The Baltimore Orioles saw their bats come to life in the past two nights, and their production is keeping the champagne on ice for the New York Yankees.
The Orioles aim to produce another string of successful at-bats while the Yankees hope to finally clinch the American League East Thursday night when the division rivals meet in the final game of the season series in New York.
Offense may be scarce for both teams since Corbin Burnes (15-8, 2.95 ERA) starts for Baltimore against New York’s Gerrit Cole (7-5, 3.67) in a battle of right-handed Cy Young Award winners.
The Orioles (88-70) lead the season series 8-4, trail the Yankees by four games and would win the division by virtue of winning the season series should the teams finish deadlocked. Baltimore clinched the season series with Tuesday’s win and prevented the Yankees from clinching by bolting to a seven-run lead before hanging on for a 9-7 win on Wednesday.
The Orioles have clinched a wild-card entry into the playoffs.
Baltimore finished 17 hits to match its third-highest total this season and 14 of those hits were singles.
Gunner Henderson had three hits and is batting .387 (12-for-31) in his past seven games. Colton Cowser drove in three runs and is batting .344 (11-for-32) in his past nine games.
“It’s been great,” Cowser said of the past two games. “Honestly I think for me it’s looking at it from how many good ABs [at-bats] can we string together. It felt like we were just kind of missing the big hit the past couple of months.
“And I think being able to just string together quality at-bats and continuing to try and stack as many days in a row is important. We’ve been able to do that and I think getting some of these guys back has been great.”
The Yankees (92-66) are hoping to finally secure their second division title in three seasons. Aaron Judge belted a three-run shot in the ninth inning, is up to a major league-leading 57 homers and has gone deep in his past four games.
Juan Soto also homered and added an RBI single on a night when the Yankees finished with 10 hits.
“Nothing’s been easy for us,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Shouldn’t expect it to be now but we’ve kind of preserved and grinded our way through all of it.”
Cole has allowed two runs or fewer in nine of his past 12 outings, makes his final regular-season start before the postseason. He is coming off his longest outing this season.
After allowing seven runs in 4 1/3 innings in a 7-1 home loss to the Boston Red Sox on Sept. 14, Cole earned the win by allowing one run on two hits in nine innings in Friday’s 4-2 victory in 10 innings at Oakland.
Cole is 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA in two starts this season against the Orioles. For his career, the right-hander is 6-3 with a 2.57 ERA in 14 starts against Baltimore.
Burnes is coming off back-to-back scoreless outings against the Detroit Tigers. Burnes has allowed five hits and totaled 15 strikeouts in 14 innings during a pair of wins over the Tigers. He has yielded two earned runs or fewer in five straight outings since allowing a combined 13 earned runs in losses to the Red Sox and Houston Astros last month.
The right-hander allowed two runs on four hits in six innings during a 2-0 loss to the Yankees on May 1 in Baltimore. He pitched eight hitless innings Sept. 10, 2023, for the Milwaukee Brewers at New York in a no-decision.
