Young O's battle WC-bound Yanks to extras

NEW YORK -- After Friday night's loss, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said that his team was going to be as tough as it could on the Yankees in an attempt to prevent them from clinching a postseason berth. Although Baltimore did its best to keep the champagne on ice Saturday at Yankee Stadium, New York prevailed, 3-2, in 11 innings.
Paul Fry surrendered a walk-off RBI double to Aaron Hicks, handing the Orioles their 110th loss of the season and allowing the Yankees to celebrate on their home turf. The defeat made Baltimore just the sixth team since 1969 to drop 110 contests in a single season.
"It's a good experience for us," DJ Stewart said of the rookies on the team. "I mean, they're trying to get into the playoffs, and just to face a lineup like that and see how they're fighting every single out and so are we, we're not in the playoff hunt, but it gives us a little bit of experience of what the atmosphere is like. Everyone is against you. We're at their place and just kind of give you a feel of what you can expect when we do get this thing turned around, how we can expect to play in these games."

With the game tied at 2, the Orioles had an opportunity to take the lead in the 10th after Stewart doubled and Jonathan Villar singled to start the inning. With runners on second and third and no outs, Adam Jones grounded out to short before Trey Mancini was intentionally walked to load the bases. Chris Davis lined out to Luke Voit at first and Breyvic Valera popped out to second.
"It's a lot more than that. Everybody wants to focus on one thing like that," Showalter said. "Hit the ball hard, Adam hit a ground ball right at somebody, and there's a lot more to it than that. … So everybody wants to dwell on one phase, and there's a lot of parts in scoring runs. You can set them up, but you've got to finish the deal. Chris hit two balls right on the button today with people standing there, and Voit made a nice play."

Earlier in the game, starter David Hess allowed solo homers to Hicks and Voit in the second, but he settled in to throw three more scoreless innings. Miguel Castro came on in relief to throw two shutout frames of one-hit ball, Tanner Scott kept the Bronx Bombers off the board in the eighth and Mychal Givens did his job in the ninth and 10th.
Fry permitted a leadoff single to Didi Gregorius in the 11th, but he came back to strike out Giancarlo Stanton. On a 1-2 count, Fry threw a 91.7-mph fastball to Hicks that was called a ball just off the inside corner that the Orioles thought was strike three. Two pitches later, Hicks delivered the game-winning hit, giving Baltimore its ninth walk-off loss of the season.
"It's good to see Tanner finishing strong, too," Showalter said. "Castro had a real good outing. Fry had a good outing; he struck out Hicks before the base hit. That was obviously strike three."

Valera and Steve Wilkerson each singled to start the third, with Valera advancing to third on a passed ball by Gary Sánchez. Following a strikeout, Cedric Mullins reached on a throwing error by Sanchez that allowed Valera to cross the plate. Stewart logged his third consecutive game with an RBI by singling in the tying run in the fifth off Yankees starter Lance Lynn, who allowed two runs (one earned) on seven hits over five frames.
"It's very satisfying anytime you can go up and have productive at-bats and try to give your team an opportunity to win a game," Stewart said. "That's what you're in the lineup for, to produce and give your team a chance, and that's what I'm trying to do every day."

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
In the third, Wilkerson tried to score from first on the throwing error by Sanchez, but Gleyber Torres was there to retrieve the ball and throw home in time to record the out.

With Wilkerson on second in the fifth, Caleb Joseph served a soft single into shallow right field. Wilkerson made the hard turn around third ready to test right fielder Aaron Judge, who had recently returned from the disabled list with a fractured right wrist. Judge fired a 96.9-mph strike to get out Wilkerson, whose foot didn't touch the plate before Sanchez's tag.

SOUND SMART
Jones threw out Miguel Andújar at second base from right field in the second inning to record his 100th career assist.

HE SAID IT
"Overall, I think we've improved. You look at from where we started when I first came up to where I am now, I think the past month or two, I think that there's been a lot of improvements, and I think that shows with the numbers. But more than anything, I think just the overall feel and the comfortability that I've grown into more out there, I think that reflects, and going forward, we want to continue to grow in that and be as competitive as possible." -- Hess, rating his rookie season with the Orioles

UP NEXT
Alex Cobb will make his 28th start of the season in Sunday's series finale against the Yankees at 1:05 p.m. ET. The righty has been sidelined since being pulled from his start on Sept. 11 due to a blister on his right middle finger. He has gone 7-4 with a 2.90 ERA in 16 career starts against New York. Left-hander J.A. Happ will get the nod for the Yankees.