BALTIMORE — There are losses. There are bad losses. Then there is what happened to the Yankees on Tuesday night at Camden Yards.
One out away from beating the Orioles, Dellin Betances gave up a game-winning two-run homer to Manny Machado in the bottom of the ninth that carried the O’s past the Yankees, 7-6, in front of a meager gathering of 14,377.
Betances entered the game to start the ninth with a one-run lead after exceptional relief work by Tommy Kahnle, David Robertson and Aroldis Chapman.
Betances retired Welington Castillo and pinch-hitter Pedro Alvarez for the first two outs in the ninth before walking Tim Beckham on a 3-1 pitch he thought was a strike to bring up Machado.
Two pitches later, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner watched the ball vanish over the left-center-field fence for Machado’s second homer and a gut-wrenching defeat that was delayed at the start for 2 hours and 14 minutes by rain.
The loss stopped the Yankees’ three-game winning streak and, coupled with the AL East-leading Red Sox beating the Blue Jays in 19 innings, dropped the Yankees 3½ games back.
“I was trying to go breaking ball and it didn’t do much,’’ said Betances, who has three blown saves in 13 chances. “Obviously he is a good hitter and hit the ball really well. When you leave a pitch to a guy like that, they usually do what he did tonight.’’
The Yankees played a second straight game without suspended catcher Gary Sanchez, whose sentence has one game remaining.
Thanks to Kahnle, Robertson and Chapman retiring nine of the 10 batters they faced after Kahnle took over for CC Sabathia, the Yankees turned a 6-5 lead over to Betances.
“I thought it was a strike,’’ Betances said of the 3-1 pitch to Beckham. “It is what it is. I have to turn the page and get the next guy and I wasn’t able to do that.’’
Had the tragic pitch to Machado been better, Betances said, the focus would not have been on him not throwing his fastball that reaches triple digits.
“I didn’t throw many tonight,’’ said Betances, who wasn’t shaking off catcher Austin Romine. “I probably should have [thrown] a little more. I guess it wasn’t my night.’’
Six runs in the third inning when Orioles center fielder Adam Jones helped by dropping a routine fly ball by Greg Bird erased an early 1-0 deficit, but the Orioles used home runs by Machado, Jonathan Schoop and Mark Trumbo to cut the deficit to 6-5 in the sixth when Sabathia exited.
“One of those nights when we made mistakes, they didn’t miss them,’’ said Sabathia, who gave up five runs and eight hits in 5 ¹/₃ innings. “It’s always a tough loss when you get walked off anytime.’’
The Yankees had scoring chances in the fourth and eighth and failed to pad the lead.
“Unfortunately weren’t able to add on,’’ manager Joe Girardi said.
And it led to what ranks high among the list of terrible losses this season.
“The 3-1 pitch was a good pitch to Beckham and Manny makes us pay,’’ Girardi said of Machado, who is hitting .389 (35-for-90) with 11 homers in his last 21 games. “Manny is swinging as well as anyone in the league. Machado is a guy you know can change the complexion of the game with one swing, but I still have a ton of confidence in Dellin, his stuff and his ability. He just hung one.’’
And paid the ultimate baseball price.