BALTIMORE—Matt Harvey has met the Orioles’ expectations and, perhaps, exceeded them. The 32-year-old right-hander pitched six strong innings against the New York Yankees on Monday night and led the Orioles to a 4-2 win before 6,362 at Oriole Park.
Harvey (2-1) won his second straight start, allowing just a run on three hits. He retired 11 Yankees in a row and New York scored its only run with two outs in the sixth when Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge hit back-to-back doubles. Harvey walked three and struck out five in his longest start of the season.
“That’s probably the best I’ve felt in a couple of years,” said Harvey, who’s with his fourth team since leaving the New York Mets in 2018.. “Everything was working well, mechanically felt good, felt strong through the whole outing. I was able to throw strikes when I needed to, and guys made plays behind me, and it was a good team effort.
“Obviously, tonight was better. I’ve been kicking myself with the short outings in my mind. I want to go six, seven innings every time. I could have done that in all my starts, really.”
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde liked what he saw from Harvey.
“I thought he got over the hump there,” Hyde said. “I thought his stuff stayed the same through the fifth.”
Cedric Mullins’ leadoff home run, his second of the season, gave Harvey a 1-0 lead in the first. Mullins’ home run landed on Eutaw Street, the first Oriole to do that in 2021. Mullins also hit a home run to center against left-handed reliever Justin Wilson leading off the seventh. It was his first multi-home run game. He doubled in the fifth.
Mullins’ average is .365, and he has an .996 OPS. More impressive, he’s doing it batting left-handed exclusively this season, having abandoned switch-hitting during the offseason.
“I knew that I put in a solid amount of work in the offseason off of machines,” Mullins said “A couple of guys threw left-on-left. I’m adjusting fairly quickly, and it feels pretty good.”
Mullins has impressed Hyde.
“To go left-on-left with Justin Wilson, who I know very well, you don’t see that very often,” Hyde said. “Not only to hit a homer, but to go dead center, shows you the power that Cedric has.”
In the second, New York starter Deivi García walked catcher Pedro Severino with one out. With two outs, shortstop Freddy Galvis doubled, scoring Severino to give Baltimore (10-12) a 2-0 lead.
Galvis left the game because of groin soreness. Ramón Urias moved from second to short to replace him, and Rio Ruiz came in to play second.
“He’s just day-to-day right now,” Hyde said. “It’s a left groin strain, soreness, just kind of tightened up on him a little bit. Feels a lot better now. It’s fortunate for us, it’s just day-to-day.”
With Galvis out, the Orioles need an infielder, and they optioned outfielder Ryan McKenna to the alternate training site at Bowie after the game. Richie Martin and Pat Valaika are among those who could be considered as infield options.
After the back-to-back doubles by Stanton and Judge cut the lead to 2-1, former Orioles reliever Darren O’Day hit Austin Hays in the left hand with a pitch.
On a hit-and-run, Hays took off for second and Severino punched a single to right field, sending Hays to third. He scored on the third balk of O’Day’s career. His first two came with the Orioles in 2017 and 2018.
Travis Lakins pitched a scoreless seventh. In the eighth, Tanner Scott’s control issues continued.
He walked the bases full in his second straight appearance. On Saturday night, he walked three Oakland batters after retiring the first two and struck out Stephen Piscotty to end the top of the ninth.
This time, Scott walked Clint Frazier, DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Judge. Stanton flied out before Judge walked. Rougned Odor struck out, and Hyde brought in César Valdez.
“I’m going to continue to throw him out there in big spots,” Hyde said about Scott. “I believe in the arm. I believe in the kid. He’s had a couple of rough ones with command. Huge punchout of Odor.”
Gio Urshela singled off Valdez. Frazier scored, and Judge was thrown out trying for third on a strong throw from Hays in left. Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected by first base umpire Greg Gibson for arguing the ruling that LeMahieu had not scored before the out at third was made, ending the inning and leaving the Orioles ahead, 4-2.
Boone didn’t request a challenge call in time, Gibson ruled. Boone said the call was correct.
Valdez retired the Yankees (9-13) in order in the ninth for his fifth save.
Tate waits his turn: With 10 relievers in the bullpen, Dillon Tate hasn’t gotten consistent work. He’s twice pitched in consecutive games but has had three, four and five days of rest between appearances.
“That has been a thing where I’m making adjustments with my routine as the games are going on,” Tate said. “So sometimes I might have to get in there and lift a little bit more and other times I may have to get on the mound and get sessions in on days I’m not throwing on days where it’s back-to-back or even every other day. I’m playing with things to keep myself as sharp as I can until my name is called.”
