Yankees' latest win is overshadowed by injury red flag - New York Post

BALTIMORE — In a season filled with intoxicating success, an injury to a big Yankees talent has sucked some of the sweetness out of victories.

More of the same surfaced Tuesday evening when the Yankees beat the downtrodden Orioles, 9-4, in front of an announced crowd of 17,201 at Camden Yards and extended their winning streak to seven following a one-hour and 12-minute rain delay at the start.

Home runs by Mike Tauchman, DJ LeMahieu and Didi Gregorius in third inning were followed by All-Star second baseman Gleyber Torres leaving the game before the home half of the frame.

An update from the Yankees in the seventh inning reported Torres left the game with core pain.

Torres had been removed from Sunday night’s game against the Red Sox and taken to a New York hospital for tests to determine what was causing discomfort near his right groin. Torres was cleared to be the designated hitter Monday night, when he went 0-for-5. He was at second base Tuesday evening and went hitless in two at-bats. Breyvic Valera replaced him at second.

The victory allowed the Yankees to remain nine games ahead of the second-place Rays in the AL East.

Austin Romine’s second homer in as many games upped the Yankees’ lead to 6-4 in the sixth inning, Brett Gardner added a solo blast in the ninth for an 8-4 cushion and Cameron Maybin followed with a homer to right that made it 9-4.

The Yankees’ six homers were one shy of their season high. In the past two games, the Yankees homered 11 times.

Nestor Cortes Jr. followed opener Jonathan Holder with 2 ¹/₃ scoreless innings before walking Pedro Severino to start the eighth inning. Adam Ottavino, who pitched Saturday and Monday, replaced Cortes and induced Hanser Alberto to hit into a 6-4-3 double play and retired Jace Peterson on a grounder to the left side.

Cortes (5-0) was the winner.

Romine and Tauchman opened the eighth with consecutive opposite-field doubles that upped the visitors’ lead to 7-4.

Gardner and Tauchman robbed the O’s of home runs in the second and fifth innings, respectively.

Anthony Santander’s two-run homer off Stephen Tarpley in the fifth reduced the Yankees’ lead to 5-4. When Tarpley gave up consecutive singles to Renato Nunez and Severino, Aaron Boone called for lefty Cortes to face Alberto. He stranded two with a grounder to first baseman Mike Ford.

With the Yankees leading, 5-2, at the start of the home fourth Tauchman kept the Orioles from inching closer with a sensational catch in left field.

Tauchman tracked Severino’s drive to the wall and jumped high enough to glove the ball over the top of the fence to rob the catcher of a leadoff homer.

Gardner had done the same in the second to deny Alberto.

Tauchman’s 10th homer of the season and third in as many at-bats bridging two games hugged the right-field line leading off the third inning and produced the first run of the night. Three pitches later, LeMahieu sent a 0-2 offering over the center-field wall for his 18th home run.

The home run festival continued when Gregorius sent a 1-2 pitch out of the building and onto Eutaw Street behind the right-field seats. It was the 104th homer to land on Eutaw and the 58th time it was done by an opponent. It was Gregorius eighth homer of the season and upped the Yankees’ lead to 3-0.

The three homers in the inning matched the Yankees’ season high. They hit three in the home fourth on June 20.

Boone was looking for some length from Holder, who started the game and required nine pitches to notch three outs in the opening frame and 11 in the second. Gardner getting his glove above the center-field fence to snag Alberto’s one-out drive with Pedro on first helped Holder’s cause.

Holder went 2 ²/₃ innings, gave up two runs and three hits.

After a violent thunderstorm that included bolts of lightning and heavy rain the game started at 8:17 p.m.

When Wojciechowski walked LeMahieu and Aaron Judge to start the first inning it appeared the Yankees were set up to score. However, Wojciechowski popped up Gregorius and Torres and induced a broken-bat ground ball to the right side by Gardner to strand two.

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