BALTIMORE — After the Yankees had waited almost two months to get Aaron Judge back in their lineup, they had to sit around for another two hours and 32 minutes Friday night as storms delayed the start of his first game back.
At long last, Judge returned to action, only for the night to end in disappointment.
Anthony Santander crushed a walk-off home run against Tommy Kahnle in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift the division-leading Orioles to a 1-0 win over the last-place Yankees, capping off a tense, well-pitched AL East battle at Camden Yards. With the loss, the Yankees fell 3 ¹/₂ games off the pace for the final wild-card spot.
On a night when Judge went 0-for-1 with three walks, the rest of the Yankees’ offense remained quiet, managing just four singles to waste a terrific outing by Gerrit Cole.
“We didn’t see the results we wanted to, but these guys are all professionals in this room,” Judge said. “You gotta bounce back. Tough loss like this, walk-off hit, you gotta show up [Saturday]. We can’t sit here and pout about it.”
The Yankees (54-49) were stymied by Orioles rookie right-hander Grayson Rodriguez and four relievers, but they got another sterling performance from Cole.
The ace turned in his latest gem by throwing seven shutout innings on 110 pitches, allowing three hits and no walks while striking out five.
Rodriguez came into the season as one of the top prospects in baseball, but entered Friday with a 6.91 ERA for the Orioles (63-40). Against the Yankees, he turned in a career-high 6 ¹/₃ shutout innings of three-hit ball.
“It’s another tough loss,” Cole said. “The game is based on results. So you can try as hard as you want, but at the end, you just gotta find a way to push yourself over the edge. Tonight, we couldn’t do that but we gave ourselves a lot of opportunities. We’re right there.”
The rookie and the Orioles’ bullpen were backed up by some splendid defense, which robbed the Yankees of multiple hits. That included a pair of gems in the top of the eighth, when Santander laid out in right field to prevent an extra-base hit by Anthony Volpe before second baseman Adam Frazier ended the inning with a diving stop on a ground ball from Anthony Rizzo that likely would have driven in a run had it gotten through.
In the fourth and seventh innings, the Yankees had runners on first and second with one out, only for the potential rallies to be extinguished when first Giancarlo Stanton and then Harrison Bader grounded into double plays.
In the end, it was enough to spoil strong nights from their two beacons, Judge and Cole.
While the loss got the Yankees off to a difficult start in a key 10-game stretch against the Orioles, Rays and Astros — with the trade deadline looming on Tuesday — they ended the night encouraged by Judge’s first action in nearly two months.
The reigning AL MVP, who received ovations from the large swaths of Yankees fans in attendance, let it rip right away. He lined out to right field on the first pitch he saw — smoking it 104.4 mph off the bat — before working quality at-bats in his next three trips to the plate, all of which resulted in walks.
“It was good to see him look as good as he did,” manager Aaron Boone said.
Judge said he felt “a little jumpy to begin with,” but after whiffing at a high fastball in his second plate appearance, he told himself to take it easy and the results followed.
“The discipline tonight, it’s a true sign of a great hitter,” Cole said.
But besides Cole, the rest of the Yankees could not make it a warm welcome back for their captain.
“Weren’t able to get the win tonight, but a couple guys hit the ball hard, they made some great plays on defense on their other side,” Judge said. “Gotta tip your cap and come out [Saturday] swinging.”
