There are three guarantees in life. Death, taxes and New York Yankees home runs served up by Baltimore Oriole pitching. On August 7th, New York third baseman Gio Urshela took Baltimore reliever Miguel Castro deep.
This set a new record for most homers by a team against a single opponent in one season. The new mark was forty-nine, until the Yankees crushed three more. Therefore, the record now sits at fifty-two entering this week’s four game set. With still one more series between these two ball clubs, it’s time to look back at the proverbial home run derby this matchup has been this season.
Gleyber Torres
The most valuable bat in this record-breaking series has been Gleyber Torres. For example, he has 23 homers in 2019. Ten have come against the Orioles. Torres’ primary victim has been David Hess.
The middle infielder has taken Hess deep for a third of his long balls against the Orioles. On May 15th, Torres hit two of his three home runs off of the Baltimore right-hander. Both were solo home runs, including a 427-foot bomb to center field. As a result, New York won 5-3 that day. Four of those runs came off of the long ball, all solo shots.
That was the first game of a doubleheader. Gleyber wasn’t finished. In the bottom of the fourth, with Andrew Cashner on the mound,Torres took a 3-1 pitch 432-feet to center field. He would take Cashner deep again five days later. Cashner and Hess are the only two pitchers to serve up multiple bombs to Torres this season.
Sanchez and Frazier
A trio of homers off of David Hess seems to be a requirement to be at the top of the list for homers against Baltimore. For instance, catcher Gary Sanchez and outfielder Clint Frazier are second and third on that list. Both have homered thrice off of the Oriole hurler.
In total, Sanchez has homered nine times off of Baltimore pitching this season. Three came in one game, back on April 7th. During a four-game set in May, Sanchez homered in three straight games. Frazier, who hasn’t even spent the entire season with the big league club, has hit 11 home runs this season. Six have come at the expense of the Baltimore pitching.
Bronx Bombers and Baltimore
Seventeen Yankees have homered off of the Orioles pitching staff this season. Furthermore, twelve of those batters have multiple long balls against Baltimore. The fact that New York is second in majors in homers with 210 isn’t surprising. What is surprising, however, is that the fifty-two against the Orioles’s accounts for about 25% of their season total. The next highest total is against Tampa Bay, who have served up 32 long balls to New York.
Of those fifty-two aforementioned long balls, 43 have come in Baltimore. During the 2019 season, the Orioles have hit 82 homers at home. That is to say the Yanks have over half of the amount of home runs at Oriole Park as the actual Orioles do.
The longest home run for New York in the Statcast history (since 2015), surprisingly enough, was against the Orioles. It came courtesy of a 495-foot moonshot off the bat of outfielder Aaron Judge in 2017.The long ball tied the second longest homer in Statcast history.
In contrast, the shortest homer the Yankees have hit against the Orioles this season actually came in New York’s record breaking game on August 7th. It was on a Kyle Higashioka 349-foot laser. The ball flies off of Yankee bats against Baltimore and find ways to leave the park no matter the distance.
Baltimore Pitching
David Hess has served up twenty-eight home runs in 2019. Moreover, thirteen have come against New York, with six different Yankees taking him deep.
Next on the list is Dan Straily. Straily, no longer an Oriole, has had six of the 22 long balls he’s surrendered come against the Yankees. All in all, Baltimore is 2-13 with a 7.70 ERA against New York. This season, the Orioles are 38-78 with a 5.91 ERA. In short, with as bad as the Baltimore staff has been, they’ve been worse against the Yankees.
More Homers Coming
The Orioles and Yankees have begun a four-game series to start the week in the Bronx. Without a doubt, there are more long balls on the way.
Main Photo: Embed from Getty Images
