Yankees: Luke Voit, Orioles and extra-innings rule save Aaron Boone in Saturday’s win

The Yankees squeaked out a 2-1 win over the Orioles on Saturday, and it wasn’t pretty.

The New York Yankees secured the series win over the Baltimore Orioles with three straight victories. They head into Sunday looking for a four-game sweep to climb out of the 12-foot grave they dug themselves over the past few weeks.

The 2-1 triumph over the Orioles on Saturday does feel great, but so many things went wrong. The Bombers got lucky. All in all, Luke Voit once again came through, cranking a sac fly to deep center field in the bottom of the 10th to finish the job.

And the truth is the Yankees needed A LOT more help that that.

Don’t know what happened in between? We’ll fill ya in!

The defense was atrocious. New York committed three errors on the day, with the most glaring coming from Brett Gardner in the top of the sixth. He took a nice angle on a single that was hit to left-center, but botched it, allowing the runner to advance to second. That runner then went to third on a flyout and later came home when the infield was in, forcing Thairo Estrada to attempt an over-the-shoulder catch on a shallow pop-up (though he could’ve probably made a better play on it).

Despite just being 72 pitches in, starter Jordan Montgomery was removed from the game after manager Aaron Boone made a puzzling decision to take him out. We get that the bullpen was rested, but let the guy get out of the frame with one out left instead of tasking a reliever with split-inning duty! None of this was his fault!

Chad Green came in to shut it down for 1.1 innings and then Boone went to … Zack Britton? Why not save your best reliever for the ninth? Why not go to Adam Ottavino? He hasn’t pitched since Sept. 7. If he can’t mow down the O’s, well, then we have a REAL problem. That’ll give you the chance to have Aroldis Chapman for the 10th inning in the event the game goes to extras (it did). Eh, maybe that was a good idea after all?

Whatever the case, guys like Ottavino and Clarke Schmidt could use a bounce-back outing against a struggling team like the O’s, right? Well, the O’s were indeed struggling because they did much of nothing. Boone was perhaps smart more not taking any chances, but in hindsight he probably could’ve afforded to.

…Because then he was forced to use Jonathan Holder in the top of the 10th with the new extra-innings rule. Holder got out of it (impressively, yet unexpectedly!) and the Yanks walked it off in the bottom half. Thank goodness.

The Orioles’ ineptitude on offense (four hits on the day), a passed ball in the bottom of the 10th, and Voit’s hot bat saved Boone from another slew of awful headlines. We’re thankful for it, but it’s important to note it all could’ve been a lot worse. In the end, Boone didn’t want to take a single chance to give the O’s an opportunity, and it paid off. A win is a win.

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