Yankees 5, Orioles 1: Gray tosses gem for doubleheader sweep

Now that’s how games against the Orioles are supposed to go. After winning the first game Saturday afternoon, the Yankees completed the doubleheader sweep with a 5-1 win over the O’s. The Yankees are now 82-47, which means two things. One, they are a season high 35 games over .500. And two, they have clinched a winning record for the 26th consecutive season. That is the second longest such streak in history. The Yankees had 39 consecutive winning seasons from 1926-64. Goodness. Anyway, to the bullet point recap:

• Building A Four-Run Lead: Three batters into the game, the Yankees led 1-0. Brett Gardner doubled, Giancarlo Stanton walked (again), and Aaron Hicks singled. Could’ve been a bigger first inning, but Hicks got picked off first. Alas. In the second, the Yankees scored one run on Andrew Cashner’s wild pitch, and another when Trey Mancini’s throw home was well wide. Had the Orioles been able to execute, they could’ve had two outs at the plate that inning. Instead, two runs for the Yankees. An error by Mancini extended the fourth inning and allowed Stanton to rip a loud run-scoring single to right. The Yankees had eight hits and two walks in the first four innings, so they made their own luck, but yeah, the O’s are terrible defensively and it cost them.
• A Sonny Night: This Pickles guy is way better than Sonny Gray, eh? In his first start since August 1st, when these same Orioles punished him for seven runs in 2.2 innings, Gray sliced and diced his way through Baltimore’s lineup for 6.1 innings. Only three hits and one walk allowed, and the walk was to the final batter he faced. Sonny struck out seven and got eleven ground ball outs against only one in the air. He faced 23 batters and four hit the ball out of the infield. Great outing. Enough to land Gray back in the rotation? Eh, let’s not get too carried away.
• The Late Innings: The Yankees added an insurance run in the ninth inning on Austin Romine’s ninth home run of the season. He has nine homers this year after hitting seven homers total from 2011-17. Golly. Tommy Kahnle came in for the ninth inning but couldn’t get three outs, instead allowing a run on a hard-hit double and two soft singles. Dellin Betances struck out the only batter he faced to a) end the game, and b) set a new American League record with his 33rd straight appearance with at least one strikeout. Didn’t have much margin for error in this one either. Aroldis Chapman holds the all-time record at 49 straight games. The race is on.
• Leftovers: Jonathan Holder recorded five outs after Gray and before Kahnle. Sweeping a doubleheader while using only one key reliever (Dellin for one batter) is a helluva day … three hits for Romine and two each for Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar, and Gleyber Torres … Hicks went 5-for-9 with a double and a homer in the doubleheader … Andujar went 4-for-8 with a homer … Gleyber went 4-for-7 with a walk and a homer … poor Neil Walker went 0-for-8 with a strikeout and a hit-by-pitch in the doubleheader.

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Here’s our Bullpen Workload page. The Yankees and Orioles will wrap up this four-game Sunday. That is the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball game for some reason. Luis Severino and Dylan Bundy are the scheduled starting pitchers.

Source: FanGraphs