Keegan Akin's second MLB start was even better than the first

On a night when Yankees ace Gerrit Cole fanned eight of the first nine Orioles he faced, an O's rookie left-handed starter was not bad either.

Not bad at all as Keegan Akin threw 5 1/3 scoreless for the Orioles in his second major league start. And it was a night when Akin showed that some of the work he did last year to improve his secondary pitches may have paid off.

He did not get a decision, but after the Orioles exploded for five runs in the last of the sixth off Cole, the Orioles got a win and beat the Yankees and their ace 6-1 to improve to 18-21.

Akin allowed three hits, two singles and a double. He walked four and fanned eight, throwing 91 pitches, 57 for strikes. He left with a man on first and one out in the top of the sixth. Right-hander Dillon Tate came on to get the last two outs of that inning and keep the game tied 0-0 to that point. Tate would pick up his first big league win.

Cole came out looking great, but Akin matched him zero for zero until the O's offense broke through.

Akin lowered his ERA to 2.08 after four appearances in the majors. He has not allowed an earned run over his first two big league starts. In those games, he's thrown 9 2/3 innings against the Blue Jays and Yankees, allowing six hits and two unearned runs with six walks to 14 strikeouts.

Akin got three fly outs around a two-out walk in the first. He struck out two and gave up a single in the second and was at 35 pitches through two frames. Akin pitched a 1-2-3 third and fanned the last two in that inning. He gave up a leadoff double to Gleyber Torres in the fourth. But Akin then struck out Clint Frazier on a changeup and fanned Gary Sánchez looking at a fastball. After a two-out walk, he got Kyle Higashioka to ground out to strand two runners. He was at 62 pitches through four.

He had another challenging inning in the fifth when he walked back-to-back batters with two outs and Torres, an Oriole-killer, came up. But he lined out to right on a first-pitch fastball and Akin's outing remaining scoreless. Tate would replace him during the next inning.

Of his 91 pitches, the lefty threw 52 fastballs that averaged 91.7 mph per Statcast and topped out at 94.6. He added 20 sliders and 19 changeups. The Yankees swung at six of his sliders and whiffed on three. They swung at 10 of his changeups and whiffed at five. So he had a 50 percent whiff rate on his secondary pitches that were swung on tonight. He spent last year working hard to improve those offerings.

DJ Stewart ended his 0-for-17 start to the year with a solo homer off Cole in the sixth to give the Orioles a 1-0 lead. Later that inning, Ryan Mountcastle singled in two runs on an 0-2 pitch with the bases loaded. He drilled a 98 mph Cole fastball to center to make it 3-0. Rio Ruiz would make it 5-0 on a two-run double.

Stewart homered again an inning later. It was a solo shot to give him his first career multi-homer game.

In two starts versus the Orioles this year, Cole has allowed eight runs (four earned) over 12 2/3 innings.

The runs came too late for Akin to get his first big league victory. But on a night when the Orioles pinned a loss on Cole, Akin was a big reason why that happened.

So after losing 19 in a row to the Yankees, the Orioles have now won two in a row.

They beat the Yankees tonight and the victory was led by homegrown talent. Akin was drafted No. 54 overall in 2016. Mountcastle and Stewart were the club's top two picks in the 2015 draft, with Stewart taken No. 25 overall and Mountcastle No. 36.