Bellinger goes 4 for 4 with two homers, Yankees beat Orioles 9-4

Cody Bellinger turned a tight divisional game into a broader statement about the Yankees’ October ceiling, going 4 for 4 with two homers and four RBIs in a 9-4 win over the Orioles at Yankee Stadium. New York won for the 12th time in 14 games, moving to 22-11, 11 games over .500 and alone atop the American League at that point.

Bellinger supplied the game’s most complete offensive line. He opened the scoring with a solo homer off Kyle Bradish in the second inning, then added an RBI double in the third before crushing another solo shot off Keegan Akin in the fifth. He finished it with an RBI single in the seventh, a four-hit afternoon that made his power surge look less like a streak and more like a central piece of the Yankees’ attack.

The two-homer game was Bellinger’s 21st of his career, his second this season and his fourth since joining the Yankees. That matters because New York did not need a one-man rescue. Pete Alonso and Trent Grisham also homered, giving the Yankees enough thump to keep Baltimore from ever seriously narrowing the gap after Bellinger’s fifth-inning blast pushed the margin further open.

For a club trying to build separation in a competitive American League, the deeper significance is how the lineup has started to travel. The Yankees are winning with a combination of power, athleticism and enough production throughout the order to punish mistakes for nine innings. When Bellinger is driving the ball to both gaps and into the seats, New York’s offense looks less vulnerable to cold stretches from any one bat and more capable of sustaining runs over a long season.

Bellinger said, “I love where we are as a team,” and added that the Yankees are “very athletic.” The box score backed up the sentiment. With Bellinger in this kind of form and Alonso and Grisham contributing behind him, New York’s offensive ceiling rises from dangerous to difficult to contain, a distinction that can matter when the standings tighten and the race for playoff position starts to harden.