Grisham's Two-Run Single Breaks Baltimore's Back in the Seventh

Trent Grisham went 2-for-4 with a home run and 3 RBI, doing all the damage New York needed in a 3-1 win over Baltimore on August 18. The story of the night was a single man dismantling a game that, through six innings, felt like it could go either way.

The third inning set the tone for everything that followed. Grisham opened the scoring with a 403-foot shot to right, giving New York a 1-0 lead. Baltimore answered almost immediately — Coby Mayo launched a 407-foot homer to left to knot it at 1-1, and just like that, Shane Baz had steadied the ship. For the next three innings, Baz was the best pitcher on the field. He finished with 10 strikeouts over 6.1 innings, allowing 3 earned runs on 4 hits — a performance that, on most nights, is good enough to win. It wasn't enough tonight.

Carlos Rodón gave New York four innings, allowing 1 earned run on 2 hits with 4 strikeouts before handing things off. Yerry De los Santos then covered 2 innings of 1-hit, scoreless ball to close it out. Baltimore's bullpen answer — Albert Suarez — was actually sharp: 2 innings, no hits, no runs, 2 strikeouts. But Suarez couldn't undo what happened in the seventh. With Jones and Lombard Jr. on base, Grisham singled to center, scoring both runners and pushing Caballero to third. Just like that, it was 3-1 New York. Baltimore's win probability collapsed from 45% to 17% on that single swing — a 28-point drop that effectively ended the game.

George Lombard Jr. went 2-for-4 and scored a run, and Spencer Jones went 1-for-4 with a run scored — both setting the table for Grisham's decisive hit. On the Baltimore side, Leody Taveras went 2-for-4 but never came around to score, and Pete Alonso went 1-for-4 with nothing to show for it. Mayo's homer looks like the lone bright spot in an offense that couldn't generate anything after the third inning. New York's bullpen held the line, Baltimore's bats went quiet, and Grisham made sure one swing of the bat in the seventh was all it took.