BALTIMORE (AP) — Trevor Rogers threw six one-hit innings, and the Baltimore Orioles topped the Yankees 4-2 on Friday night, dealing New York a setback in its attempt to catch Toronto atop the AL East.
Ryan Mountcastle homered for the last-place Orioles, who improved to 12-5 in September. Rogers (9-2) continued his sensational partial season, lowering his ERA to 1.35 in 17 starts.
The Yankees, who entered the night three games behind the Blue Jays, had their three-game winning streak snapped. Toronto played at Kansas City Friday night.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. homered for New York to join the 30-30 club for the first time.
Rogers did not allow a hit until the sixth. He finished with seven strikeouts and two walks. It was his 15th straight start allowing two or fewer runs, the longest streak in the majors this year.
Mountcastle opened the scoring with a solo shot off Will Warren (8-8) in the second, and the Yankees made a pair of errors in Baltimore’s two-run sixth. Mountcastle’s sacrifice fly and Samuel Basallo’s RBI grounder made it 3-0.
After Rogers was removed with 106 pitches, Chisholm hit a two-run shot in the seventh, but Gunnar Henderson’s RBI double in the bottom of the inning made it 4-2.
Keegan Akin pitched the ninth for his eighth save.
Chisholm has exactly 30 homers and 30 steals on the year.
The Yankees put men on second and third in the eighth against reliever Rico Garcia, but Giancarlo Stanton hit a slow grounder to third to end the threat.
Rogers won’t qualify for the ERA title, but he currently has the fifth-best mark of the live ball era in a season with at least 100 innings pitched. The top four are Bob Gibson in 1968 (1.12 ERA), Ted Abernathy in 1967 (1.27), Red Munger in 1944 (1.34) and Bruce Sutter in 1977 (1.34).
Carlos Rodón (16-9) starts for the Yankees on Saturday night against Tomoyuki Sugano (10-8) of the Orioles.
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