Nestor Cortes matched a career high with 12 strikeouts in 7 1/3 dominating innings and the New York Yankees cruised to an 8-0 victory over the visiting Baltimore Orioles on Saturday afternoon.
On the 61st anniversary of Roger Maris hitting his 61st home run to surpass Babe Ruth’s 1927 AL record, Aaron Judge was 0-for-2 and reached base three times to remain tied in homers with Maris. Judge was hit by a pitch and walked twice, extending his on-base streak to 29 games.
Giancarlo Stanton capped a three-run first inning off Baltimore’s Austin Voth (5-4) with a long homer. Gleyber Torres and Josh Donaldson drove in two runs apiece and Kyle Higashioka also homered as the Yankees (97-60) won for the 10th time in 12 games.
Cortes (12-4) pitched 4 2/3 hitless innings before allowing a clean single to Jorge Mateo. He retired Rougned Odor to end the fifth and then got four more strikeouts before exiting to a standing ovation after fanning Cedric Mullins for the third time.
Cortes matched his career high for strikeouts also set April 17 at Baltimore and has pitched 18 1/3 scoreless innings against the Orioles this season. It was the left-hander’s fifth career double-digit strikeout game
After Cortes struck out the side in the top half of the first inning, Judge was hit by a pitch then was forced at second. Anthony Rizzo scored from first on a double to left-center by Torres, who easily scored on Donaldson’s fly ball to the warning track in right for a 2-0 lead.
Stanton then crushed the next pitch by sending a fastball into the left field bleachers for his 29th homer. Higashioka hit a 1-2 slider to the left field seats for a 4-0 lead in the second, his ninth of the season.
The Yankees added four in the seventh off Spenser Watkins. Judge scored on a single by Torres for a 5-0 lead and Bader capped the scoring outburst with a double to left for an 8-0 lead.
Voth allowed four runs on seven hits in five innings.
Baltimore (81-77) lost for the sixth time in eight games, managed three hits and did not get a runner into scoring position until the ninth after being eliminated from the AL wild card race late Friday night when Seattle beat Oakland.
–Field Level Media
