NEW YORK – The sixth-inning line drive boomed toward left-center field, sending Jake Bauers charging in pursuit. He focused on each step, recognizing that he would need to leave his feet to have any hope of halting two runs from clicking onto the scoreboard. Just as he timed a headlong dive, the ball disappeared.

Blinded as Jordan Westburg’s gapper blended into the Yankee Stadium lights, Bauers skidded to a halt on the turf, unable to secure what would be scored a two-run triple. The play proved pivotal as the Yankees’ bullpen melted down, wasting Randy Vásquez’s strong spot start in a 6-3 loss to the Orioles on Wednesday evening.

“I got a good jump on it; took a good route to it,” Bauers said. “Right when I went to dive, it got stuck in the lights and I was kind of flying blind at the end there. I was trying to knock it down, do anything I could. Unfortunately it got by me. I feel like it would have been a different game had I come up with it.”

Westburg’s big hit off Michael King followed the first hit and RBI for Baltimore rookie Colton Cowser, surrendered by Nick Ramirez. Adam Frazier also notched an RBI in the four-run frame.

Asked if he believed Bauers should have made the play on Westburg’s triple, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said: “It looked like he had a chance at it, so I can’t fault him for that. They hit that ball hard. … It’s just one of those innings. You can’t fault Jake, especially if you think he’s got a beat on it.”

Though bullpen stumbles have been rare for the Yanks, who opened play on Wednesday with a Major League-best 2.82 relief ERA, the greater issue was their inability to solve Baltimore starter Dean Kremer.

Josh Donaldson launched his ninth homer and Kyle Higashioka stroked a run-scoring hit to account for the production off Kremer, who struck out a career-high 10 over seven innings. Kremer scattered just four hits, with a walk.

“He seemed like he had extra life on his fastball today,” said Anthony Rizzo, whose 19-game on-base streak was snapped in the loss.

Promoted from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre earlier in the day, Vásquez did his best to keep pace, blanking the O’s over five frames. Rated as the Yanks’ No. 12 prospect by MLB Pipeline, the 24-year-old Vásquez has tossed at least five scoreless innings in two of his three Major League starts (also 5 2/3 scoreless innings on June 8 vs. White Sox).

“Getting an opportunity to come up here, I want to show that I can come up here and help this team in any way possible,” Vásquez said through an interpreter. “I’ll keep working hard to get that trust from the team.”

As the top of the fifth inning concluded, Boone was leaning toward capping Vásquez’s night at 75 pitches. That was clinched by a frightening moment in the bottom half of the frame, when YES Network camera operator Pete Stendel was hit in the face by an errant throw, prompting a 17-minute delay as he received medical attention.

"I'm definitely praying for him,” Boone said. “It was good to see him coherent, and raising his hand going off [the field]. I saw it pretty well right away and it was very scary.”

The Yankees chipped away at the lead in the eighth, when Anthony Volpe continued his hot hitting, belting his 12th homer. Volpe has batted a sizzling .354/.417/.600 with three homers and five RBIs since June 12, when he famously enjoyed a chicken parmesan meal with Minor League teammate Austin Wells in Watchung, N.J.

Two batters later, Rizzo thrilled the crowd with a deep fly ball to right field, but it fell shy of the wall – the continuation of a frustrating stretch for the veteran. Rizzo has hit just .215 (14-for-65) with a .277 slugging percentage in his past 20 games. 

“I’m just not hitting to my standard,” Rizzo said. “It’s frustrating personally, but this is part of being a baseball player. When things are tough, it shows your character of who you are. It’s just an opportunity to work, and keep working, and figure it out.”