The Orioles arrived in New York trailing the Yankees by a game and a half, but they lost the first game, 4-2, and the next two pitching matchups greatly favored the Pinstripers. It was not hard to imagine Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil beating Cade Povich and Cole Irvin in the final two games of the series.
Had that scenario played out, the Yankees would have gained control of the division by 4.5 games. But something very, very different happened. The Orioles won the second game of the series, 7-6, in 10 innings after coughing up a 5-1 lead.
And then something almost otherworldly happened — the Orioles absolutely obliterated Gil, seemingly mapping out an uber-aggressive game plan. Orioles hitters jumped on everything he threw over the plate early in the count, thereby not allowing the right-hander to bury them with vicious movement off the plate when ahead in the count. It’ll be fascinating to see how quickly Gil is able to adjust if all teams try to execute the Orioles’ plan.
The Orioles didn’t just beat the Yankees on June 20. They bullied the Yankees and played the old alpha role to a hilt, making the Yankees look small. Small enough that the Orioles have moved within a half-game of the Yankees as they begin a series against the Astros, who simply haven’t been able to ever get their legs under them in 2024.
But this is about what took place in the Bronx, as we watched this mostly youngish Orioles team grow up and punk the big bad Yankees. I am not dismissing Aaron Boone as a manager, but it’s like from the day he took the Yankees job he became a different person than the one we thought we knew all those years as a player and then as a broadcaster on ESPN. It’s as if he decided had to play the role of the old, crusty and angry manager.
Boone wants that persona and expects his squad to take on the role as the team that can bully any opponent. That mentality may have played a large part in the Orioles winning the last two games of the series. As everyone knows, two Yankees were hit by pitches in the series opener on June 18. Starter Albert Suárez, who walked five on the night, tried to go in against Aaron Judge and missed, hitting Judge on the left hand with a 95 mph heater. Judge ultimately left the game after running the bases.
A little later in the game, Keegan Akin threw a 94 mph fastball that bore in on Gleyber Torres as the right-handed batter lunged forward for a possible swing. The ball hit Torres in the pinkie.
The following day, with the Orioles up 4-1 in the top of the seventh, lefty reliever Victor González decided it was his job — wonder where he got this idea from — to bully the Orioles and make them pay for hitting Judge. Gunnar Henderson took a 97 mph fastball in the shoulder. The American League MVP candidate didn’t jaw. He just made González and the Yankees pay for it by stealing second, moving to third on a fly ball to right and coming home on a two-out double by Ryan Mountcastle.
Does the expression “let sleeping dogs lie” sound familiar?
I don’t want to take anything away from hitting coaches Matt Borgschulte and Ryan Fuller, who clearly formulated the plan on how to rattle and beat the seemingly invincible Gil. But is it possible that Henderson, who doesn’t need extra motivation, got some from that hit-by-pitch? Perhaps his teammates also got a tad ticked off at the payback attempt against one of their leaders.
All Henderson did was get the 17-run ball rolling by smacking the first pitch of the series finale over Juan Soto’s head for a double, eventually coming around for a 1-0 lead. The star shortstop went 3-for-6 with two doubles, a stolen base, three runs scored and an RBI.
What the Orioles accomplished in the Bronx leaves a lot to chew on. All of it has to be a bit unsettling to the Yankees, who have had their way for much of the first half of the season,
One other theory worth posing: There was some doom and gloom in the fan base after news broke that Kyle Bradish’s season was over due to Tommy John surgery. Is it possible that mindset never crept into the clubhouse of a team that seems dead set on hanging right there with the Yankees?
Or blowing right by them.
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