Beleaguered starter Jorge López carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, albeit with five walks, and with the help of four early home runs he and the Orioles beat the Yankees, 7-1, Monday at Yankee Stadium to spoil New York’s first home game since their trade deadline additions.
López, who completed six innings for the second time all season and the first since May 31, didn’t look fated to make it that far early as he walked three, hit a batter, and balked in the first two innings. But he kept the Yankees off the board until a pair of walks and a sacrifice fly prevented the shutout in the fifth, and didn’t allow a hit until a leadoff double by Joey Gallo in the sixth inning.
After stranding him, López left to plenty of hugs in the Orioles dugout after his best start of the season, allowing one run on one hit and five walks with four strikeouts on 106 pitches to lower his ERA to 5.91.
Cedric Mullins and Austin Hays hit back-to-back solo home runs in the third inning, then Ryan Mountcastle and Ramón Urías had solo home runs in the fourth to build the lead up in emphatic fashion. Pedro Severino and Maikel Franco had sacrifice flies in the sixth inning, and Mountcastle scored when Urías grounded into a double play in the eighth.
The relief corps of César Valdez, Paul Fry and Dillon Tate didn’t need such a big cushion, with their three scoreless innings of relief. The only hiccup was a cat on the field pausing Fry’s work for several minutes in the eighth.
