Harvey and Mullins lead Orioles to 4-2 win (updated)

Freddy Galvis hit an opposite-field, run-scoring double tonight in the bottom of the second inning, stayed for the last out and was gone. Plated a run and retreated to the clubhouse.

A lineup that lost outfielder Anthony Santander to a sprained ankle could have a vacancy at shortstop.

Galvis was removed with left adductor soreness, basically an injury to the hip/thigh, but there wasn't much hurting Matt Harvey. He wasn't coming out of the game until shattering the five-inning barrier. Until every New York baseball writer had a story angle and flashbacks.

Producing his finest work with the Orioles, Harvey held the Yankees to one run over six innings and César Valdez notched a tense four-out save in a 4-2 win before an announced crowd of 6,367 at Camden Yards.

Dubbed "The Dark Knight" with the Mets, the former All-Star found his footing on the comeback trail. He carried a shutout into the sixth and lost it on back-to-back two-out doubles by Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge.

Harvey allowed three hits, walked three batters, struck out five and threw 84 pitches. His best results since April 28, 2019 while pitching for the Angels in Kansas City, when he allowed one run and two hits in seven innings.

"It's probably the best I've felt in a couple years," he said. "Just everything was working well and mechanically felt good, felt strong throughout the whole outing. I was able to throw strikes when I needed to and guys made plays behind me and it was a good team effort."

Cedric Mullins homered twice and doubled, and the Orioles won back-to-back games for the first time since April 16-17 in Texas. They're 10-12 overall and 3-8 at home.

Tanner Scott walked the bases loaded in the eighth inning in a second consecutive appearance and Gio Urshela lined a single into left field. Clint Frazier scored, but plate umpire Will Little ruled that Austin Hays threw out Aaron Judge at third base before DJ LeMahieu crossed the plate, leading to manager Aaron Boone's ejection by first base umpire Greg Gibson.

"It was huge. I think that was the game-saving play," Mullins said.

"It was a matter of us communicating out there and he had an idea of what he wanted to do with the ball well before it came to him. He saw the opportunity to get him out at third and that's exactly what he did."

"It was a big play," said manager Brandon Hyde. "Austin Hays, it's a plus-plus arm and it's extremely accurate. He looks for plays like that. He wants to throw. ... That was a game-saving play."

Former Orioles reliever Darren O'Day hit Hays on the left hand leading off the sixth. Hays stayed in the game after a few tense moments, his injury history scrolling like television credits, and he scored after Pedro Severino punched a single through a vacated area on the right side and O'Day committed his third career balk - the other two with the Orioles.

Mullins hit his fourth career leadoff home run and opened the seventh with a shot to center field off Justin Wilson for his first multi-homer game and a 4-1 lead.

"I'll tell you what, you go left-on-left off Justin Wilson, who I know very well, you don't see that very often," Hyde said. "And not only hit a homer, but go dead center, that shows you the power that Cedric has. All year I've been impressed with him left-on-left. ... He's just playing extremely well and what he's doing is not easy to do, to hit left-handed off left-handed pitchers a few months ago and to do what he's doing, to take the at-bats he is, I don't have the words for it."

Mullins' most recent leadoff home run came against the Yankees in the first game of a Sept. 4, 2020 doubleheader in Baltimore. Tonight's ball was the 108th to land on Eutaw Street and the 49th by an Oriole.

Determined to make a night of it, Mullins also robbed Judge of an extra-base hit with a leaping catch on the warning track in the fourth and led off the fifth with a double. Judge already had bounced into a double play on his 29th birthday.

"I knew that I put in a solid amount of work in the offseason off machines and a couple guys threw live to me left-on-left," Mullins said. "I'm adjusting fairly quickly and it feels good."

Severino walked with one out in the second inning, Ryan Mountcastle popped up and Galvis lined a Deivi García fastball to the fence in left-center field. Severino scored from first base as Galvis jogged to second and gave the Orioles a 2-0 lead.

Rio Ruiz entered the game at second base and Ramón Urías moved over to shortstop. Urías made the final out in three innings.

Galvis was batting .333/.388/.600 (15-for-45) in his last 14 games before tonight after going 3-for-26 in his first seven.

The Orioles optioned outfielder Ryan McKenna after the game and are expected to bring up an infielder.

"He's just day-to-day right now," Hyde said of Galvis. "So it's left groin soreness. Just kind of tightened up on him a little bit. Feels a lot better now, so it's fortunate for us he's just going to be day-to-day."

Harvey retired 11 in a row after walking Gleyber Torres in the second inning. Urshela singled prior to Torres' at-bat for the only Yankees hit until Stanton doubled with two outs in the sixth. Frazier's leadoff walk ended the streak, but he was erased on a double play.

Judge lined his double, on a two-strike pitch, down the left field line to reduce the lead to 2-1.

A 95-mph fastball produced strikeouts of Gary Sánchez to end the second and Stanton to close out the third. He began the game by freezing DJ LeMahieu at 94 mph, opened the second by fanning Rougned Odor with a slider and ended the fifth by striking out Sánchez on another slider.

"I thought he got over the hump there," Hyde said. "I thought his stuff stayed the same through the fifth. He gave up that one run there in the sixth inning, but impressive performance. Good life to his fastball, good two-seamer again, liked the slider and the curveball. He's a competitor and he competes with what he's got. He knows how to pitch. He's continuing to get stronger every outing."

Travis Lakins Sr. stranded a runner in the seventh, but Scott experienced control issues again. He struck out Odor for the second out, Valdez replaced him and Judge's baserunning blunder provided a nice assist.

Valdez retired the side in order in the ninth for his fifth save.

"I'm going to continue to throw (Scott) out there in big spots," Hyde said. "I believe in the arm, I believe in the kid. He's had a couple rough ones with some command, but huge punchout on Odor. That showed me a lot right there, with the bases loaded to be able to throw those sliders he did left-on-left. We believe in Tanner's ability. I think he's a back end, late inning with the lead type of guy, and he's got that kind of stuff and he's going to continue to get those experiences."

Mountcastle halted a 1-for-28 skid with a double to right-center field in the fourth, the exit velocity 106.8 mph, per Statcast.