BALTIMORE — Will Warren bounced back well from a rough outing against the Red Sox his last time out.
But it was the bouncer that got through his legs in the sixth inning Friday night that will stick with him the most.
After a 4-2 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards, Warren was left ruing the play that he could not make, the first of back-to-back errors that cost the Yankees a pair of runs that proved to be the difference.
Warren had given up just one run through five innings when he jammed Jordan Westburg with a pitch to lead off the sixth inning.
It turned into a broken-bat comebacker to the mound that Warren bent over to field, only for the ball to bounce through his legs after appearing to take a tough bounce.
The bat shard flying his way was on his mind, Warren said, but he did not want to use that as an excuse, calling it “embarrassing” and “probably the worst play I’ve ever made in my life.”
“I mean, yeah, I looked up and the ball had spin on it,” Warren said. “But at the end of the day, I’ve caught ground balls a thousand times before, so I got to make that play.
“Definitely was a little hard on myself, especially not making that play. Basically gifted them a run. Jazz [Chisholm Jr.] gets the two-run bomb and it’s like, ‘Ugh, it would have been a tie game if I made that play.’”
Warren was coming off a rocky outing against the Red Sox last Sunday in which he got tagged for six runs in the first inning.
But the young right-hander bounced back respectably, giving up three runs (one earned) across 5 ¹/₃ innings. The only earned run came in the second inning, when Ryan Mountcastle took him deep for a 422-foot home run, marking the sixth straight game in which Warren has given up a home run.
After Max Fried picked up his 18th win of the season on Thursday night, Carlos Rodón will go for his 17th on Saturday.
Including Saturday, Rodón will have two more starts this season, giving him a chance to match Fried at 18 wins.
If he does, the two left-handers would become the first pair of Yankees starters to win 18 games in the same season since CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes did it in 2010.
The last pair of teammates to each win at least 18 games in a season were Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander on the 2019 Astros. In the expansion era (since 1961), there have been six pairs of Yankees teammates to hit that threshold in the same season.
Austin Slater got the start in left field against Orioles lefty Trevor Rogers, going 1-for-4 with three strikeouts. He is now 3-for-18 with 12 strikeouts as a Yankee.
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