Aaron Judge Continues to Rake With Two Homers in Loss

Ramón Urías hit a tiebreaking homer in the sixth inning off Gerrit Cole and the Baltimore Orioles withstood Aaron Judge’s two home runs to beat the Yankees, 6-4, Monday night, sending New York to its season-high third straight loss.

“I thought we grinded out at-bats really well,” Baltimore Manager Brandon Hyde said. “Gerrit Cole’s got great stuff. He’s an ace. He’s an ace for a reason and to be able to put some runs up on the board against him, I’m proud of our hitters.”

Urías started Baltimore’s four-run third with a double down the left field line, then snapped a 4-all tie by lining an 0-1 fastball to the short porch in right field off Cole (4-1).

The Yankees, who began the day with the best record in the majors, are on their first three-game losing streak since dropping seven straight last September. Before getting swept in Sunday’s doubleheader to the White Sox and losing their second straight to the Orioles, the Yankees had won 24 of 29.

“Yesterday, tough doubleheader against a good team and we couldn’t pull anything out there. And tonight we got the offense going early and we’re playing against an Orioles team that scrapped out some runs, got some big time hits with guys on base,” Judge said.

Judge upped his major league-leading home run total to 17, five ahead of Houston slugger Yordan Alvarez and Angels star Mike Trout. Judge hit his 31st and 32nd career homers against Baltimore pitching when he connected in the first and fifth off Jordan Lyles (3-4).

It was Judge’s 20th career multi-homer game, fourth this season and seventh in his career against the Orioles.

Judge reached 20 multi-homer games in his 612th career game. Only Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner at more at this stage of his career when he had 24 multi-homer games through his first 612 games with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“It’s really special,” Manager Aaron Boone said. “I sometimes take it for granted but not right now. He’s a really special player and obviously really carrying us offensively.

Judge hit a solo homer six pitches in, sending a 1-1 offering into Baltimore’s bullpen in left-center. He then hit a tying, two-run homer in the fifth, two innings after Cole allowed four runs.

Cole entered the game with a 1.67 E.R.A. in his previous five outings and allowed a season-worst five runs and seven hits in eight innings. He struck out 11 for his 49th career double-digit strikeout game.

“It’s just a peculiar night,” Cole said. “I think that inning is just a little tough to digest.”

Cole also walked none, marking his 20th career double-digit strikeout game without a walk, the second-most in the majors since 2014.

“A weird night tonight with Gerrit,” Boone said. “He was really for the most part dominant.”

Lyles survived becoming the latest Baltimore pitcher to be taken deep by Judge and allowed four runs and five hits in 6 ⅔ innings. Félix Bautista followed Lyles’ season-high 117-pitch outing and struck out Giancarlo Stanton with two on after walking Judge.

It was most pitches by a Baltimore starter since Dylan Bundy threw 119 on May 17, 2019, against Cleveland.

Mets Beat Giants in a Laugher

SAN FRANCISCO — Buck Showalter believes in this Mets offense, especially if his players keep taking tough at-bats the way they did in the series opener against San Francisco.

Pete Alonso hit an early three-run homer moments after Francisco Lindor’s tying, two-run double, and the Mets kept slugging all night to rout the stumbling Giants, 13-3, on Monday.

“We were fortunate. We had a lot of not-very-firm-hit balls but that’s what happens when you fight to put the ball in play, some things like that can happen,” Showalter said after the manager celebrated his 66th birthday. “The guys continue to grind at-bats and good things happen. Keep the want-to going like these guys have. They just got into a real pass-the-baton thing.”

Jeff McNeil added a two-run homer in the eighth inning and Mark Canha followed with a solo drive in his return to the Bay Area after playing for the Oakland Athletics. That was the second time the Mets connected for back-to-back homers this year.

“A lot of fun, a lot of energy today — happy birthday to Buck,” McNeil said. “The team celebrated and it was a lot of fun. We started off a little slow out there, too, and were able to pick it up and get him a nice win on his birthday.”

Brandon Crawford put the Giants on the board first with a two-run homer in the second off lefty David Peterson (2-0), pitching in Max Scherzer’s place with the ace right-hander sidelined by an oblique strain.

“I love the way he responded after the homer. That was a good shot in the arm for him to get through six innings,” Showalter said.

J.D. Davis broke out of a slump with four hits for the N.L. East-leading Mets, who are in a grueling stretch with 16 games in 16 days. They won for the fifth time in six games, and were thrilled with sunny skies and warm San Francisco temperatures — at least until the late innings — after coming from a Colorado snowstorm.

Eduardo Escobar contributed a two-run double in the ninth as the Mets finished with 18 hits. Davis hit an R.B.I. double in the sixth and a run-scoring single in the ninth for New York (29-15), which set a season high for runs and moved a season-best 14 games over .500.

Alex Cobb (3-2) was tagged for 10 hits in his second straight start.

“He understands that there are some challenges right now. We’re not making as many plays as we can,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said.