BALTIMORE _ A triple crown of bad baserunning, bad defense and too little offense nearly did in the Yankees against the Orioles on Saturday night.
Until Clint Frazier saved them.
He failed to come through in a key spot in the sixth inning but more than made up for it in the eighth, crushing a game-changing three-run homer that sent the Yankees to a 6-4 victory in front of 27,504 at Camden Yards.
The Yankees (4-4), who also got two mammoth home runs from Aaron Judge, looked as if they might take an indescribable defeat as the eighth inning began.
Jonathan Holder, who had done a mostly good job after coming on for J.A. Happ with two on and one out in the fifth, started the bottom of the seventh by hitting Cedric Mullins on the foot. Jonathan Villar followed with a single and Aaron Boone brought in Adam Ottavino to face Joey Rickard.
In a move that had many of the crowd of 27,504 booing, except the sizable contingent of Yankees fans, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde sent up the left-handed-hitting Chris Davis to pinch hit. Davis, 0 for 17 with 11 strikeouts to start the season _ and 0 for 38 dating to last Sept. 14 _ managed to roll over an Ottavino pitch and chop it to first. Greg Bird bobbled it momentarily and then fired home but was too late to get the sliding Mullins. That tied it at 3.
After Trey Mancini, who homered off Happ in the first inning, popped out, Villar stole third. A sacrifice fly to center by pinch hitter Rio Ruiz gave the Orioles a 4-3 lead.
After Bird flied out against lefty Paul Fry to start the eighth, right-hander Miguel Castro came in to face Gary Sanchez, who flied to right. But Gleyber Torres walked for the second time and DJ LeMahieu singled for his third hit of the night to put runners at the corners.
That gave Frazier, who struck out as a pinch hitter with two on in the sixth, a second chance, and he delivered. With the count 2-and-2, Frazier pounced on a slider and rocketed it deep to left for his first homer of the season, making it 6-4 and sending more than a few from the Yankees' dugout onto the field in celebration. As the ball left Frazier's bat, Orioles catcher Pedro Severino ripped off his mask in disgust.
Ottavino departed with one on and two outs in the eighth, replaced by Chad Green, who hit Mullins. The right-hander got Villar to ground to second, but LeMahieu bobbled it before throwing to second, and the error loaded the bases (Mullins initially was called out but the call was overturned on a challenge). Davis came next and hit a ground smash to first, but Bird fielded it, ending the inning.
Aroldis Chapman earned the save with a scoreless ninth.
Judge, 0 for 5 with four strikeouts Thursday, entered the night without a home run this season but quickly changed that, driving a 2-and-2 fastball over the centerfield fence. He unloaded again with even more ferocity in the third, blasting a hanging full-count slider to even deeper center for a two-run blast that made it 3-1.
It was continued mastery of the Orioles, whom Judge has always enjoyed hitting against. Saturday marked his eighth career multi-homer game, with four of them coming against the O's. Judge entered Saturday hitting .315 in his career with a 1.103 OPS against the Orioles.
Happ, who lost to the Orioles in his first start of the season March 31, did not make it out of the fifth. He allowed two runs and five hits in 4 1/3 innings.
