O's allow three homers, lose home opener to New York

The Orioles, who went 2-17 against the New York Yankees last year, extended two long losing streaks against them tonight. They could not get to right-hander Gerrit Cole until late in the night and New York enjoyed more longballs at Oriole Park.

O's right-hander Asher Wojciechowski looked like he had some decent stuff - he fanned seven in five innings and got 18 swings and misses - but he also gave up three homers that were not exactly crushed. But that was enough to do him in.

The Yankees improved to 3-1, winning 9-3 over the Orioles and spoiling Baltimore's home opener. The Orioles are 2-2.

Second baseman DJ LeMahieu hit the second pitch of the game out down the right-field line. He connected on a 93 mph fastball for a 358-foot home run and 1-0 lead. Then it got strange for the Orioles as two of the next three Yankees hitters reached on catcher's interference charged to Pedro Severino. For some reason his glove kept hitting Yankees bats. Was he too close to the plate? Was he lunging forward for the ball? Whatever it was, it cost the Orioles another run in the top of the first and cost Wojciechowski several more pitches to escape the first inning with his count at 31.

The O's got one back off Cole in the last of the first when Austin Hays walked and scored on a José Iglesias double to right. That made Iglesias 8-for-14 on the year to that point, with four doubles. The O's just missed getting more when Anthony Santander hit a deep fly ball just foul to right and Hanser Alberto lined one down the left-field line that went foul.

After that, Cole settled in. From the Iglesias double through two outs into the O's seventh, he retired 19 of 20 he faced and 14 in a row, with six strikeouts. He was rolling toward a personal 2-0 start. Then suddenly he was hittable. Renato Núñez doubled, Dwight Smith Jr. homered to right to make it 7-3 and Severino doubled. Cole's night was done.

He gave up three runs and four hits over 6 2/3 and is now 2-0 with a 3.09 ERA after his 102-pitch outing. Cole is now 18-0 over his last 24 starts, dating to a loss to the Chicago White Sox on May 27, 2018.

The Orioles, who went 0-10 at home last year against New York, have now lost 16 straight versus the Yankees at Camden Yards since July 10, 2018. New York hit 43 homers in the park last year and added three tonight. They've hit three or more homers in a game there in 10 of 11 games since the start of 2019. Overall, the Orioles have now lost 17 straight against New York since beating them at Yankee Stadium March 31, 2019.

In the New York third, Aaron Judge led off with a 386-foot homer to left, and three batters later Aaron Hicks hit a two-run shot that went 373 feet for a 5-1 lead. New York added two in the sixth off reliever Evan Phillips to go ahead 7-1. New York added two runs in the ninth.