The Yankees blew a 5-1 lead in Camden Yards Friday night in falling to the Orioles, 6-5 and have now lost three of their first four to open the season.
Home runs by Matt Holiday and Gary Sanchez staked the Yanks out to a four run lead going into the bottom of the fifth, but Luis Severino, pitching well to that point allowed a single to Jonathan Schoop and walked Adam Jones before Manny Machado blasted a three-run shot to cut the lead to 5-4.
The Orioles took the lead for good in the seventh on a two-run Seth Smith homer off Tyler Clippard. It was the first runs the Yankee bullpen gave up in 2017, and couldn’t have come at a worst time.
Some Notes…
♦ Camden Yards is a true House of Horrors for the Yanks. New York is just 7-21 since the start of 2014 and haven’t won a series in Baltimore since September of 2013.
♦ Greg Bird went 0-for-4 and struck out twice, dropping his season batting average through four games to .063. Ouch. Maybe it’s time to get Chris Carter a few starts at first.
♦ Brett Gardner was the Yanks best player Friday, collecting three hits and swiping two bases. He’s off to a nice .375 start at the plate.
♦ Machado has made the most of hits against Severino early in his career. He’s 4-for-11 against the youngster and three of those hits have been homers.
♦ Severino had six strikeouts in his five innings of work—that’s promising.
♦ Mashiro Tanaka, rocked in his first start will try to right the ship for the Bombers today when he takes the mound against Kevin Gausman.