BALTIMORE (AP) — The New York Yankees were about to take first place from the Baltimore Orioles — and then they let it slip from their grasp and watched it sail away.
In a wild ninth inning in which each closer allowed three runs, the Orioles took a one-game lead over New York in the AL East when Cedric Mullins hit a two-run double for a 6-5 victory Sunday. An error by shortstop Anthony Volpe with two outs kept Baltimore’s winning rally going. Then left fielder Alex Verdugo misplayed Mullins’ line drive and turned it into the winning hit.
“That’s a killer, right? Let’s acknowledge that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s been a rough several weeks here for us.”
New York lost for the 18th time in its last 26 games, and the Orioles had dropped five straight after the Yankees took the first two games of this series. So perhaps it was fitting that both teams made holding a lead look hard.
“I didn’t do my job today and the guys had my back,” said Baltimore’s Craig Kimbrel, who blew his fifth save of the season.
Kimbrel pitched twice against the Yankees earlier this season. Both times, he blew a save but ended up with the win.
With Baltimore up 3-2 on Sunday, the big question going into the ninth was whether the Yankees could get Juan Soto and Aaron Judge to the plate. They were due up fourth and fifth.
Then Kimbrel walked two hitters and gave up a three-run homer to Ben Rice. Suddenly New York was up 5-3 before Soto even batted.
Kimbrel prevented any further scoring, however, and Baltimore put runners on first and second with one out. Clay Holmes struck out Gunnar Henderson, but Adley Rutschman drew a walk. Then Ryan Mountcastle’s grounder should have ended the game, but Volpe’s error made it 5-4 and left the bases still loaded.
Mullins then hit a line drive to left. Verdugo started in, then tried to recover but couldn’t prevent the ball from going over his head.
“That little step in was enough to beat me back,” Verdugo said. “I take a lot of pride out there defensively, and this one’s on me.”
It was the third walk-off hit of Mullins’ career.
“I knew I hit it pretty good. As soon as I saw him take a step in, I figured he got a bad jump on it,” Mullins said. “I had a feeling he was burnt, and sure enough, he was burnt — over his head.”
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