Yankees 7, Orioles 6: Jose Trevino steals the show

The Yankees needed 11 innings to get there, but they found a way to break their three-game losing streak. Jose Trevino was a man on a mission, completing a 3-for-4 day with a single down the left-field line to score Isiah Kiner-Falefa and secure a 7-6 victory.

You’d be shocked based on the first six innings of this game, however, that it ever got to extra innings. Jordan Montgomery was a man on a mission, allowing just a single hit through four innings of work before finally running into a jam in the fifth inning. Even facing men on second and third with just one out, he limited the damage to a single run. It looked like he was on pace to finally secure a win this year, thanks in part to his dominant outing and to the offense finally providing some early support for him.

Anthony Rizzo got the scoring started in the first inning, hitting a monster solo shot out to right field following an Aaron Judge double-play groundout. The blast was just Rizzo’s second homer of the month after blazing ahead to the top of the league leaderboards with nine in the month of April, but it was a no-doubter to announce that his power was indeed still there.

Then in the third inning, Trevino made his presence felt for the first time this game. Trevino launched a blast of his own, another solo shot to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. The Bronx Bombers were far from done, however, and in the fourth inning it was Gleyber Torres’ turn to get in on the action. Torres tagged Orioles starter Bruce Zimmermann for his third solo homer on the night, a shot out to left-center.

Then the seventh inning rolled around, and Montgomery’s luck turned back around. First, a mistake of his own was offered up to Austin Hays to lead off the inning and was deposited onto the short porch for a solo shot, cutting the lead to 3-2. Aaron Boone had seen enough from his starter at that point, and went to his insurance policy in Michael King. King’s been scuffling of late though, and he fell apart in this one — he allowed a single to Adley Rutschman and walked Ramon Urias before old friend Rougned Odor launched a three-run homer. Lucas Luetge came on to get the final out of the inning, but suddenly it was 5-3 Orioles and once again Montgomery was denied a win.

The Yankees immediately countered, though not before some unfortunate news. Giancarlo Stanton was set to lead off the bottom half of the seventh, but Estevan Florial pinch-hit for the superstar slugger. It was later revealed that Stanton exited the game with some tightness in his right calf, further weakening a lineup that already was playing without DJ LeMahieu after the second baseman was scratched before game time.

Florial grounded out to start the frame, but Torres was next and apparently has a great read on Zimmermann. He picked on a middle-low slider from Zimmermann, his last pitch of his outing, and placed it almost exactly where his previous homer landed. Zimmermann knew it immediately, and in the moment it felt like it would be Torres who would lead the heroics in this one. We’ve still got a ways to go.

Miguel Andújar grounded out to give the Yankees two outs in the inning, but an IKF single and Marwin Gonzalez taking a hit-by-pitch put two on and brought Trevino to the plate. Trevino went down 0-2 to Logan Gillespie, but pounced on an 0-2 fastball down the middle of the plate for an RBI single that tied the game at five.

Boone chose not to save his best reliever for the ninth inning, instead bringing Clay Holmes out to face the heart of Baltimore’s order in the eighth inning. It worked out beautifully, as Holmes recorded two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 inning and Wandy Peralta evaded any damage in the ninth as well. Unfortunately, the Yankees couldn’t capitalize in either of their chances in the bottom halves, so we went off to extras.

Clarke Schmidt got the call for the 10th inning, and gave the Yankees an edge by stranding the Manfred runner at second. Judge was able to move over the Yankees’ ghost runner in Aaron Hicks to third on a sacrifice fly, but after Rizzo was intentionally walked Florial bounced a ball to short that Hicks took off on contact with. Jorge Mateo was able to throw Hicks out at home, and Torres didn’t have the magic a third time to earn the walk off just yet. We would need an 11th inning.

Schmidt didn’t allow a baserunner in the 11th either, but thanks to how the Orioles got their outs they were able to bring their ghost runner home. The Yankees were down to three outs to continue or win the game, and Kiner-Falefa set up the latter by singling home Torres. Gonzalez singled to advance IKF into scoring position, and then Trevino capped off the night with his game-winning single.

The Yankees are the first team to 30 wins in Major League Baseball, and they’ve set themselves up to restart their series win streak with a rubber match against Baltimore. Be sure to come back tomorrow for our coverage of that game, which will start at 7:05 p.m. EST, and features JP Sears going up against Tyler Wells.

Box Score.