Yankees, now 3 1/2 behind Red Sox in AL East, react to being 4-5 vs. awful Orioles

The Yankees have lost two of three to the Orioles so far this week after falling 6-5 on Tuesday, July 10, 2018 (710/18) at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Md. Shortstop Manny Machado hit two home runs against the Yankees, who are now 3.5 games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox in the American League East.

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BALTIMORE — Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge struggled to come up with a good answer Tuesday night when he was asked why his powerhouse club has so much trouble with the worst-in-baseball Baltimore Orioles.

“I wish I knew,” Judge said after a 6-5 walk-off loss at Oriole Park left the Yankees 4-5 this season against the 26-66 Orioles. “If we knew, we’d be able to stop them.”

A day after splitting a Monday doubleheader with the Orioles, the Yankees built a 5-3 seventh-inning lead and then lost on a ninth-inning, two-out, walk-off single by Jonathan Schoop that deflected off first baseman Greg Bird’s glove.

If the Orioles win again Wednesday night, they’ll win their second four-game series of the season against the Yankees, who are 4-0-1 with one sweep against everyone else in four-gamers.

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What is going on?

“They bring they’re A game, I guess,” losing pitcher Dellin Betances said.

These losses are a big reason why the Yankees are 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Boston Red Sox in the AL East standings.

And do we really need to remind anyone that finishing second in the AL East this year will mean playing another do-or-die Wild Card playoff game instead of advancing right to a best-of-five Division Series?

We told Bird that late Tuesday night and he danced around the question by answering it this way:

“Games are games. Outs are outs and hits are hits. Pitches are pitches. You just keep going. That’s the way I look at it, to be honest. I show up, I play, then we turn the page and we do it again.”

But what about the Red Sox being 3 1/2 games up on the Yankees, who haven’t been this far off the pace since April 26.

“I don’t know,” Bird said. “The last Red Sox game I watched was that Sunday night (when the Yankees won 11-1 on July 1). I don’t know what to tell you. I’m focused on our team and our guys and what’s going on here on the field that we’re on. That’s really it for me.”

That’s all fine and dandy, but the Yankees shouldn’t have a losing record to the Orioles after nine meetings.

The Red Sox, by the way, are 9-1 against the Orioles, outscoring them 54-24.

“Well, they’re major league ballplayers,” Judge said of the Orioles. “They’re a great team over there. Things just didn’t go our way today. They made a lot of great plays and they got key hits when they needed to and they came out on top.”

That line about the Orioles being a “great team” is ridiculous, of course.

The Orioles still have on-the-block superstar shortstop Manny Machado, who homered twice on Tuesday, plus Adam Jones, Jonathan Schoop and Mark Trumbo are dangerous hitters, but they also have a lot of holes in their lineup and a shoddy pitching staff that often looks good facing the Yankees.

“They seem to always play us good from the time I’ve been here,” Betances said. “They’ve got some great hitters obviously. You’ve got to make good pitches when you’re playing them. Any time they play the Yankees, I’m sure they’re trying to beat us.”

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.