Terrible Anthony Volpe error costs Yankees, overshadows Aaron Judge in loss to O's

In the first inning of Wednesday's series finale between the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles, Aaron Judge belted a two-run homer to dead center field. He will end the month of April batting a ridiculous .427.

Unfortunately, the Yankees couldn't hold the lead and are only 18-13 after going 5-5 in their first 10 series of the year. And the last few have ended in particularly disappointing fashion.

They blew last Friday's game to the Toronto Blue Jays in what should've been a sweep. They squandered a very good Will Warren start against the Cleveland Guardians to lose that series. They had an all-time meltdown against the Tampa Bay Rays to prevent a clean 4-0 sweep in their favor. And they lost series pretty decisively to good teams in the Diamondbacks, Tigers and Giants.

Then you have tonight, where Anthony Volpe made an unacceptable error to gift the Orioles a series win. Fans don't enjoy getting on the kid's case, especially when he also makes plays like this, but man, this was a double play. Tim Hill did exactly what he needed to do.

Anthony Volpe error costs Yankees in series loss to Orioles

It didn't help the umpire was waffling around trying to get out of the way, but that should be a play Volpe makes in his sleep. The next batter hit a dribbler to second base and Pablo Reyes was only able to get one out, which allowed the O's to tack on an insurance run. That eventually decided the game in what was a 5-4 victory for Baltimore.

In addition to contributing the 426-foot bomb, Judge battled in the seventh to notch an RBI single to bring the Yankees within one. He then advanced to second on a pickoff attempt error. The next batter, Ben Rice, absolutely crushed a ball to right field, but Heston Kjerstad (who caused the benches to clear earlier in the game) tracked it down in the corner on the warning track for the final out.

In the top of the eighth, Volpe led off with a walk, but Austin Wells, Cody Bellinger and Jasson Dominguez went down in order.

It was an ugly night for Carlos Carrasco as well, who surrendered four earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. He left way too many balls up in the zone, which explains the eight hits (and two homers) he allowed. But hey, there's a day off on Thursday and Devin Williams got another meaningful inning of work in.

Gotta look at the bright side every time there's something perfectly reasonable to be angry about, right?