Six-run sixth inning burns Orioles in 10-1 loss, Yankees clinch division title (updated)

NEW YORK – A win tonight and the Orioles would clinch the home Wild Card. A loss and the Yankees would finally pop champagne corks as division champions, the jubilation put on ice for the first two games of the series. The out-of-town scoreboard didn’t require watching. The important stuff was happening on the field.

The starting pitchers were worthy of the importance attached – former Cy Young winners Corbin Burnes and Gerrit Cole. Lay down your aces.

The Orioles are eyeing bigger stakes. They shuffled the deck, shortening Burnes to five innings and 69 pitches to freshen him for Tuesday’s assignment. And the game collapsed like a house of cards.

Burnes’ only mistake was a solo homer by Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees scored six times in the sixth inning against three relievers, Aaron Judge delivered a towering two-run shot in the seventh, and the Orioles were eliminated from the American League East race with a 10-1 loss in the Bronx. They’ll try to secure the first Wild Card this weekend in Minnesota.

Cole shut out the Orioles (88-71) on two hits in 6 2/3 innings and the Yankees avoided the sweep.

"Very, very tough, but that was something that was collaborative," manager Brandon Hyde said of removing Burnes. "He’s gonna be on regular rest going into that first game of the Wild Card and he hasn’t been on regular rest for a while. And just with the amount of innings he’s pitched and the amount of starts he’s made, we just shortened him up a little bit tonight.”

Yennier Cano loaded the bases with one out in the sixth on two singles and a walk. Cionel Pérez walked Austin Wells and Stanton followed with a three-run double to center field at 116.4 mph off the bat. Anthony Rizzo plated two more runs with a single to right field off Bryan Baker to give the Yankees a 7-0 lead.

Baker came back out for the seventh, Juan Soto reached on Gunnar Henderson’s fielding error and Judge smacked his 58^th homer at 110.9 mph and with a 42-degree launch angle. Left fielder Colton Cowser tracked the ball to the fence, stood and waited for it to land in the bullpen.

Matt Bowman allowed four runs last night in the ninth inning and Alex Verdugo homered off him tonight in the eighth.

Not a banner night for the bullpen.

Asked whether Cano's past soreness remains an issue, Hyde said, “Not really. I think the confidence, we’ve got to get his confidence back. He’s a huge weapon for us. He’s had a couple rough ones and we need to get him going going into the playoffs.”

Eight of Burnes’ nine strikeouts came on his retooled slider. He allowed two hits and walked a batter while lowering his ERA to 2.92. He’s allowed four earned runs this month in 30 innings.

“He was lights-out, lights-out tonight," Hyde said. "Stanton, that was it. He feels good going into the playoffs and that was the most important thing.”

Burnes used his cutter to strike out Gleyber Torres, Soto and Judge in the first inning. He threw a slider to Stanton with one out in the second inning and was behind 1-0.

His only previous start at Yankee Stadium resulted in eight hitless innings while pitching for the Brewers on Sept. 10, 2023. Stanton ended the streak at nine.

Burnes had seven strikeouts by the third and eight by the fourth. Judge led off the fourth with a walk, Wells grounded into a double play and Stanton fanned.

Jasson Domínguez struck out on a slider in the second and a cutter in the fifth.

“You’re out there throwing the ball well and you’ve kind of got to look at the bigger picture," Burnes said. "You know that we’ve got a lot of important games coming up here next week. So we talked about it, put the plan of kind of going five and 75, in that range, and getting work in and getting prepared for the postseason. Yeah, I mean, when you’re throwing the ball that well, everything feels pretty good, you feel like you can throw every inning and just keep going. Kind of good final tune-up there and ready for the postseason."

The trade with the Brewers rates as a huge success. Burnes has been everything that the Orioles wanted and needed. He was the rock in an injury-ravaged rotation

"I'm just really proud of coming in and, obviously being a brand new group, adjusting to it pretty quickly and having a good year," he said. "Overall, the consistency was very good. That's kind of my goal coming in, is make sure I'm available to go every five days, go out there and be as consistent as I can and outside of two pretty bad ones there in August, it was a really good season. So, definitely proud of it, and looking to keep building off it here in the postseason.”

Cole walked James McCann with two outs in the third but didn’t surrender a hit until Ramón Urías poked a two-out single into right field at 81.1 mph in the fifth. Cole made a nice barehand pickup of Jordan Westburg’s slow roller to the left side of the mound leading off the fourth inning and fired to first base for the out. Shortstop Anthony Volpe ran down Ryan O’Hearn’s shallow fly ball in center field in the fifth before Urías stepped to the plate.

Cedric Mullins ended a 10-pitch at-bat by grounding out to strand Urías.

McCann led off the sixth with a single and reached second base with two outs, but Anthony Santander struck out. And that’s where a pitching change was made and the game unraveled.

“Whenever you win the first two, it’s disappointing not to win the third and we emptied our bullpen the last two nights, a lot of guys who are on fumes, and we still have important games to play," Hyde said. "Fortunately, I was able to keep away from a few bullpen guys. That’s the one positive, but not many positives tonight.”

Jackson Holliday played shortstop for the first time in the majors when Hyde made multiple substitutions in the eighth. Thoughts of a comeback never materialized, but the Orioles avoided their ninth shutout on Emmanuel Rivera's bases-loaded fly ball in the ninth.

They finished 8-5 against the Yankees. The teams could meet again in the playoffs.

The stakes will be much higher. Burnes won’t stop short.

"It’s a good team over there," Hyde said. "They played better than us the second half. We’re excited to be in the playoffs. We need to better our position. We still have some work to do. But give them credit for playing well.”

“We’re going to face them again," Burnes said. "That’s the only way I think we’re going to get to move on is have to go through them. So, we played better baseball here this week. We're going to go play another tough team in Minnesota looking to get in the postseason so it's a good final tune-up for us, but it's in front of us. We just got to go out and play our baseball. We played great against these guys in the regular season so there’s no reason why we can’t in the postseason.”