BALTIMORE (AP) — Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge and Ben Rice led off the game with consecutive home runs, and the New York Yankees battered Baltimore’s beleaguered pitching staff in a 15-3 victory over the Orioles on Tuesday night.
Carlos Rodón (4-3) retired the first 15 Orioles he faced and eventually yielded two runs and two hits in six-plus innings.
Kyle Gibson (0-1) allowed five home runs in the first two innings in his first big league start of the season. He was finally pulled with two outs in the fourth after allowing nine runs and 11 hits.
Cody Bellinger, the game’s fifth batter, also hit a solo homer in the first, and Rice homered again in the second. Austin Wells hit New York’s final home run — all six came with nobody on — with two outs in the ninth.
Gunnar Henderson hit a solo shot for Baltimore.
Rodón took a perfect game into the sixth before Emmanuel Rivera led off with a walk. Jorge Mateo followed with a double.
This was the second time this season the Yankees hit three consecutive home runs to start their half of the first. They’re the first team to do that more than once in a season. On March 29, Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger and Aaron Judge homered on the game’s first three pitches for New York against Milwaukee.
Key moment
There weren’t many after the first inning. New York scored five times before the Orioles even came to the plate, and Rodón made that advantage look plenty safe.
Key stats
The Orioles, who made the postseason the past two years, now have the worst ERA in baseball at 5.52. They’ve lost seven of their last nine. In addition to this blowout, that stretch has included a 24-2 loss to Cincinnati and 7-0 defeats against Washington and Detroit.
Up next
The Yankees send Carlos Carrasco (2-1) to the mound against Cade Povich (1-2) in Wednesday series finale.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb
