Orioles fall behind early, fail to capitalize on a gift scoring opportunity vs. Yankees

The Yankees opened the door to the Orioles, right after New York seemed to take a commanding lead in the second game of this series. But somehow, the Orioles closed that door themselves.

This has too often been the case for Baltimore, although Tuesday seemed to be the most aggravating example yet of the Orioles’ inability to play with a semblance of consistency. After one-run victories Sunday and Monday, Baltimore inadvertently spurned a gift — receiving a bases-loaded, no-out situation — and returned it unopened to the sender.

The third inning was enough for a case study in how to lose a baseball game. After left-hander Trevor Rogers allowed five runs to the Yankees in the top half, a walk and two miss-thrown balls (one was an error and one was simply thrown to the wrong fielder) from New York’s infield gave Baltimore its best chance to chip away against right-hander Will Warren.

The Orioles did not score.

Taylor Ward hit a shallow fly ball, and Adley Rutschman grounded into an inning-ending double play. Just like that, the chance was gone. And that is how the Orioles are in this mess in the first place — this 6-2 loss to the Yankees (27-16) leaves Baltimore at 19-24.

“The guys did a good job getting baserunners that inning, but we just couldn’t scratch anyone through,” manager Craig Albernaz said.

With the way the American League at large is struggling at the beginning of this season, being five games below .500 at this point isn’t as dangerous as in most years. There is a path back into contention over the next several months.

The way the Orioles have been losing, however, leaves less room for optimism. And Rogers’ poor start is as much a cause for concern as stranding the bases loaded. Rogers returned from the injured list Tuesday after dealing with the flu and allowed six runs in four innings. He struggled to find his command, and when that occurs, Rogers isn’t set up for success.

He isn’t the kind of pitcher who blows batters away with velocity and spin. He relies upon placement inducing weak contact.

Right away, it was anything but weak. Paul Goldschmidt crushed the first pitch of Rogers’ evening for a solo home run. And in the third, Rogers quickly found himself in trouble after a single and two walks loaded the bases with one out.

Momentarily, Rogers minimized the damage. A force out at second, which just missed being a double play, allowed a run to score; then an infield single brought in another one. But with two outs and two on, Rogers threw a four-seamer on the inner third of the plate. Trent Grisham lashed it for a three-run homer.

He was almost out of that inning. “I got a ground ball when I needed to,” Rogers said. But Cody Bellinger beat out Henderson’s throw to first and Amed Rosario beat out a close play on a dribbler down the third-base line. How different might this have been if the damage ended there?

“I’m just gonna continue to do what I’m doing and not really try to chase down any rabbit holes,” Rogers said. “I think that’s where I got in trouble in years past. Just continue to execute my process.”

In seven starts this year, Rogers has regressed from the heights of 2025, when he completed 18 starts with a 1.81 ERA. Rogers’ ERA rose to 5.77 after his ineffective outing Tuesday.

“My stuff is in a really good spot,” he said. “If I’m going to be picky, I think my cutter command could have been better tonight. If I landed my cutters more for strikes, especially to lefties, I think it opens up more options. I kind of get pigeonholed in the fastball counts, and hitters are going to hit fastballs in fastball counts.”

When asked whether he feels the same as he did last year when the results were going his way, Rogers said yes.

“The only thing is I’m not ‘surprising’ people anymore,” he said. “Like, they know my pitches, they know what I’m gonna throw. Obviously, they’re not gonna know in what order I’m gonna throw them. ... It just comes down to executing pitches better and just continue to keep doing what I’m doing and it’ll turn around. We’ve got a lot of baseball ahead of me.”

Warren and the Yankees’ defense offered Baltimore a lifeline, however, in the bottom half of the third. Warren opened with a walk before shortstop Max Schuemann lost the handle on his under-hand toss to second base. That error missed the front end of a force out.

And third baseman Ryan McMahon misfired with his throw to second after an impressive stop on a hard-hit grounder. Given the infield alignment, Schuemann was covering second. But McMahon threw to Rosario, who was several steps away from the bag.

That brought up Ward and Rutschman, two of Baltimore’s best hitters. They didn’t come through.

“Warren did a good job making pitches. He’s tough to square up,” Albernaz said. “He obviously shifted over to the third base side from last year, so that extreme angle was making it difficult, so it was a great adjustment by him coming into the year.”

One consolation for the Orioles is they avoided a shutout, maintaining their shutout-less streak to begin the season. Ward doubled — his first extra-base hit since April 22 — in the sixth, and a single from Samuel Basallo plated him. Tyler O’Neill’s double scored Basallo all the way from first.

The Orioles had other opportunities as well, but they finished 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

The lack of shutouts offensively is joined by a pitching staff that hasn’t managed to record a shutout themselves. And with six runs against Rogers and a critical missed opportunity in the third, the Orioles were left ruing another game gone awry.