The weekend to feast turned into famine for the Yankees.
Hosting the team with the worst record in baseball, the Yankees dropped the series against the Orioles, capped off by a brutal 8-7 loss on Sunday afternoon in The Bronx.
Andrew Heaney blew a three-run lead in the seventh inning as the Yankees (78-58) lost for the sixth time in eight games — following their 13-game winning streak — while falling to 9-7 against the Orioles (43-92) this season. They missed a chance to pick up a game on the AL East-leading Rays, who went 18-1 against the Orioles this season, and still lead the division by 7 ½ games.
The Yankees were left with just one win against the Orioles this weekend, needing extra innings on Friday night to get it.
With a thin bullpen — accentuated by the loss of Jonathan Loaisiga to the injured list Sunday morning — Heaney was entrusted with a three-run lead in the seventh inning and promptly blew it. The lefty, who was moved to the bullpen when Corey Kluber returned to the rotation, began the inning by loading the bases on a hit batter and two singles. Jahmi Jones then roped a two-run double to right field just over the glove of Giancarlo Stanton to make it 7-6.
After Heaney finally recorded the first out, Jorge Mateo hit a bloop single over the outstretched glove of DJ LeMahieu to tie the game 7-7.
Heaney was booed off the mound and replaced by Wandy Peralta — who, like Aroldis Chapman and Clay Holmes, had been needed to pitch in the first two games of the series. Peralta quickly gave up a single to Kelvin Gutierrez that put the Orioles ahead 8-7.
Gary Sanchez provided almost all of the Yankees’ offense on two big swings. The new No. 9 batter, who had hit one home run in his previous 23 games before Sunday, crushed a pair of long balls, including a grand slam that gave the Yankees a 4-1 lead in the second inning. Sanchez’s second homer, a two-run shot, put them ahead 7-4 in the sixth.
Kluber, making his second start back after missing three months with a shoulder strain, was not overly sharp. He lasted just 3 ²/₃ innings, giving up two runs on four hits and three walks, but still left with a 4-2 lead.
Joely Rodriguez issued back-to-back walks with one out in the fifth — the second leading to manager Aaron Boone getting ejected for arguing balls and strikes — but Albert Abreu relieved him and got out of the jam.
Anthony Rizzo added to the Yankees’ lead in the bottom of the fifth, with his two-out bloop single making it 5-2.
Gleyber Torres’ lax approach on a ground ball to shortstop in the sixth inning — allowing Gutierrez to leg out an infield single with two outs — gave way to a two-run home run from Cedric Mullins to get the Orioles within 5-4.
But Stanton ended the inning with a highlight-reel catch in right field, racing into the gap towards the warning track and diving to rob Anthony Santander of extra bases.
