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Neither Gunnar Henderson nor Adam Frazier began this season the way they or the Orioles hoped. The two infielders, one a rookie and the other a veteran, have done their best to make up for it of late.
The pair contributed the biggest hits of Baltimore’s eight-run seventh inning Wednesday night against the New York Yankees that turned a four-run deficit into a four-run lead as the Orioles evened their series at Yankee Stadium with a 9-6 victory.
Baltimore (32-17) entered the frame trailing 5-1, with Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes, briefly an Oriole to start his career, to that point continuing his success against his former team. Cortes took the mound for the seventh with a 1.39 ERA in 45 1/3 career innings against Baltimore, but a walk to Anthony Santander and a single by Austin Hays brought up Frazier, who launched an elevated fastball off the right field foul pole for a three-run home run to cut the Orioles’ deficit to one.
The blast was Frazier’s sixth, with the former All-Star needing fewer than a third as many plate appearances to double his total from last season with the Seattle Mariners. It left his batting line in his past 25 games at .296/.374/.506 after he hit .206/.289/.338 in his first 23.
It also provided more runs than the Orioles had scored off Cortes in any of their previous eight matchups against him. With him out of the game, the Yankees (30-21) turned to right-hander Jimmy Cordero, and after James McCann and Jorge Mateo singled, manager Brandon Hyde pinch-hit Henderson, a left-handed hitter, for Joey Ortiz. Baseball’s top prospect entering the year, Henderson entered May 13 hitting .170 with a .651 OPS, but he came to the plate hitting .294 with a .903 OPS in his past 10 games. The 21-year-old laced a go-ahead, two-run double down the right field line.
After Henderson advanced to third on a passed ball, he raced home on a fly ball from Ryan Mountcastle. Santander followed with a single to score Adley Rutschman, who walked, then came home on Hays’ second hit of the inning. He joined Cedric Mullins as Orioles who have recorded multiple hits in one inning this season, with Mullins doing so in Baltimore’s previous high-scoring frame, a seven-run seventh May 5 against Atlanta.
The eight-run avalanche is the Orioles’ biggest output in one inning since scoring nine in the eighth against the Kansas City Royals on Sept. 8, 2021.
The comeback erased a rough night for Orioles right-hander Tyler Wells, who allowed five runs on three homers — two by Gleyber Torres — in his five innings. Although Wells entered the start leading the majors in base runners allowed per inning, the outing left him with the second most home runs allowed in the American League with 13, one behind former Oriole Jordan Lyles. Eighteen of Wells’ 22 runs allowed this season have come on home runs.
Mike Baumann worked a quick sixth ahead of Baltimore’s rally, and Mychal Givens got an out to open the seventh before allowing three straight base runners. With the bases loaded for left-hander Anthony Rizzo, Hyde called on lefty Danny Coulombe, who allowed a run-scoring single but retired the next five batters to send the game to the ninth inning.
A night after blowing the save, Félix Bautista pitched a clean ninth, including two strikeouts, to end the Orioles’ streak of extra-inning games at three and finalize their 19th comeback win of the year.
This story will be updated.
Orioles at Yankees
Thursday, 7:05 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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