3 Orioles homers force Yankees to wait for AL East celebration at least 1 more night

The New York Yankees will have to wait at least one more night to pop the champagne after losing to the Baltimore Orioles 5-3 in the first game of a three-game series.

Baltimore’s victory was powered by solo home runs from Anthony Santander, Ramon Urias, and Colton Cowser, which overshadowed Aaron Judge’s impressive 56th home run of the season.

Orioles starter Dean Kremer earned the win, pitching five innings with three strikeouts and allowing just one run on three hits. Yankees manager Aaron Boone praised Kremer’s fastball command and splitter, noting how effectively he managed the Yankees’ lineup.

The Orioles struck first, capitalizing on a single by Jordan Westburg and a ground-rule double from Ryan O’Hearn. Heston Kjerstad then drove in the first run with a ground out.

After three scoreless innings, the Yankees finally got on the board when Judge launched a 407-foot homer, igniting MVP chants from the crowd. However, despite having runners on first and second with no outs in the fifth, the Yankees could not capitalize, as a double play and a flyout left them trailing by one.

Baltimore extended their lead in the sixth when Santander hit a homer off the foul pole, followed by Urias’s 11th home run, pushing the score to 4-1.

The Yankees made a comeback in the seventh, with Anthony Rizzo’s ground-rule double and an infield single from Alex Verdugo setting up Gleyber Torres’s ground-rule double, narrowing the gap to 4-2. Juan Soto’s line drive brought Verdugo home, making it 4-3, but a base-running mistake by Torres ended the inning prematurely.

The blunder proved costly as Cowser’s 432-foot homer in the eighth gave the Orioles a 5-3 lead, sealing the Yankees’ fate for the night.