NEW YORK -- Félix Bautista had another batter exactly where he wanted him. The Orioles’ closer again had dominant stuff, and he was ahead in the count, 0-2, with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was time for “The Mountain” to deploy one of the hardest pitches to hit in baseball.

Bautista reared back and unleashed an 87.8 mph splitter -- but the location was a mistake. Instead of dropping it in low and on the outside corner, the 6-foot-8 right-hander hung it directly over the middle of the plate.

The hitter wasn’t going to miss that mislocated offering, because it was Aaron Judge. The reigning American League Most Valuable Player Award winner -- who belted an AL-record 62 home runs last year -- sent the majority of the 40,652 fans at Yankee Stadium into a frenzy and helped send the Orioles to a disappointing loss.

Judge's blast tied the game before Anthony Volpe walked it off with a sacrifice fly in the 10th, and Baltimore dropped the series opener in the Bronx, 6-5. The Orioles, who have shown a knack for winning tight contests, fell to 9-6 in one-run games and lost despite holding a lead heading into the ninth for only the second time this year.

“We play so many close games,” manager Brandon Hyde said, “we’re bound to lose one once in a while that’s tight like that.”

Still, it’s an unusual sight these days. Even when Bautista has pitched himself into jams this season, he has typically found a way out of them. That’s how he converted 11 of his first 14 save opportunities and owns a 1.50 ERA in 24 innings over 23 appearances.

Bautista opened the ninth by striking out Gleyber Torres. After Judge’s homer, Bautista responded by getting both Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu to whiff for punchouts. It was only the one pitch to Judge that changed the mood of the night for Bautista and the Orioles.

“I think I did a good job of getting him in the hole pretty early on in that at-bat,” Bautista said via team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “Unfortunately, that pitch that I threw that he hit out of the ballpark, I didn’t execute it well.”

Bautista has thrown 399 splitters over 88 appearances in his first two big league seasons. Only three have been deposited over the fence for a homer, and two were sent there by Yankees sluggers -- Rizzo on May 16, 2022, and Judge. The other was hit by Brandon Drury (then with the Reds) on July 31, 2022.

Should Bautista have considered going with his other elite offering, a high-octane four-seam fastball, to try to put away the fearsome Judge? Hyde wasn’t going to second guess his reliable ninth-inning man.

“I mean, his split’s one of the hardest pitches to hit. He’s scuffling a little bit with it right now. He just hung it,” Hyde said. “Got a one-run lead going into the ninth, you take your chances with Bautista.”

Instead, Hyde pointed to some missed offensive opportunities for Baltimore, which tagged New York ace Gerrit Cole for five runs over five-plus innings. The Orioles jumped on the talented right-hander early, with Adam Frazier’s two-run double in the first, Cedric Mullins’ solo homer in the third and Gunnar Henderson’s solo shot in the fourth giving them a 4-0 lead.

But Baltimore left the bases loaded in the sixth, when Mullins flied out to the warning track in right field to end the inning. When the game went to extras, the Orioles couldn’t push across their automatic runner, with Anthony Santander, Ryan Mountcastle and Frazier going down in order.

“When you jump out to an early lead, you need to hold it,” said right-hander Kyle Bradish, who allowed four runs over five innings.

More often than not, the Orioles do, as they’ve thrived in tight, tense contests so far. They’re 31-17 (the second-best record in MLB), with only four of their first 48 games being decided by five or more runs.

However, the AL East is unforgiving. The five strong teams in the division will be beating up on each other this season (albeit not quite as often, due to the more balanced schedule). Despite coming off a three-game sweep at Toronto, Baltimore fell to 1-3 against New York this season.

With how well Tuesday’s game started, it easily could have ended in the Orioles’ favor, and it nearly did. They’re not always going to, though.

“That’s disappointing to lose that kind of game,” Hyde said. “But that’s a really good team over there.”