BALTIMORE — Over the course of one inning Tuesday night, the Yankees touched home plate more times than they had in any single nine or 10-inning contest during their four-game losing streak.
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An offense that had gone missing through the start of this road trip was resuscitated in a five-run third inning as the Yankees finally got back in the win column with a 6-2 victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards.
Trent Grisham’s three-run homer capped off the five-run rally — after the Yankees (27-16) had scored a combined eight runs over their last four games — which was enough run support for Will Warren, who turned in another strong start across 5 ²/₃ innings before his bullpen shut the door.
The win set up a rubber match on Wednesday afternoon, when the Yankees will send Max Fried to the mound to try to take the series before heading home for the Subway Series this weekend.
A night after Ryan Weathers made his push for staying in the rotation when Gerrit Cole returns from the injured list, Warren added to his own case, and this time the Yankees did not waste it.
Warren, whose pitch count got driven up by a shaky defense behind him, gave up just two runs on four hits and a walk while striking out six.
The Orioles (19-24) did not score those runs until the sixth inning, at which point they merely cut into the Yankees’ 6-0 lead.
For the second time on this trip, Paul Goldschmidt led off the game with a home run against a lefty.
After doing so on Saturday against the Brewers, he repeated the feat Tuesday — this time on the first pitch of the game, taking Trevor Rogers deep to left field for the 1-0 lead.
The Yankees then put together a rally in the third inning, which a struggling Austin Wells led off with a single. One out later, Aaron Judge and Ben Rice drew back-to-back walks to load the bases.
Cody Bellinger drove in a run by beating out a double play to make it 2-0 before Amed Rosario hit a chopper down the third-base line, with Coby Mayo’s throw to first pulling Pete Alonso off the bag as another run scored for the 3-0 lead.
Grisham, who has often hit the ball hard but not been rewarded for it, came up next and belted a three-run home run to center field off Rogers — his sixth of the year, second off a lefty — to make it a 6-0 game.
It was the kind of big blow the Yankees had been missing in key spots during this trip, but Grisham delivered it on Tuesday to let everyone in a Yankees uniform breathe a little easier.
Fresh off getting the big lead, Warren’s defense did not do him any favors in the bottom of the third.
The right-hander did walk the leadoff man, but then generated a pair of ground balls to infielders, neither of which resulted in outs and instead loaded the bases.
First came a ground ball to shortstop, where Max Schuemann — starting a second straight game for the injured José Caballero, with Anthony Volpe expected to take over on Wednesday — fielded it but his flip to second was way over Rosario’s head.
With runners on first and second, Ryan McMahon then made a nice sliding stop to his left on a grounder from Gunnar Henderson, but he spun and threw to Rosario, who was well off the bag, allowing everyone to be safe with the bases loaded.
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But Warren was able to escape the jam unscathed, getting a fly ball to right field that the Orioles did not test Aaron Judge on and then a grounder to second that was finally executed for an inning-ending double play.
