The Yankees added another devastating loss to 2021’s steadily growing list of such losses on Thursday night.
This time, it was a wild pitch by Clay Holmes that evaded the glove of Gary Sanchez and allowed Baltimore’s DJ Stewart to score with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth.
“The heater up and away there, you probably gotta get to,” said Aaron Boone of Sanchez's defense of the pitch.
That tied it at two and sent the game to extras. The Yankees didn’t even advance the runner in the 10th, then lost, 3-2, in the next frame on a walk-off single.
“You can’t miss in that location,” said Holmes, whose wild pitch sailed high and away. “You gotta miss down. It’s a pitch if I execute, it’s a series sweep.”
Instead, it was a loss that dropped the Yankees a half-game behind the Blue Jays and Red Sox in the Wild Card standings. A win would have put them a half-game ahead.
“Should’ve closed it out,” said Boone. “We weren’t able to add on today. I thought we swung the bats well the first half of the game and didn’t have a lot to show for it.
“We gotta be able to add on and put teams away. We weren’t able to add on and they were able to get us.”
New York took a two-run lead in the second inning on a solo home run by Joey Gallo and, later, an RBI double by Gio Urshela.
Then, Orioles pitching shut down the Yankees for the next eight innings and did just enough on offense to earn an eighth win in 19 tries vs. New York.
Against the rest of the AL East, Baltimore is 10-38, including a 1-18 mark vs. Tampa.
“We’ve had a lot that have stung a lot throughout the year,” Boone said. “This certainly falls into that category. But we’ve gotta get over it. We have too important of a game tomorrow."
