BALTIMORE — Patience is the ultimate virtue for the Yankees.

These are the growing pains you knew were going to come in this season of transition as the Yankees blew a four-run lead and fell to the Orioles, 6-5, Friday night at Camden Yards.

It was cold and it was ugly.

With 27 world championships in their back pocket, this should be house-money simple. Remember, we are still at the part of the season in which players are wearing ski caps during batting practice.

The Yankees’ No. 2 hitter, Gary Sanchez, went into Friday’s freezer batting .071. Greg Bird, the No. 3 hitter, was perched at .083 and Aaron Judge, the third member of the Yankees’ trio of Baby Bombers, was hitting .167 in the No. 8 spot.

Sanchez delivered like it was the heat of August of last season in the fifth inning, lifting a moon-shot two-run home run to put the Yankees ahead, 5-1, but then everything fell apart.

Young Luis Severino couldn’t hold the big lead. Manny Machado blasted a three-run home run to get the Orioles back into the game in the fifth, 5-4, and a throwing error by Chase Headley in the seventh helped the Orioles take a 6-5 lead when Seth Smith lifted a two-run home run to right off Tyler Clippard.

On that Headley error, Bird whiffed on the one-hop throw. It was a difficult night for Bird, who struck out three times. Judge struck out twice.

Sanchez’s home run traveled 426 feet according to Statcast, with a 112-mph exit velocity and 32-degree launch angle.

I am not sold on batting Sanchez second in the order and hitting Bird third. The prevailing thought these days is you want to have your best hitter be in that two spot.

That makes sense — in Little League.

Here is what manager Joe Girardi said before the game when he was quizzed about Sanchez, who set the Yankees’ world on fire after coming up for the second time on Aug. 3 and wound up with 20 home runs over his first 51 games.

“I’ve seen good at-bats even though they haven’t necessarily gotten hits, I don’t see him just flailing away up there,’’ said Girardi, who himself was a hitter who flailed away. “That’s when you have confidence in guys if their at-bats are good. Now if the at bats aren’t good then you might be starting to worry a bit, he might be pressing too much.’’

Sanchez is not pressing, and that was obvious even before he hit his first home run of the season. He had his teammates oohing and ahhing during batting practice as he was driving shots off the top of the green batter’s eye in center field and deep into left.

This is a game in which patience must be used on a daily basis.

As a matter of fact, it was 25 years ago a young skipper took over managing the Yankees, and he did okay for himself: current Orioles manager Buck Showalter.

The worst thing the Yankees could do is panic with their Baby Bombers.

“I think you need to continue to show confidence in them because I do believe in them,’’ Girardi said. “I think these are talented young players that can really make a difference for this team.

“There are a lot of guys in baseball that have gotten off to slow starts but you are going to answer more questions when you are younger or when you are older, so it’s good to be somewhere in the middle.”

The Baby Bombers need time. Even if they continue to fail, they need the at-bats now to grow as hitters. This is a season of transition. Understand that.

The third spot is not the best spot for Bird right now. He could easily flip with Jacoby Ellsbury. Or just put Ellsbury in the two hole with Sanchez batting third.

For the Yankees, this is the time the Young Yankees have to make adjustments and they can’t do that in Triple-A. They need to figure it out up here. Patience is needed. It will pay off in the long run.