Orioles take early lead and lose 7-4 to Yankees (with Showalter quotes)

After playing 12 innings the previous day, regulation eluding them again, the Orioles really needed a typical Dylan Bundy start this afternoon against the Yankees. He didn't have to twirl a one-hit shutout. Just offer the usual quality and limit the number of relievers.

It didn't work out that way.

Bundy matched his shortest start of the season, leaving with no outs in the fifth following Starlin Castro's tie-breaking two-run homer, and the Orioles gave up seven unanswered runs in a 7-4 loss before an announced crowd of 37,622 at Camden Yards.

A three-run lead after two innings didn't hold up, and the Orioles fell to 70-68 overall and 5-3 on the homestand. They could have climbed within 2 ½ games of the Yankees for the first wild card.

Tim Beckham hit his third leadoff home run of the season, all of them in 2017, and Chris Davis lined an opposite-field home run off Jordan Montgomery in the second inning after Mark Trumbo reached on an error, but the offense abruptly shut down.

Welington Castillo homered off Dellin Betances with two outs in the ninth, his 19th of the season to tie his career high and third in two days.

Bundy was charged with five runs and five hits in four-plus innings, with four walks that tied his career high and five strikeouts. He threw 98 pitches, six of them after returning for the fifth.

The Yankees worked Bundy for 37 pitches in the fourth while tying the game. Didi Gregorius lined a two-run homer over the out-of-town scoreboard in right field after Castro's leadoff single and Jacoby Ellsbury grounded an RBI single into right after a pair of walks.

Miguel Castro was warming, but Bundy came back out and gave up a single to Chase Headley and Starlin Castro's homer to left field.

Bundy also went four innings July 1 in a 10-3 loss to the Rays.

The Yankees didn't let up after Bundy left. Miguel Castro walked the first two batters in the sixth and Todd Frazier - facing left-hander Donnie Hart - scored on Brett Gardner's grounder to Beckham, who almost collided with Jonathan Schoop. Starlin Castro had an RBI single off Richard Rodríguez to increase the lead to 7-3.

Rodríguez notched his first major league strikeout against Gregorius to end the sixth.

Bundy didn't allow a hit through three innings after tossing a one-hit shutout in his last start to beat the Mariners, but he never had the same command today. He walked two batters within those three innings and two more in the fourth.

The Orioles put two runners on base with no outs in the fourth on Trey Mancini's infield hit and Trumbo's single to right, but Davis grounded into a 6-3 double play and Castillo struck out.

Castillo struck out in his first three at-bats before homering in the ninth.

Beckham and Manny Machado opened the eighth with walks off David Robertson. Schoop struck out on the eighth pitch of the at-bat and Adam Jones struck out on the fourth. Mancini grounded out.

It felt like the last gasp.

Aaron Judge was batting .177 since the All-Star break, but he walked in his first three plate appearances, reached on an infield hit against Rodríguez and walked against Gabriel Ynoa.

Ynoa threw two scoreless innings and contributed only one of the 10 walks issued by Orioles pitching.

Updated: The Orioles could activate shortstop J.J. Hardy before Tuesday night's game. A corresponding 40-man roster move would be necessary.

"Let's see how he recovers from the work today, but I'm hoping his activation is imminent," Showalter said. "We'll be able to define that tomorrow when we talk to him. We've been playing day game, day game. Tomorrow will be the first time we have a little longer turnaround from today to tomorrow.

"I think we'll have a pretty good idea what we're dealing with. I hope we're in position to activate him tomorrow."

Here's more from Showalter:

On Bundy: "Just command got away from him. He wasn't the only one. What did we walk, nine? Ten counting the intentional. But just one of those days. First couple innings were OK. Just couldn't find his command. I don't care who you're facing. They're a pretty patient team when they see that. Whether it's them or someone else, they see you're having a little trouble commanding the ball, then they get real patient."

On whether fatigue was an issue: "No, his stuff was crisp. He had good stuff. Obviously, it's not a topic of conversation with him when he comes out of the game. But all along, with the communication, he feels really good. Every once in a while you've got to give credit to the fact that he couldn't - not credit, but reasons. We're all looking for reasons. He's had some issues like all pitchers do, but he wasn't the only one today. We had trouble commanding the baseball, period."

On whether it was tough to not see Bundy go later in the game: "No, no. It's that time of year. There's so many things that happen this time of the year. They don't make the moves they made in July and June. They've got all those bullets down there. They've got 12 people down there if you count (Jaime) Garcia. You're able to do that. We couldn't today because I had like three or four guys I wasn't going to use today. We had to do that to win the previous game. Everything is effect-counter-effect.

"I thought Gabriel threw the ball well. That was good to see. It's another byproduct of them having a well-pitched game yesterday and us having ... It's all effect-counter-effect. It's all part of the game. But to be able to do some things differently if you're rested enough, and obviously they were."

On Castro: "He's pitched really well and will again. It wasn't a good day for him. Obviously, the ball was flying out of here. We knew that was going to happen before the game started. We had a shot there in the eighth, first and second nobody out and a 2-0 count on Jon. Then, Robertson did what he's been doing for a long time. Came back and got three big outs.

"You know, that time of the day it's so hard to recognize spin on a breaking ball. That's a big thing. You can see the shadow of the ball but you can't recognize spin. You could tell though, (Chad) Green has a good arm. They've got what, four of five six guys with 2 or less ERAs. It's a good bullpen. I'd go to it, too, if I had 12 of them down there rested."