O's offense comes up short as Yankees win 2-0

In this matchup, Orioles right-hander Corbin Burnes was the pitcher with the much longer and better resume. But tonight, Yankees 25-year-old right-hander Luis Gil gave his team a chance to split this four-game series in Baltimore.

After losing here Monday and Tuesday, Gil, in his 13^th major league start, shut down the Orioles over 6 1/3 scoreless innings as the Yankees beat the Birds 2-0 at Oriole Park.

Oswaldo Cabrera’s two-run homer in the fifth provided the only scoring of the game as these teams moved back into a first-place tie atop the American League East with the Orioles at 19-11 (.633) and the Yankees at 20-12 (.625).

Burnes’ pitch count was at 53 through three innings, in part due to a lot of early strikeouts, a long at-bat or two, and a couple of 20-pitch innings.

Juan Soto hit a groundball single up the middle at 111 mph with one out in the first. Burnes had fanned Anthony Volpe before the single and struck out Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton on sliders after it during a 20-pitch inning.

He fanned two more batters in a 1-2-3 second and had five strikeouts through two.

He won an eight-pitch battle with Soto to strand a runner in scoring position in the Yankees’ third. No. 9 hitter Cabrera singled with one out. With two outs, Cabrera stole second – the Yankees' second steal of the game. But on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Soto grounded out up the middle and Burnes had held New York scoreless in the first three innings of, at that point, a 0-0 game. But the third was another 20-pitch inning for him.

With one two-out swing in the Yankees fifth, a scoreless tie was broken.

It was that No. 9 hitter Cabrera again, as he lined a two-run homer down the right-field line for the 2-0 lead. He was 0-for-8 coming into this game in recent at-bats.

But with two outs and none on, catcher Jose Trevino reached on a grounder up the middle that went for an infield hit. Shortstop Gunnar Henderson slipped after ranging to his left to glove the ball, but may not have had a play anyway. Then Cabrera lined a first-pitch Burnes cutter for his fourth homer and the lead. He actually swung at an inside pitch that was not a strike, but he turned on it and drove down the line just fair, confirmed by replay with a 103.3 mph exit velocity.

It was the sixth homer of the season allowed by Burnes and four of those have come in the first innings of his outings.

Burnes took the loss and falls to 3-1 with an ERA of 2.61 after a 95-pitch outing. He went six innings allowing four hits and two runs with one walk and six strikeouts.

His stuff looked great early on and he got six swings and misses in that opening inning. The strikeouts slowed but he gave the Orioles his fourth outing that is a quality start – marred only by one swing and a lack of O’s runs.

Mike Baumann and Yohan Ramírez combined to pitch three scoreless innings out of the bullpen.

Gil improved to 2-1 with an ERA of 3.19 over six starts. He allowed just two hits – both singles – with one walk and fanned five.

The O's had a big chance in the last of the eighth, but that came up empty. Against reliever Ian Hamilton, Cedric Mullins walked and Heston Kjerstad was hit by a pitch. But pinch-hitter Anthony Santander fouled out on the first pitch. Then Clay Holmes fanned Henderson and Adley Rutschman on sliders. 

Holmes allowed Ryan O'Hearn's leadoff single in the ninth but closed out the win for his 10th save. 

The Orioles were shutout for the first time in the 2024 season after earlier being held to one run three times and two runs three other times. They went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left six on base.