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Tanner looked to be getting squeezed. Mullins has made the appropriate adjustments. If only others would. I hope they call Martin up over Valaika. Valaika is not a true shortstop neither is Urias we saw that in spring training. Tate has been impressive. When Harvey comes back there could be a three headed monster with Scott and him.
Mullins astounds me. Heard comparisons to Al Bumbry. I'll even embellish that a step higher and say Lou Brock. Harvey super impressive. That alternate site he trained at in NJ is having quite the effect. O's are a super analytic team that fits right into his program. Yankee announcers were yapping about Scott's control issues before he even threw one pitch. Well their chatter was substantiated. Jeez Tanner I didn't know you were that bad. Mountcastle regression is concerning,McKenna needs some more field time(Stewart stuck at .250),Hays scared the hell out of me when he got hit on the hand,and Valaika up instead of Martin if Galvis goes on IL--Martin needs more refining. Finally--the best for last. What in the world happened in the 8th with the umpiring and Boones hesitancy/freak out show. Boone definitely had a case but his confusion was comical. Can't wait to hear NY sports talk this AM. Great,great win.
Orial, as I tweeted this morning, MLB is doing a disservice to its fans by not putting a microphone on the crew chief so that complex calls could be explained to fans.
MLB network said he went nuts because he was told he waited to long to ask for a review...go O’s...
Spellcheck, arghhh, too...go O’s...
Damn phone app.
I saw what you did there, I’ve missed it....lol...go O’s...
Looks like egg on my face for goofin' on Harvey before the season started. Hopefully I was totally wrong about this guy and can only hope his arm doesn't fall off any time soon.
So why was there nobody warming in the pen as Harvey came up on the third turn in the rotation in the 6th last night? Certainly Hyde was aware of the numbers for Harvey in that situation? We were lucky to get through that inning giving up only one run, thanks mostly to timely double play.
Gotta love Mullins, 'eh boys?
Go Os, Fly United.
A brave and progressive move would be to call up Valaika,Jones and Martin. I personally have seen enough of Ruiz and Urias it won’t happen though.
I 2nd that thought.
I’ll 3rd that thought...go O’s...
Hard to disagree with you fellas on this one.
Harvey pithed very well considering he had to adjust to the ump calling a small strike zone. Scott needs to learn how to adjust when ump is calling tight plate.
2 in a row tonight boys...........
Pretty surprising how the strike zone changed when O’Day came in to pitch, before he came in the ump didn’t make a low strike call, one time so bad Harvey started 2-0 & easily could’ve been 0-2...don’t want to sound sacrilegious, but I like it better when McDonald is announcing...go O’s...
I noticed the strike zone expanded as soon as O’Day came in too. Pretty obvious.
Harvey was getting squeezed bad, it appeared.
I like Palmer’s analysis. Sure; he’s full of old school stories that grow greater with every passing year, and his omniscience gets annoying, but the guy is a stud and retains knowledge in a remarkable way. He also speaks pretty damn honestly when the baby birds muff a play.
McDonald is great too. Good insight and points out the small details that one misses if you haven’t played. Garceau is tolerable as announcer for TV games. I liked him on 105.7 and thought he was a great radio host.
As I’ve said before, I still miss Chuck Thompson, John Miller and the old school AM radio announcers......but that’s another story....
Did you notice the other night when Hays struck out looking at a curve ball, Palmer said welcome to the big leagues, he’s been here quite awhile, probably too much for that comment...oh well, could be worse, they could have CD as an announcer...lol...go O’s...
Pinstripes have lost four straight at Camden. Go for five tonight!
The dark night has returned at least for one night. Getting back to Lowther he said he felt liked he belonged here even before he arrived. He strikes out a all
star to end the game and then is demoted. I may be wrong but it seems like Baltimore does this stuff more then other clubs. Jay Flaa was off the charts as a prospect and of course Hyde says he can give us multiple innings in the pen. If he sends him down when Kremer is activated it’s the same old double talk BS I quoted earlier as Flaa is trilled to be called up.
Even if Flaa sent back to the minors and never returns, its still a big deal for him - under the MLB collective bargaining agreement, just one day on a major league roster guarantees him lifetime health insurance coverage.
Any update on Galvis?...go O’s...
I will tweet it after Hyde speaks.
Thx...don’t tweet, but thx....go O’s...
As I've told you several times, Ray, some things are tweeted long before I write them, and some things are tweeted and never written on the site. It's not necessary to tweet to have a Twitter account.
Not a problem, if it ain’t important enough to show up here, I probably don’t need it, thx though...go O’s...