Aaron Judge, Yankees Cruise to Blowout Win vs. Orioles

Second baseman DJ LeMahieu went 4-of-5 with a home run and two RBI as the New York Yankees defeated the host Baltimore Orioles 9-3 on Wednesday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks added home runs for the Yanks, who moved to 3-1 on the season. Dwight Smith Jr. hit a two-run shot for the 2-2 O's.

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole got the win after twirling 6.2 innings with seven strikeouts. He got touched up in the seventh and finished his night allowing four hits and three earned runs following the Smith homer.

The Yankees have now beaten the Orioles 17 straight times dating back to March 31, 2019. They have not lost at Camden Yards since July 10, 2018.

Notable Performances

Yankees 2B DJ LeMahieu: 4-of-5, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI

Yankees OF Aaron Judge: 2-of-3, HR, 3 R, 2 RBI

Yankees OF Aaron Hicks: 1-of-3, HR, R, 2 RBI

Yankees SP Gerrit Cole: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K (Win, 2-0)

Orioles OF Dwight Smith Jr.: 1-of-4, HR, R, 2 RBI

Orioles SP Asher Wojciechowski: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 K (Loss, 0-1)

LeMahieu Leads Way in Yanks' Win

LeMahieu has picked up where he left off in 2019, when he hit .327 with 26 home runs and 102 RBI.

The former Colorado Rockies infielder is 6-for-12 in three games thus far, and his efforts Wednesday propelled the Yanks to a comfortable win.

LeMahieu got the Yanks off on the right foot with a solo home run to lead off the game:

New York used that momentum to scratch out another run on a Mike Ford sac fly, and the Yanks took a 2-0 lead into the bottom half of the frame.

LeMahieu wasn't done, though, as he sent Ford home with a sixth-inning RBI single. That sat between a fourth-inning double and ninth-inning single for a four-hit outing:

The 32-year-old came to New York after seven seasons in Colorado with an impressive resume. The three-time Gold Glove winner led the league with a .348 batting average in 2016 and made All-Star Games in 2015 and 2017.

But LeMahieu has morphed into a bona fide superstar in New York and has arguably been the team's most valuable player since his arrival in 2019. Gleyber Torres can certainly lay claim to that mantle as well, but LeMahieu's bat has racked up 62 multi-hit games during the regular season since arriving in the Bronx.

Baseball is no stranger to variance, meaning a good team could struggle over a stretch and miss the playoffs or a great team can simply have one bad series and leave the playoffs. The variance appears to be exacerbated for the 2020 season, which will end after 60 games and feature a four-round postseason amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That playoff includes a best two-of-three series to kick things off.

Players who deliver on a near-daily basis will be paramount as teams look to advance, and that's what makes the Yanks so dangerous thanks to LeMahieu, who has been one of the game's most consistently great players for a year-plus.

Cole Dominant Enough in 2nd Yankees Outing

Gerrit Cole retired 14 straight batters and struck out four in the process after allowing a third-inning walk to DJ Stewart. He retired 18 of 19 batters leading into a meeting with Renato Nunez with two out in the bottom of the seventh and the Yankees up 7-1.

The next three pitches could not have gone much worse, as Cole allowed a Nunez double, Smith two-run homer and Pedro Severino double before exiting the game. All three Orioles jumped on Cole's first offering in their at-bats.

Cole may not have landed the finish, but he did more than enough with the Yankees offense rolling, and now the team is 2-0 with the prized free-agent acquisition, who was pleased with his outing:

His start was made all the more impressive considering a rough first inning that saw the Orioles jump on board following a Jose Iglesias RBI double with one out. But Cole struck out Rio Ruiz on four pitches before inducing a Hanser Alberto groundout to limit the damage.

Cole hasn't looked as sharp as he's been over the past two years, when he struck out 602 batters and went 35-10 with a 2.68 ERA with the Houston Astros. Then again, that's a hard stretch for anyone to replicate, let alone after a multi-month layoff that forced a shorter ramp-up period leading to a truncated season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All things considered, Cole has done quite well, allowing just one hit (an Adam Eaton solo home run) in five innings in a 4-1 win on opening night against the Washington Nationals. He struck out five batters in that one.

Cole has been on fire since May, as Bryan Hoch of MLB.com pointed out before the right-hander was officially credited with the win:

The Yanks certainly hope that trend will continue through the shortened season as the team looks for its 28th World Series title.

What's Next?

The Yanks and O's will meet again Thursday at 7:05 p.m. ET. J.A. Happ will take the mound for New York, and John Means will do the same for Baltimore in a battle of left-handers.

New York and Baltimore were originally scheduled to face the Philadelphia Phillies and Miami Marlins, respectively, this week.

However, MLB adjusted the league schedule after the Marlins' season was forced to pause after numerous coaches and players tested positive for COVID-19 since Sunday, when the team's series against the Phils concluded.

A total of 16 players and two coaches have tested positive for Miami, according to ESPN, although no Phillies coaches or players have tested positive following the conclusion of the series.