Yacabonis gets early exit as O's drop Game 1 (postgame quotes)

After losing a late lead last night, the Orioles were ahead early in today's game. But that lead didn't last long, either, as New York scored six runs over the third and fourth innings to pull ahead and away to a 10-3 win in Game 1 of a day-night doubleheader at Oriole Park.

The Orioles' (37-92) latest losing streak has reached six in a row. They have had seven losing streaks of at least six games in the 2018 season. They've now lost eight of nine, 13 of 15 and 17 of their last 21 games.

After New York took a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI groundout by Miguel Andújar, the O's moved ahead 2-1 in the second inning. With one out, Chris Davis walked and moved to third on a double by Tim Beckham. Renato Núñez singled to score both and put Baltimore ahead. Núñez had been 0-for-10 in his last three games and 3-for-28 over the last eight.

That lead was short-lived. Andújar's three-run homer off losing pitcher Jimmy Yacabonis highlighted New York's four-run third and gave him a four-RBI day. A leading American League Rookie of the Year candidate, Andújar has nine homers and 28 RBIs his past 27 games.

New York's 5-2 lead grew to 7-2 when Brett Gardner hit a two-run homer in the fourth off right-hander Ryan Meisinger. It was No. 11 for the Yankees leadoff hitter. Luke Voit's RBI single in the fifth, a Gleyber Torres solo homer in the eighth off Sean Gilmartin and Aaron Hicks' solo shot in the ninth off Mike Wright Jr. capped the Yankees scoring. The Yankees hit four homers, one each off a different O's pitcher.

The Yankees have hit 34 homers over their past 18 games and a MLB-leading 209 for the season. O's pitchers have allowed 15 home runs in their last five games and 29 in 14 contests. The Orioles have given up 17 runs and seven homers in this series and 64 runs in the last nine games.

Yacabonis is 0-2 with an ERA of 8.38. He lasted just 3 1/3 innings allowing five hits and six runs in his fourth major league start.

O's center fielder Cedric Mullins went 3-for-5 and robbed Giancarlo Stanton of a homer with a leaping catch at the wall in the sixth. It would have been Stanton's 33rd homer of the year and 300th of his career. Mullins RBI single in the ninth scored the O's last run and the three hits tied his career-high.

After he endured a 38-pitch second, New York lefty J.A. Happ pitched through the sixth, allowing five hits and two runs with one walk and nine strikeouts. He improves to 15-6 with an ERA of 3.80 overall. In five starts since he was traded to the Yankees from Toronto, Happ is 5-0 with an ERA of 2.37.

In tonight's game that starts at 7:05 p.m., right-hander Andrew Cashner (4-11, 4.84 ERA) pitches against righty Sonny Gray (9-8, 5.34 ERA).

Postgame quotes:

Mullins on his homer-robbing catch in the sixth: "I knew it had a lot of air to it. Gave me some time to get to the wall and kind of judge whether or not I had to make a jump for it. Just being able to make a play on it and robbing a home run - doesn't happen too often, so it was pretty fun."

Yacabonis on his outing: "I don't think I was too consistent with my fastball command today. Left a couple of pitches up that got hit, so that's part of the game and it's going to happen."

Yacabonis on whether going back and forth from the minors to majors been a challenge?: "It has definitely been tough, but I've been going through it all year so, I mean, it's definitely something I would not use to make an excuse for. It is the situation I am currently in, so got to work through it."

Yacabonis on his first year as a starter: "Definitely satisfied. I've had a couple of hiccups here and there in Norfolk where I've had a couple of starts that didn't go my way. And then up here, I've had four starts. Today was by far the worst of the four. Just a learning experience. You have to sit back and try to correct the things I did wrong and learn from it."

Yacabonis on what he learns pitching major league innings: "Definitely pitch sequencing. You can't throw the same pitch to the same guy twice. Sometimes it is from at-bat to at-bat and sometimes it is within the same at-bat. So setting up the pitch and not trying to overthrow pitches. Just trying to hit my spot and make the pitch that sets up other pitches later in the at-bat."