Aaron Boone ejected as Orioles beat Yankees behind Matt Harvey

BALTIMORE — Deivi Garcia may not be quite ready to help these Yankees to the playoffs, but maybe in July Matt Harvey will be. The one-time dominant Mets ace, who is here to rehabilitate his career, held off Garcia and the Bombers for six innings Monday night.

The Orioles won 4-2 in what was Harvey’s best start in years.

The Yankees (9-13) have lost two straight. The Orioles (10-12) won their fourth straight at Camden Yards over the Yankees, who had an 18-game winning streak here snapped last September.

The Yankees had their chances in the eighth, but Aaron Judge tried to go from first to third on Gio Urshela’s RBI single and was thrown out as the Yankees were trying to close the gap.

“In that situation, I’ve gotta stay at second base and keep it rolling, especially if we got them on the hook like that,” Judge said. “In my eyes it was 100% that I got in there, but the replay probably says differently. But I got to play a little smarter baseball there.”

Aaron Boone was ejected after arguing with veteran home plate umpire Will Little, who ruled that DJ LeMahieu, the second run, did not cross the plate before Judge was thrown out.

Boone was angry that the umpires did not give him a chance to have the play reviewed. “It was too quick and I just felt like it was kind of bullying, frankly,” Boone said.

Harvey held them to one run on three hits and three walks. He struck out a season-high five over six innings. There was a time, not so long ago, that Yankees fans thought Harvey, who grew up a fan of the Bombers, would someday be leading this rotation in the Bronx.

After Tommy John and thoracic outlet surgery, Harvey’s dreams of being a New York star like Derek Jeter crashed and burned.

Now, he’s trying to rebuild himself out of those ashes with less velocity, but more pitching IQ. The Orioles are using veterans while they overhaul their system. If he continues to progress (and if teams feel he has matured from some of his off-field issues), Harvey, on a one-year deal, could be a deadline target for teams looking for solid starting pitching.

Giancarlo Stanton got a two-out double off him and Aaron Judge, celebrating his 29th birthday, drove him in with another double. That was it.

“A solid sinker for strikes... he was pounding the zone,” LeMahieu said of Harvey. “Thought his stuff was pretty good too.”

Monday, he got to audition for the Yankees, in case their pitching plans don’t turn around by the end of July.

“That’s probably the best I’ve felt in a couple years. Everything was working well,” Harvey told reporters. “I was able to throw strikes when I needed to, and guys made plays behind me. It was a good team effort.”

Garcia could grow into an answer for the Yankees pitching issues. He again flashed the “moxie” that Boone likes in the 21-year-old, rebounding after giving up a lead-off homer to Cedric Mullins on the second pitch he threw.

“Unfortunately, that fastball had a lot of run and I paid the price for it,” Garcia said. “After allowing that home run, I did not want it to let that affect me and affect the rest of the outing.”

Garcia allowed two runs on three hits. He walked three and struck out four over four innings.

Garcia came into spring training looking to win one of the five starting spots after a successful debut in 2020, when he was rushed into the big leagues during the abbreviated COVID-19 season because of injuries.

He may get another chance if the rotation behind Gerrit Cole doesn’t right itself. Corey Kluber has struggled with command coming back from missing most of the last two years. He takes a 5.40 ERA over four starts into Tuesday night’s game. Jameson Taillon has a 6.23 ERA over four starts and Domingo German has a 6.27 ERA in three. Jordan Montgomery with his 4.57 ERA over four starts has been their best option outside of Cole.

“Deivi I thought was pretty good,” Boone said. “Obviously gave up the homer in the first and had a little bit of traffic there. And I thought he did a really good job in that fourth inning when he got into trouble and made some pitches when he had to.

“He did his job and gave us a chance and set us up and we just couldn’t mount enough.”