The Yankees exploded for six runs in the 10th inning, sparked by Ben Rice’s grand slam, to defeat the Baltimore Orioles 7-1 on Sunday afternoon and to keep pace two games back of the Toronto Blue Jays for the AL East lead.
With the game knotted at one apiece in the extra frame and Trent Grisham as the ghost runner on second, Aaron Judge walked and Cody Bellinger singled to load the bases. Orioles reliever Keegan Akin left a 95-mph four-seam fastball down the heart of the plate, middle-middle, and Rice jumped all over it, rocketing the grand slam 110-mph off the bat and 413 feet into the right-center-field seats.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with his 31st home run of the season before Anthony Volpe drove in Jose Caballero with a single.
While the Yankees (88-68) remain two games behind the Blue Jays, their AL East rival clinched a postseason berth with an 8-5 win over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.
Rice went 4-for-5 on his big day with five RBI in total. He accounted for the Yankees’ first run of the day in the top of the sixth inning when his single scored Grisham. It canceled out Samuel Basallo’s fifth-inning home run, which gave the Orioles a lead against starting pitcher Cam Schlittler.
The young Yankees’ right-hander allowed just three hits in 5.1 innings of work while striking out six and walking one. He lowered his ERA to 3.27 on the season. Yet his effort matched and then some by Baltimore’s Kyle Bradish, who has been brilliant since his recent return from Tommy John surgery.
The veteran righty went six innings, allowing just one run on two hits with nine strikeouts and two walks.
Baltimore loaded the bases in the seventh inning with two outs, but reliever Luke Weaver got Jackson Holliday grounded out to first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Just one half-inning later, it was the Yankees who squandered a bases-loaded chance when Caballero grounded out.
With six games left in the regular season, the Yankees return home to the Bronx for a cakewalk of a schedule, as they host the lowly Chicago White Sox before reuniting with the Orioles.
