellis went five innings for the Orioles giving up no runs, no hits, and three walks while lowering his ERA to 2.16. Ellis would not factor into the decision, but did give the O’s a chance in his 3rd career start. Tanner Scott would pitch the 6th inning and keep the no-hitter in tact but struggled in the 7th.
Both teams were held off the board until the Orioles struck 1st when Jorge Mateo walked via Jordan Montgomery ball four, which turned out to be a wild pitch that Trey Mancini scored off of. In the top of the 7th inning, Baltimore would add onto their lead with a Cedric Mullins RBI double to right field to make it a 2-0 game. Later in the inning, Austin Hays reached on an infield single to drive in Cedric Mullins and extend the Orioles lead to 3-0. The New York Yankees would finally breakthrough in the bottom of the 7th inning with an infield single of their own when Gleyber Torres drove in Anthony Rizzo to cut the O’s lead to 3-1. The drama ramped up in the bottom of the 8th inning when Joey Gallo hit a game-tying 2-run homerun off of Jorge Lopez to make it a 3-3 game, Gallo’s 31st homerun on the year. The Baltimore Orioles would not back down. In the top of the 9th inning Ryan Mountcastle struck out but reached on a dropped 3rd strike, Austin Hays followed it up with a single, Trey Mancini walked, and two batters later Pedro Severino hit a sacrifice fly to give the O’s a 4-3 lead. Cole Sulser got the Yankees to go three up and three down to finish the game for the Orioles.
Sulser gets the win and improves his record to 4-3 while Aroldis Chapman gets the loss and drops to 5-4 on the season.
The rubber game of this three game set is on Sunday with Keegan Akin and Corey Kluber squaring off.
The young players for the Baltimore Orioles have been playing better as of late including the aforementioned Chris Ellis, amidst the losses and struggles, light and hope seems to be shining through and giving Birdland a glimpse into what the future might be.
