BALTIMORE — For a team in dire need of a winning hand, the Yankees played their ace.
Gerrit Cole delivered before the fireworks began.
In the longest and best start of his abbreviated season, Cole looked close to his vintage form while tossing six strong innings to lead the Yankees past the Orioles, 4-1, on a steamy and tense Friday night at Camden Yards.
Before the night was over, the benches cleared in the bottom of the ninth, as tempers flared in the aftermath of Clay Holmes drilling Heston Kjerstad in the helmet on an 0-2, 97-mph sinker in the rain.
It was set off by Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, who was eventually ejected, charging toward the Yankees dugout in an argument with who appeared to be assistant hitting coach Casey Dykes.
After order was finally restored, Holmes recorded the final two outs to pull the Yankees (57-39) back within one game of the Orioles (57-37) for the lead atop the AL East — and improved to 3-5 against them this season — with two games remaining before the All-Star break.
With the Yankees rotation’s struggles at the heart of their losing 18 of the last 25 games entering Friday, Cole played the role of stopper.
On a night when the Yankees had a short bullpen after a taxing series against the Rays, the reigning AL Cy Young winner struck out seven and retired 13 of the final 15 batters he faced across a season-high 106 pitches.
The bottom of the Yankees’ lineup staked them to a 2-0 lead in the second inning before Aaron Judge crushed his 33rd home run of the year in the third to make it a 3-1 game.
Judge, who entered the night in a 4-for-31 mini-funk since hitting his last home run July 2, also drew four walks on a total of 17 pitches.
The Yankees entered Friday with a thin bullpen after it had to account for 12 ¹/₃ innings during the three-game series against the Rays in which none of Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman or Nestor Cortes completed the fifth inning.
Cole then needed 46 pitches just to get through the second inning.
But he turned on lockdown mode from there, cruising into the fifth inning when Cedric Mullins led off with a single and took second on Anthony Volpe’s throwing error.
Gleyber Torres kept Mullins from scoring on a ground ball up the middle that he made a sliding stop on and fired to first for the out.
Cole then froze Gunnar Henderson with a 98 mph fastball for a strikeout before getting Adley Rutschmann to pop out to end the threat.
In the sixth with a runner on first, Cole ended his night in style, leaping to nab a chopper off the bat of Kjerstad and tossing to first for the final out of the inning.
The Yankees’ bullpen followed by extending its strong week, as Tommy Kahnle, Luke Weaver and Holmes each tossed a scoreless inning to finish off the win.