Anthony Santander’s home run breaks up scoreless game in ninth, beats Yankees

BALTIMORE — A game that was all about Aaron Judge when it began turned out to be about both clubs’ starting pitchers.

After a thunderstorm delayed the start of the game for 2 hours, 32 minutes, Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and Orioles seed-throwing rookie Grayson Rodriguez dueled deep into Friday night at Camden Yards.

Neither pitcher factored in the decision, though. The game wasn’t decided until Anthony Santander’s walk-off homer off Tommy Kahnle with one out in the ninth inning gave the AL East-leading Orioles a 1-0 victory and dropped the Yankees further into last place.

Kahnle threw five straight changeups in striking out Adley Rutschman to begin the ninth. He stayed with the pitch three more times against Santander . . . and his eighth straight changeup landed 425 feet away in right-centerfield for a no-doubt home run.

That was the Orioles’ fourth hit of the night, matching the Yankees’ total.

Judge, playing for the first time since he suffered a right big toe sprain on June 3, went 0-for-1 — a lineout to rightfield on the first pitch he saw — with three walks. The Yankees had gone 19-23 in his absence.

Cole continued polishing his 2023 American League Cy Young Award credentials, throwing seven scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 2.64. The righthander allowed three hits, walked none and struck out five while throwing a season-high 110 pitches.

Rodriguez, 23, taken 11th overall in the 2018 draft, showed none of the issues that left him with a 2-2 record and a 6.91 ERA entering the game. Throwing 100 mph from the first inning on, he allowed three hits and two walks in 6 1/3 innings in which he struck out four. Four Orioles relievers shut down the Yankees from there.

Judge, greeted with what sounded like an equal number of cheers and boos from the boisterous crowd, lined the first pitch he saw, a 99-mph fastball, at rightfielder Santander for the second out of the first inning. Anthony Rizzo struck out swinging at a 100-mph fastball to end the eight-pitch inning.

After Cole set down the Orioles (63-40)  in order in the bottom of the third, the Yankees (54-49) mounted the night’s first scoring threat in the fourth. Judge worked a one-out walk to give the Yankees their first baserunner and Rizzo sliced a single to left-center to give them their first hit. Giancarlo Stanton then bounced into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.

DJ LeMahieu led off the fifth with a single and was replaced at first when Billy McKinney grounded into a forceout. After Harrison Bader popped to first, Anthony Volpe stung one down the third-base line, where Ramon Urias made a diving stop and throw across the diamond for the third out.

The Yankees put their second runner in scoring position in the seventh. LeMahieu singled with one out, ending Rodriguez’s night, and righthander Shintaro Fujinami walked McKinney.  Bader then grounded into a 6-3 double play to thwart the threat.

Volpe led off the seventh against righthander Yannier Cano with a slicing liner down the rightfield line that appeared destined for extra bases, but Santander laid out and made a diving catch toward the line. Pinch hitter Jake Bauers followed with a broken-bat single to center, and one out later, Judge walked for the third time. In came lefty Danny Coulombe to face the lefthanded-hitting Rizzo, who hit a ground smash that had RBI single written all over it. Second baseman Adam Frazier, however, made the third diving play of the night for the Orioles to keep the game scoreless.

Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.