The Yankees were expected to demolish the Orioles entering the season, but entering this series the two teams were neck-and-neck for the eighth and final playoff spot in the American League. Then the teams took the field, and the Yankees delivered on those prior expectations by demolishing Baltimore, handily taking game one 6-0 before returning to deliver a 10-1 beat down.
Let’s get into the recap of the latter of those two scores:
- The pitching matchup for this game was a rematch of last week’s meeting, and the Yankees established early on that they were not repeating that outcome. Masahiro Tanaka allowed a solo home run in the first inning, but otherwise cut through the Orioles lineup.
- Keegan Akin was not so fortunate. The 25-year-old would not escape the first inning, only recording two outs and allowing four runs to cross. Part of that was due to the Orioles... questionable defense. DJ LeMahieu challenged the Orioles with some aggressive baserunning and twice caught them unprepared, tying the game at one. A Torres single and an Andujar double would bring home two more, and the Yankees were rolling early.
- Then the Luke Voit show took over. Voit went up to bat in the fourth inning with a pair of runners on base, and launched a ball to center field for the three-run shot. He came up again in the fifth with the same scenario and deposited a ball just over the left field wall for another three-run blast. The pair of home runs gives Voit a total of 16 for the season, tied with Mike Trout for the league lead.
King Louis still chasing that HR crown with #15: pic.twitter.com/DmswLrRWl0
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 12, 2020
Bon Voitage pic.twitter.com/1IIVTMY3B9
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 12, 2020
- Tanaka cruised through five innings and turned things over to Luis Cessa and Brooks Kriske, who each delivered a clean inning out of the bullpen. The Yankees got everything they could’ve asked for out of their pitching in this doubleheader, only needing two innings of relief total in 14 innings of work.
The Yankees are guaranteed at least a split of this series now, but they’ll look to gain some serious momentum for the first time in weeks with a series win tomorrow afternoon. Jordan Montgomery will go up against Dean Kremer in that game, and we’ll have more on that tomorrow.