The Orioles faced a good amount of challenges following the conclusion of the series against the White Sox. The biggest worry was J.J. Hardy and his foot injury, and the news O’s fans got was not good.
We learned on Monday that Hardy will miss anywhere from four to eight weeks with a hairline fracture in his foot. The biggest part of this loss is Hardy’s defense alone due to his offense taking a hit the past two seasons. We got a first look at a life (again) without J.J. Hardy in the series against the Yankees.
Game One: Orioles: 4, Yankees: 1
Playing the New York Yankees for the first time this season, the Orioles faced the task of taking on the young arm of Luis Severino right out of the gate. The Yankees were faced with the challenge of going up against a very good Chris Tillman, at the moment.
The advantage in that matchup went to the Orioles on both fronts. Severino seemed to struggle the entire night while Tillman gave up a run in the top of the 2nd but was still able to go seven innings and strike out nine but walked four batters.
For the offense, the night was Mark Trumbo’s for the taking. Trumbo had two home runs on the night, accounting for three of the four runs the Orioles put up in the game.
Game Two: Yankees: 7, Orioles: 0
Easily the most unwatchable game this season, the Orioles could not seem to solve C.C. Sabathia at all. Sabathia went six innings giving up no runs on four hits while striking out six O’s.
For the Orioles, Tyler Wilson went to the mound and pitched decent but had his start go to waste because of the lack of offense. Following Wilson was T.J. McFarland and Dylan Bundy, who both had very rough nights.
The only good offensive note from this game was Manny Machado going 2-4. That was it.
Game Three: Orioles: 1, Yankees: 0
For the Orioles third walk off victory of the season, it comes this time on a Pedro Alvarez sacrifice fly to score Nolan Reimold.
The biggest takeaway for me is Kevin Gausman pitching lights out for eight innings, limiting the Yankees to three hits while striking out four and walking nobody. It definitely gives me more confidence in Gausman’s abilities going forward this season, proving to me that he is the most trusted pitcher in the rotation outside of Chris Tillman.
Another big note for the Orioles is the return of Zach Britton, going 1 1/3 innings allowing only one walk and striking out three. This clearly shows that he will avoid any sort of trip to the disabled list and will most likely keep his word about going all out on defensive plays.
The Orioles will wrap up this 10 game home stand by welcoming the Oakland Athletics to Camden Yards for the only time this season.
Ubaldo Jimenez is set to open the series against former Oriole Rich Hill with no other scheduled starters listed yet for the Orioles but Jesse Hahn is scheduled to go Saturday with Kendall Graveman going Sunday.