NO JUDGE, NO EXCUSES: YANKEES FIND ANOTHER WAY TO WIN IN BALTIMORE

BALTIMORE — The New York Yankees did not have Aaron Judge in their lineup Wednesday night.

They did not have a comfortable starting pitching performance.

They did not even get the benefit of one of the longest balls Pete Alonso hit all evening.

What they had was enough.

And at this stage of the season, enough can be everything.

The Yankees defeated the Baltimore Orioles 5–3 at Camden Yards, winning their third consecutive game and securing both the series and their season series against Baltimore.

It was not a masterpiece. It was something potentially more useful for a club trying to build momentum late in August.

It was resourceful.

Baltimore struck first with an aggressive delayed double steal in the opening inning, but New York answered quickly.

Ben Rice provided the loudest response.

Rice crushed a solo home run to right center in the second inning, his 34th of the season, continuing an offensive year that has transformed him from an interesting young hitter into one of the most consequential bats in the Yankees lineup.

The home run mattered beyond the scoreboard.

With Judge unavailable, New York needed power from somewhere else.

Rice supplied it.

Then Pete Alonso joined him.

Alonso launched his 29th homer of the season in the fourth, giving New York another piece of offense in a game that repeatedly threatened to swing toward Baltimore.

The Orioles refused to disappear.

Dylan Beavers homered, and Baltimore eventually tied the game 3–3 in the sixth.

That set up the strangest sequence of the evening.

Alonso stepped to the plate in the seventh and sent a towering drive down the left-field line that initially appeared to be his second home run.

The call was changed to foul.

Replay review followed.

The foul ruling stood.

Alonso eventually struck out.

For a team playing an important divisional road game without Judge, it would have been easy for frustration to become the defining emotion.

Instead, the Yankees answered with something far less glamorous than a home run.

They manufactured chaos.

In the eighth, Baltimore’s Cam Sanders hit two batters and issued a walk. George Lombard Jr. then hit a slow ground ball and used his speed to beat the play for an infield single, bringing home the run that broke the 3–3 tie.

It was not majestic.

It was not Rice sending a baseball deep into the seats.

It was simply winning baseball.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. later came home on a wild pitch, giving New York a 5–3 advantage.

Then the bullpen finished the job.

Paul Blackburn and David Bednar helped close down Baltimore and preserve a victory that looked considerably easier in the final score than it felt while unfolding.

That may be the most important takeaway.

The Yankees have spent years existing under the enormous gravitational pull of Judge. That is inevitable when one player possesses his combination of power, production and presence.

But championship caliber teams eventually encounter nights when their best player cannot solve the problem.

Sometimes he cannot play at all.

Wednesday was one of those nights.

Rice provided power.

Alonso provided power and survived frustration.

Lombard provided speed.

Chisholm created pressure.

The bullpen provided outs.

Nobody replaced Judge because nobody can.

Instead, the Yankees replaced his missing production collectively.

That is different.

And potentially more encouraging.

New York’s current three-game winning streak began after a difficult stretch, and the first two victories in Baltimore have shown different ways this roster can survive.

Tuesday belonged largely to Trent Grisham, who drove in all three Yankees runs in a 3–1 victory while Carlos Rodón returned from the injured list and worked four solid innings.

Wednesday required a committee.

That is what good teams eventually need.

October baseball rarely provides ideal circumstances. A starter gets knocked out early. A superstar goes cold. A replay decision goes against you. Somebody who was never supposed to become the headline suddenly gets an at-bat with the game sitting on it.

Lombard’s eighth-inning single was that kind of moment.

Rice’s home run was the kind fans remember.

Lombard’s grounder was the kind teams remember.

Now New York has secured the series.

There is still another game to play, another opportunity to keep building momentum and another reminder that nothing in August guarantees anything in October.

But Wednesday revealed something useful about these Yankees.

Take away their biggest star.

Take away a potential home run.

Give Baltimore opportunities.

They can still find another route.

The newspaper-style image circulating after the victory carries an old Yankees phrase: “Start spreading the news.”

Wednesday’s news was fairly simple.

The Yankees won.

The series belongs to them.

And they did not need Aaron Judge to save them.