Means strong again, but O's fall 3-1 and are swept (updated)

Left-hander John Means was able to follow righty Dean Kremer and throw another strong game for the Orioles on the mound this afternoon. But again, the offense was producing little. The Orioles would need to get at least something going with the bats to pull this game out and avoid a four-game sweep by the Yankees.

But they could not do it.

Gleyber Torres pinch-hit in the New York eighth with two on and two outs and doubled off Tanner Scott. That broke a 1-1 tie and gave the Yankees a 3-1 win and the sweep.

Dillon Tate pitched a 1-2-3 seventh and took the mound for the eighth. He got the first two hitters out, but then Aaron Hicks singled. The O's had the chance to get a third out, but first baseman Renato Núñez bobbled a grounder to his right. He shuffled the ball to Tate covering the bag, but his foot was inches off the bag and Clint Frazier was safe. It was scored a single. Torres' pinch-hit two-run double followed.

The Orioles fall to 20-26 and have lost five in a row. They are now 5 1/2 games behind the Yankees with 14 to play. They were outscored 21-3 in this series.

Means put together a second straight strong start, following up his outing Tuesday at Citi Field against the New York Mets. He went six innings again and gave up just a run again, this time on five hits. He walked one and fanned four batters, throwing 96 pitches, 63 for strikes. Means has lowered his ERA from 8.10 to 5.63 his past two games versus the Mets and Yankees, allowing two runs and eight hits over 12 innings.

He featured his fastball 57 times today, and that pitch averaged 93.3 mph. He threw 22 changeups and on the day got 15 whiffs on 48 swings. Means had entered this outing with a 9.39 ERA in six career games against the Yankees.

The Orioles took a 1-0 lead in the second when the slumping Núñez homered against a pitcher he's had success against. Núñez was 2-for-21 with nine strikeouts when he moved to the plate. He hit J.A. Happ's first-pitch fastball, one that was off the outside corner, just over the wall in right field for a 1-0 lead. Núñez's 338-foot homer was his 11th, tying him with Anthony Santander for the team lead. He is now 12-for-22 with five career homers off Happ.

New York tied it against Means when No. 9 hitter Tyler Wade homered in the last of the third. The lefty hitter got a 1-0 hanging slider for his second homer this season, and the first of his career off a lefty.

The Orioles seemed primed to break the 1-1 tie in the fifth, but could not. Pat Valaika's groundball double down the third-base line was followed by a Rio Ruiz line-drive single to put runners on first and third with no one out. When Cedric Mullins grounded to third, Valaika broke for home and was out in a rundown, leaving runners at first and second with one out. Hanser Alberto then struck out on a 3-2 pitch with Ruiz breaking for third. He was thrown out easily, completing a double play and ending a big threat.

The O's left two more runners on base in the sixth. At that point they were 1-for-7 in this game and 2-for-20 in this series batting with runners in scoring position.

In the series the Orioles batted .138 (16-for-116) scoring just three runs with five extra-base hits. They had in order two, four, four and six hits in each game.

The Orioles have now completed a stretch of 12 straight games against the Mets and Yankees, going 5-7. Tomorrow night they begin a week-long homestand facing first-place teams in the Braves and Rays.

Manager Brandon Hyde on Torres' two-run double: "Should never have gotten to that, though. Play before that (needs to be made). You extend innings and that is what happens against good teams."

Hyde on the lack of offense: "One run again today. Just not going to win games against the New York Yankees scoring one run. I just think we got beat, to honest with you. I just think we didn't score. We were swinging the bat well, playing well coming into this series, and we just didn't swing the bat these four games against, you know, arms that are here for a reason and postseason-tested. We just have to get a lot better against these guys, because we have a tough time scoring runs in this ballpark against them."

Hyde on blown chance in fifth, with runners at first and third and no outs: "First and third, you are trying to stay out of a double play (so the contact play was on). You're trying to stay in a rundown to at least be first and third or second and third. And with Cedric (Mullins) up with two strikes, they were playing in there. Little bit unfortunate. I put on the 3-2 (steal try). If I'm ever going to run 3-2, first and second, it's going to be with Hanser Alberto hitting with a left-hander on the mound. I would say about 99 percent of the time he's going to make contact. Especially against J.A. Happ, a contact-type guy. And it just didn't happen."

Means on another strong outing: "I didn't have my best stuff, probably, but I thought I made pitches when I needed to, to get out of some situations. I thought our game plan went well. I'm starting to feel more like myself. Definitely good to get six innings in.

"We threw a lot of fastballs today and got a lot of popups on the heater. Got some swings and misses. But just the mix. The mix of everything to keep them off balance. I think the curveball for a strike has been a big difference these last couple of outings. Been throwing that a lot more over the plate. And just being able to throw everything for strikes."

Núñez on getting swept: "Yeah, it is (tough), of course. You lose in the end. Kind of sucks, but that is the game. We lose today. We're gonna come back tomorrow stronger than today and we're going to keep winning games. What can I say? It wasn't a good series for us, but hopefully the next series will be for us. We want to keep playing. So, everyone is here to win."