Stanton drives in five as the Yankees take down the Orioles 8-4

New York—The Yankees took down the Orioles 8-4 in game one of this three-game set. Will Warren got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Trevor Rogers, who had only given up three home runs in 17 starts coming into tonight. 

Warren worked a 1-2-3 top of the first inning and picked up his first two strikeouts of the ballgame. 

Cody Bellinger worked a two-out walk in the bottom of the first inning. The next batter, Giancarlo Stanton, launched a two-run bomb, his 22nd of the year, to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. 

"You just got to make an adjustment," Stanton said on facing Rogers again. "We were his last start, so you know he's going to make some altercations. We got to have a good plan, and I think we did a good job." 

In the top of the third inning, Warren gave up an infield single, then walked a batter. The next batter, Jordan Westburg, launched a three-run home run to give the Orioles a 3-2 lead. 

José Caballero worked a leadoff walk in the bottom of the third inning. A couple of batters later, Aaron Judge crushed a two-run home run 423 feet away, his 52nd of the year, to give the Yankees the lead right back at 4-3. Belli then worked his second walk of the game. The next batter, Stanton, crushed his second two-run bomb of the night, 451 feet away, to make it a 6-3 ballgame. 

"Yeah, he wasn't sure if that was going out, so I had to show him how to hit out the center a little bit," Stanton said on outdoing Judge's home run. 

Warren worked around a two-out single in the top of the fifth inning to put together a scoreless frame. Warren also recorded his seventh strikeout of the ballgame and 171st of the season, the second most strikeouts by a Yankee rookie in their history, only behind Luis Gil last year. 

In the top of the sixth inning, Warren served up a lead-off solo shot to Tyler O’Neill to knock Warren out of the game and make it a 6-4 game.  Mark Leiter Jr. replaced Warren on the mound, and a runner reached via an E3 from Paul Goldschmidt, then walked a couple of batters to load the bases. Tim Hill took over for Leiter with the bases loaded and two outs and picked up a huge groundout to strand the bases loaded. 

Will Warren's final line: Five plus innings pitched, six hits allowed, four earned runs, one walk, 11 swings and misses, and seven strikeouts on 81 pitches. Warren threw his fastball over half the time at 53%, the sweeper 16%, the sinker 12%, the changeup 10%, and the curveball 9% of the time. In Warren's final start of his rookie season, he was average at best. Warren definitely improved from his small sample size last year, but every time he started a big game, he seemed to lay an egg. 

"I thought it was really good. The lines not very appealing, but I think I threw the ball well," Warren said. "The sweeper didn't get all the way out on Westburg. He parks it. I let the Holiday at bat get away, and it turns into a three-run shot instead of two. But yeah, overall, I think I threw the ball well." 

Trent Grisham led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a pinch-hit line drive single to right field. A couple of batters later, Anthony Volpe dunked in a bloop single just beyond the infield. The next batter, Austin Wells, came through with an RBI single, making it a 7-4 ballgame. 

Hill remained in the game for the top of the seventh inning and picked up the first two outs of the frame. Ferando Cruz then replaced Hill on the mound and walked back-to-back batters, then induced a flyout to strand two runners. 

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Goldy led things off by shooting a single to right field, and Judge then worked a walk. Belli followed that up with a bullet single right back up the middle to load the bases with nobody out. Stanton followed that up with an RBI groundout to tack on another run, making it an 8-4 game. 

Camilo Doval took over for Cruz in the top of the eighth inning and struck out the side in order. 

The Yankees' closer, David Bednar, was called on to pitch the top of the ninth inning and worked around a leadoff walk and an infield single, thanks to a pair of strikeouts to strand runners at the corners.

The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow with Cam Schlittler on the mound, facing off against Tomoyuki Sugano. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: The Blue Jays also won, so the Yankees remain tied with them at the top of the AL East. The offense got it done tonight, with Stanton leading the way with five RBIs and two home runs. Judge also crushed a two-run bomb to help his MVP case. Warren was alright tonight, most likely his last start of the year, but he could be a solid piece out of the bullpen in October—the bullpen combined for four shutout innings with six punch-outs. Cruz and Leiter didn't have their best stuff tonight. But Hill looked great, Doval looked dominant, and Bednar settled in after a leadoff walk and an infield single. On to tomorrow, the Yankees need to hopefully win the next two games, and hopefully the Rays can beat the Jays once. 

"It doesn't matter. It's going to come down to Sunday, regardless if we keep winning," Stanton said on their race with the Jays. "So we understand that. And yeah, it's fun, it's a fun competition, it's fun to peek up and see what we're doing and they're doing. It's a good time."