Yankees slide past Orioles, 4-1 | Rapid reaction

Yankees starter Sonny Gray rebounds, Aaron Judge homers in win at Camden Yards on Friday night.

BALTIMORE — Pitching coaches talk about struggling hurlers going to the minors to regain confidence. It’s a mental thing. They know the competition is inferior, but by experiencing success, the hope is the pitcher retakes a major-league mound with renewed swagger.

On Friday, the struggling Sonny Gray came about as close as he could to doing that without the humiliation of a demotion.

Gray attacked Orioles hitters and his bats backed him up in a 4-1 win at a muggy Camden Yards.

The right-hander gave up just a run over six innings, issuing no walks for the first time in any of his 11 starts this season.

What it means

The Orioles, last in the American League East by a lot, started the day 27th in runs scored in the league and led off Jace Peterson, a light-hitting Yankees castoff.

The Yankees improved to 36-17. They woke up 1 1/2 games behind the Red Sox for the best record in the league and for AL East supremacy. The Yankees and Orioles were rained out Thursday with more rain threatening Saturday’s 4 p.m. matchup.

Aroldis Chapman got his 13th save in 14 tries with a scoreless ninth inning.

Sonny … Grayt

Gray struck out six batters — two shy of his season-high — and gave up four hits, tying his season low. He threw 90 pitches, his ERA dropped from a disgusting 5.98 to to a still-unsightly 5.50 and he improved to 4-4.

A steady stream of runs supported Gray, whose underperformance has fueled speculation the Yankees will try to add a starting pitcher before the July 31 trade deadline.

You should know 

Greg Bird’s RBI triple — the first of his career — put the Yankees ahead for good in the fifth inning.

Center fielder Adam Jones misplayed Bird’s long fly ball, letting it hit his glove as he jumped and hit the wall. Bird, maybe the slowest player on the team, made it to third without a problem. 

Brett Gardner scored and it was 2-1 Yankees.

Manny Machado, a potential Yankees target in free agency, slugged a first-inning home run off a hanging Gray fastball. That gave Baltimore a 1-0 lead.

Gleyber Torres, as he’s done so many times in his remarkable rookie season, provided a lift. He singled home Neil Walker to tie the game in the bottom of the third. Torres also doubled but got thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple — his cleat fell off while running — in the fifth inning.

Austin Romine’s RBI double in the sixth put the Yankees up, 3-1, and Aaron Judge’s 16th homer of the season — a no-doubter to left field — gave the Yankees a three-run cushion.

For Judge, it was his 13th career homer vs. the Orioles, his most against any team. It was against. Judge homered off Orioles lefty Tanner Scott, giving Judge 11 career bombs off southpaws compared to 61 off righties.

Biting nails

Baltimore made it tense in the eighth.

Dellin Betances loaded the based when he hit Mark Trumbo in the tighh. Betances rebounded to strike out Jonathan Schoop with a nasty curveball before Chris Davis lined out to center field to end the threat.

NEXT

Saturday: Yankees righty Masahiro Tanaka (6-2, 4.62 ERA) vs. Orioles righty Kevin Gausman (3-4, 4.31 ERA)

Sunday: Yankees righty Domingo German (0-3, 5.45 ERA) vs. Orioles righty Alex Cobb (1-7, 6.80 ERA)

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.