Rough final start for Rogers in Orioles’ 8-4 loss to Yankees

NEW YORK–What happened? It’s been an outstanding season for Trevor Rogers. The Orioles’ 27-year-old left-hander has reenergized his career and kept his team competitive in almost all of his starts.

On Friday night, three days after being voted Most Valuable Oriole, Rogers had a rough end to an outstanding 2025 season, allowing three two-run home runs as the Orioles lost to the New York Yankees, 8-4, before 44,596 at Yankee Stadium.

Rogers (9-3) allowed two or fewer runs in 15 straight starts, the longest streak since Félix Hernández did that in 17 straight starts in 2014. Only in his second start of the season had he allowed more.

In his first 17 starts, Rogers gave up three home runs. Two home runs by Giancarlo Stanton and one by Aaron Judge doubled that total.

Last Friday, Rogers pitched six shutout innings against New York in Baltimore, allowing just one hit.

Rogers was lifted after three innings and 52 pitches. Stanton’s first home run came in the first, and his second came in the fourth, two batters after Judge smashed his 52^nd homer.

“Just didn’t have his best stuff tonight, strangely,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “Out of all the starts, it kind of turned out to be the last one where the best stuff didn’t show up right there. He obviously got through the third inning. The way they were handling him, being as good as he’s been for us all year, we didn’t feel like we wanted to kind of expose him to more of that at this point.

“He’s just been so good and we felt like it was wise to pull him right there and kind of take care of him. Felt like it was the right thing to do.”

Rogers walked three batters, and each scored on the home runs.

“Really, stuff just wasn’t crisp tonight,” he said. “Tried to rear back and give it a little something extra, and just the life wasn’t there tonight. Just one of those nights.

“It’s really, really difficult to face a team twice back-to-back starts, and they made a good adjustment. There were some calls that just didn’t go my way, and they made really good swings on bad pitches on my part. Just tip your cap. Not the way I wanted the season to end but use it as motivation for the offseason.”

Stanton has 22 home runs and 452 in his career, tying Carl Yastrzemski for 40^th place on the all-time list.

Jordan Westburg hit a three-run home run, his 16^th, in the top of the third against New York starter Will Warren (9-8).

Dylan Beavers fouled a ball off his right shin in a fourth inning at-bat and left the game after the inning. Mansolino said X-rays were negative and Beavers should be able to play on Saturday.

Gunnar Henderson stole his 30^th base in the third inning. He’s the 26^th Oriole—and the youngest to do it.

Tyler O’Neill hit his ninth home run against Warren in the sixth.

The Orioles walked four times in the sixth and seventh, but left the bases loaded in the sixth and two runners on in the seventh.

New York (92-68) took a 7-4 lead in the sixth on an RBI single by Anthony Volpe. Stanton drove in the eighth run in the seventh on an infield out.

The Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays, who beat Tampa Bay, 4-2, are tied for the American League East lead, but Toronto holds the tiebreaker. If the  Orioles (75-85) and Blue Jays both win on Saturday, Toronto wins the division and the Yankees are a wild-card qualifier.

The Orioles are now guaranteed a fifth-place finish in the AL East.

What does it mean? Though Rogers ends his season on a down note, he had an outstanding run and leaves the team excited about a full 2026 with him.

What’s the stat of the day? Rogers ends the season with a 1.81 ERA.

What’s the word?  “Keep doing what I’m doing, but it’s starts like tonight that get me better, and I finally realized that instead of kicking myself over such a bad start, learn from it … and I’ll be able to get better from this and help this team come next year.”-Rogers on what improvements he can make in 2026. 

What’s next? Tomoyuki Sugano (10-9, 4.54) will face Cam Schlittler (3-3, 3.27) on Saturday at 1:05 p.m.

Most weekdays, I’ll be answering at least one Orioles question. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com