Orioles can't hold down the homers in 9-4 loss (updated)

Whether it's the baseballs or the ballpark or the pitching or the stacked lineups providing the opposition, the Orioles simply cannot contain the number of home runs surrendered this season.

They come in waves. They come in bunches. And a lot of them come from the Yankees, who hit six more tonight in a 9-4 victory before an announced crowd of 17,201 at Camden Yards that waited out a one-hour-and-12-minute delay before the first pitch.

The Orioles have surrendered 229 home runs this season, including 47 to the Yankees, who have hit 38 of them in Baltimore and produced a trio off Asher Wojciechowski in the third inning alone.

Didi Gregorius put the 104th ball on Eutaw Street and the 58th by an opponent. He did so after Mike Tauchman homered for the third time in the series and DJ LeMahieu decided they should go back-to-back.

Brett Gardner and Cameron Maybin had the same idea against David Hess in the ninth. Two batters faced, two more home runs.

The Orioles reduced the deficit to one run in the bottom of the third, again responding with an immediate burst as they had done the previous night, but the Yankees scored twice in the fourth and never trailed.

Anthony Santander hit a two-run homer off former Orioles minor leaguer Stephen Tarpley in the fifth, and the Yankees lead was down to 5-4. But Austin Romine led off the sixth with a shot to center field off Tayler Scott.

The Yankees have won 14 games in a row at Camden Yards and are 12-2 against the Orioles this season.

Jonathan Villar followed his cycle last night with an RBI triple in the third inning and he scored on Trey Mancini's ground ball. But DJ Stewart was hit on the head by a fly ball while sliding on the wet grass and came out of the game, Tauchman robbed Pedro Severino of a home run and the Orioles fell to 38-75.

Stewart had just returned from a sprained right ankle, and from Triple-A Norfolk. He wore a big welt on his left temple after trying to run down Mike Ford's fly ball. Stewart lost his footing and became defenseless, raising his glove while on his side and just hoping that he might make a blind catch or at least protect himself.

He accomplished neither.

Assistant athletic trainer Patrick Wesley checked on Stewart and he finished the inning before Jace Peterson pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the fourth. Right after Severino's home run trot was interrupted by Tauchman and Hanser Alberto singled off left-hander Stephen Tarpley because he owns southpaws.

The Orioles are putting Stewart through concussion protocol and manager Brandon Hyde will provide an update after the game. He'll also talk again about home runs, how the Orioles allowed six of them for the sixth time.

Hyde might have to dress as a broken record for Halloween.

Wojciechowski allowed a season-high five runs in four innings and threw 91 pitches. He walked the first two batters he faced, retired six in a row and took a three-homer beating.

Romine had a two-run double in the fourth after a leadoff walk and Ford's double off Stewart's noggin.

Miguel Castro, pitching for the first time since July 30, stranded two runners after replacing Scott, who didn't allow a run in 13 innings with Triple-A Norfolk but has an 11.45 ERA with the Orioles.

Romine and Tauchman doubled off Richard Bleier in the eighth for a 7-4 lead.

Former Orioles Rule 5 pick Nestor Cortes Jr. tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings.

Villar fell a double and home run short of the cycle.

Update: Hyde said Stewart has a concussion, which will lead to him going on the injured list.

Another move must be made on Wednesday to make room for left-hander John Means, who comes off the IL.

Hyde on Stewart: "Stewart got a concussion, so he is going to go under the concussion protocol. He's got a big welt on the side of his face."

Hyde on all the home runs: "Broken record. It sucks. It's not even the big boys, either, which is pretty scary. They have a ton of power that's not even in their lineup and they've hit 11 homers in two nights without (Giancarlo) Stanton and Edwin (Encarnación) and Gleyber (Torres) has got the side issue. So the other guys are hitting homers off our pitchers.

"It just shows you how long we have to go to be a competitive team in the American League East, and to have the pitching to be able to compete. Their guys are just way better than our guys."

Hyde on game: "It's too bad, because last night we made it a game, tie game in the eighth. Tonight we made it a game and Tony hit the home run in the fifth and, 5-4, we're right in it. Andrew Romine right away hits a home run to make it 6-4 and we just had a tough time keeping it there after that.

"Two pretty good ballgames until we just had a tough time late in the game keeping the ball in the ballpark."

Hyde on home runs mainly from lower in order: "This is a results business. If you're going to pitch here, you've got to be able to keep the ball in the ballpark. Our numbers don't lie, what we have. Right? We're setting all kinds of, giving up records, our ERAs are unbelievably inflated. We just have a long way to go. I don't know what else to say. It's hard to watch. It's tough. But you do the best you can and try to get guys better. But we're not close."

Wojciechowski on Yankees lineup: "I mean, it's a really good lineup, but it's just like any big league lineup. You've just got to execute pitches. I hung a few sliders, kept a couple fastballs in the heart of the plate. So I've just got to do a better job executing those pitches. That's why I got hurt. An 0-2 slider to LeMahieu, just hung right down the middle. And then I had Didi in a 1-2 count and couldn't execute a pitch and threw a fastball up the middle. And then Tauchman, it was a 3-1 count, a fastball down the middle. So those were three homers. I feel like in the fourth inning had a little bit of bad luck just with a couple balls that fell, and then the double. But yeah, I've got to do a better job of having my slider be consistent. It was inconsistent for me tonight and got me in trouble."

Wojciechowski on how he felt: "Feel good. I felt good out there. Like I said, first couple innings I think I was trying a little too hard on the slider, really yanked some sliders when I got in two-strike counts. For me, it was the slider being inconsistent tonight."

Wojciechowski on Yankees hitting so many homers: "We're going out there and we're competing and we're giving it our all, and then when you have games like that it's a tough pill to swallow. So it's definitely tough, but you've just got to keep on grinding, you've got to keep on working. You've got to figure out what you need to do to limit those. The home runs this year are skyrocketing, but we've got to figure out a way to limit those."

Severino on Yankees: "They have a very good team. They have a really, really good team and we can't miss up in the zone right there, because their contact goes straight out. We're not scared to play with that team. They're really good. They're in first place, but we're not scared to play with that team. We compete all nine innings. All that happened in the game is because they're up (in the zone)."