As Yankees celebrate, Orioles know they have work to do

NEW YORK–What happened? In winning two of three games against the New York Yankees, the Orioles achieved one goal, securing a playoff spot on Tuesday night, but fell short of another when the Yankees clinched the American League East on Thursday night.

Manager Brandon Hyde is preparing the Orioles for the wild-card series that begins next Tuesday, and he limited his top starter, Corbin Burnes, to five innings and 69 pitches.

Burnes allowed one run in five innings, but the Orioles’ bullpen gave up nine runs—six in a disastrous sixth inning—in a 10-1 loss.

Hyde wanted to win but was looking ahead in limiting Burnes’ pitch count.

“Very, very tough, but that was something that was collaborative,” Hyde said of the decision. “Once we clinch … and he’s gonna be on regular rest going into that first game of the wild-card and he hasn’t been on regular rest for a while. And just with the amount of innings he’s pitched and the amount of starts he’s made, we just shortened him up a little bit tonight.”

The Orioles had just two hits in 6 2/3 innings against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. He and Burnes put on a show in an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel for five impressive innings.

Kansas City and Detroit both won on Thursday, and the Orioles need a win in the three-game series at Minnesota or a Tigers loss in their series against the Chicago White Sox, who’ve already tied the modern-day record with 120 losses this weekend to host the wild-card series that begins on Tuesday.

How did Burnes feel about the decision? Burnes had allowed just five hits in 14 scoreless innings in his last two starts against Detroit. Giancarlo Stanton homered in the second inning.

In five innings, Burnes allowed a run on two hits, struck out nine and walked one.

“You’re out there throwing the ball well and you’ve kind of got to look at the bigger picture,” Burnes said. “You know that we’ve got a lot of important games coming up here next week. So we talked about it, put the plan of kind of going five [innings] and 75 [pitches] in that range, and getting work in and getting prepared for the postseason.

“When you’re throwing the ball that well, everything feels pretty good, you feel like you can throw every inning and just keep going. Kind of good final tuneup there and ready for the postseason.”

Burnes ends the regular season with a 15-9 record and a 2.92 ERA.

“I’m just really proud of coming in and, obviously being a brand-new group, adjusting to it pretty quickly and having a good year,” he said. “Overall, the consistency was very good. That’s kind of my goal coming in, is make sure I’m available to go every five days, go out there and be as consistent as I can and outside of two pretty bad ones there in August,it was a really good season. So, definitely proud of it, and looking to keep building off it here in the postseason.”

Burnes had a difficult August with a 7.36 ERA but rebounded sharply.

“Once we kind of made those few changes at the beginning of the month, everything kind of lined up the way we wanted it to,” he said. “Back to commanding the cutter really well, and breaking pitches off of it. I think it showed kind of the last three outings of where we want to be at and where we should be going into the postseason, so we’re in a good spot.”

What if the Orioles play the Yankees in the Division Series? The Orioles will have to win the wild-card series in order to face the Yankees, whom they last saw in the postseason in 2012, when they lost a tough five-game Division Series.

“Yeah, we’re going to face them again,” Burnes said. “That’s the only way I think we’re going to get to move on is have to go through them. So, we played better baseball here this week.

“We’re going to go play another tough team in Minnesota looking to get in the postseason, so it’s a good final tuneup for us, but it’s in front of us. We’ve just got to go out and play our baseball. We played great against these guys in the regular season so there’s no reason why we can’t in the postseason.”

Hyde knows how formidable the Yankees are, and he used 15 relievers in this series.

“Whenever you win the first two, it’s disappointing not to win the third and we emptied our bullpen the last two nights, a lot of guys who are on fumes, and we still have important games to play,” Hyde said. “Fortunately, I was able to keep away from a few bullpen guys. That’s the one positive, but not many positives tonight.”

An Orioles-Yankees series would be compelling, but first the Orioles need to win the wild-card.

“It’s a good team over there,” he said. “They played better than us the second half. We’re excited to be in the playoffs. We need to better our position. We still have some work to do. But give them credit for playing well.”

What does it mean? The Orioles still need one more win or a Tigers loss for the home-field advantage next week. Until they do that, they can’t completely prepare for the postseason.

What’s the word? “He was lights-out, lights-out tonight. Stanton, that was it. He feels good going into the playoffs and that was the most important thing.”-Hyde on Burnes’ performance.

What’s the stat of the day? 8-5. The Orioles beat the Yankees in eight of 13 meetings. It was their second straight season series win over New York. They went 7-6 in 2023.

What’s next? The Orioles open their final series of the regular season at Minnesota on Friday night. Cade Povich (2-9, 5.59) will facesPablo López (15-9, 4.11). Game time is 8:10 p.m.