Orioles beat Yankees, 7-2, to take series as Jorge Mateo and Ryan McKenna homer in Kyle Bradish’s return

BALTIMORE — The Orioles lead the major leagues in home runs thanks to their best hitters.

Baltimore’s eight hitters with the most at-bats all have four or more homers. Gunnar Henderson blasted 10 before May 1. Cedric Mullins and Colton Cowser both have six. In 31 games, the Orioles have hit 48 homers — seven more than any other club.

However, Thursday afternoon against the New York Yankees, it was the Orioles’ two least likely power hitters who backed Kyle Bradish in his return and powered Baltimore to a 7-2 victory. Jorge Mateo and Ryan McKenna, two bench players who entered Thursday with homers in only 1.8% of their career plate appearances, both went deep to help build an early lead for Bradish.

Bradish, the Orioles’ ace last season, started his first game of 2024 after missing the first five weeks with an elbow injury. While he only went 4 2/3 innings, throwing 84 pitches, the right-hander looked like the pitcher he was in 2023 when he finished fourth in American League Cy Young Award voting. Bradish surrendered only one run and struck out five but was one out shy of earning the win.

Baltimore is 20-11 and reclaims sole possession of first place in the AL East with the win over New York (20-13) in front of an announced 27,299 at Camden Yards. The Orioles are a half-game behind the Cleveland Guardians, who play Thursday night, for the AL’s top spot.

Solo homers from Mateo, McKenna and Ryan Mountcastle, who unlike the first two is accustomed to clobbering long balls, put the Orioles up 3-1 in the fourth inning against Yankees left-hander Carlos Rodón. Thursday marked the first time McKenna and Mateo homered in the same game since they became teammates in 2021, although they went deep in both ends of a doubleheader last season.

McKenna, who rejoined the Orioles last week in top prospect Jackson Holliday’s place, entered Thursday with just six home runs in 509 plate appearances. Mateo, who almost exclusively plays against lefties, hadn’t homered over the fence since April 30, 2023, when he began last campaign scorching hot before slumping the rest of the way. The probability of McKenna and Mateo hitting home runs in the same inning — using solely their career home run rates — is .024%.

After the offense added four more runs in the fifth, Baltimore’s bullpen kept the Bronx Bombers at bay. Keegan Akin (1-0), Danny Coulombe, Jacob Webb and Cionel Pérez combined to pitch 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball.

Baltimore has not lost a series against an AL East opponent since late April 2023, going 12-0-4 in them during that streak. In that span, the Orioles are 37-17 against the AL East, including 6-1 this season.

Bradish is back

Bradish’s final line might not look stellar, but he looked so.

From the moment he hopped over the foul line, tapped his glove and toed the rubber at Camden Yards for the first time this year, Bradish looked like Bradish.

He struck out leadoff hitter Anthony Volpe on three pitches. He escaped jams, got swings and misses and didn’t allow many hard-hit balls against a feared Yankees lineup. His fastball averaged 95 mph and touched 97 mph — the same velocity he sported last season. He threw his elite slider 38% of the time with slightly better spin than last year.

Earlier this spring, it was unclear if Bradish — or, at least, this version of Bradish — would pitch for the Orioles this season. In the offseason, he sprained the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow — technically a partial tear — and received platelet-rich plasma injections to aid his recovery. Any injury to the UCL, the ligament for which Tommy John elbow reconstruction repairs, is a scary sign for a pitcher, and there’s no way to know how long Bradish (or any pitcher, for that matter) will be healthy.

But, for Thursday at least, Bradish gave Baltimore a boost. It was much needed after the rotation lost Grayson Rodriguez to the 15-day injured list with shoulder inflammation, the severity of which is unknown.

Around the horn

— Manager Brandon Hyde said the club hopes injured outfielder Austin Hays begins his minor league rehabilitation assignment soon. Hays, who was placed on the 10-day injured list April 21 with a calf strain, ran on the field and took batting practice before Thursday’s game. It was the first time Hays was seen doing baseball activities since his injury.

— Hyde said Tyler Wells played catch Wednesday for what is believed to be the first time the 6-foot-8 right-hander has done so since being placed on the 15-day IL with elbow inflammation in mid-April.

— The Orioles announced their starting pitchers for their three-game series in Cincinnati, with Cole Irvin, John Means and Dean Kremer taking the ball Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.