SEATTLE — The Yankees have been incredibly rude guests during their stay at T-Mobile Park.
On Tuesday night, the visitors kicked off the series with eight runs in the first three innings on their way to a blowout win. On Wednesday, they jumped all over the Mariners’ representative for the upcoming All-Star Game, getting five runs in the first two innings off Yusei Kikuchi. The Yankees went on to win Wednesday night’s game by a score of 5-4, while getting a save from somebody not named Chapman.
During the early stages of the game, the massive scoreboard above the stadium’s center field bleachers showed a series of video tributes to Kyle Seager. The longest tenured Mariner by miles and miles, Seager was enjoying the 10-year anniversary of his MLB debut. He and the Mariners got their second L in two nights as a present.
The Yankees sent eight men to the plate in the first inning. For the second consecutive night, they had three runs on the board before their starting pitcher touched the rubber. Back-to-back, two-out singles from Luke Voit and Gleyber Torres did the trick, giving the visitors another sorely needed reason to cheer from the dugout.
They’d come back even louder in the second inning.
Aaron Judge has a history of wicked home runs in this ballpark. In 2017, Judge put the league on notice with a homer into T-Mobile Park’s second-to-last row. While he couldn’t quite match that distance on Wednesday, his upper deck home run immediately conjured memories of that indelible moment from his rookie season.
This one traveled 429 feet and gave his team a 5-1 lead. On a day when New York's planned starting pitcher — Domingo German — needed an emergency root canal and was scratched from the initial lineup, the Yankees put up some early runs for his understudy. He would need them.
Nick Nelson had to make his second start of the year after German’s dental procedure. He pitched like someone who was not expecting to start, walking three, hitting another and throwing a wild pitch, all without getting out of the first inning. Luckily for Nelson, he also did not allow a hit, and that held the Mariners to just one run in his shoddy spot start.
The second through fifth innings were smooth sailing for the Yankees and their four-run advantage. Luis Cessa settled things down with 3 1/3 shutout innings in relief of Nelson. Then German came in, apparently healed from the root canal he endured just hours before game time. He coughed up three runs on the Mariners’ biggest hit of the evening.
Catcher Tom Murphy, who was hitting .192 entering the game, turned on an inside pitch in the sixth inning and lined it just over the left field fence. That made the game much tighter at 5-4, and though Gio Urshela’s leadoff error that inning made German’s runs unearned, they counted all the same. With the Yankee bats going to sleep after the first two innings, the Mariners made the game interesting. Kikuchi threw clean innings in the fourth and fifth, handing the ball to Seattle’s band of improbably good relievers, which kept the Yankees dormant.
But Seattle’s offense couldn’t muster any more strength after Murphy’s homer. Jonathan Loaisiga came in for German (whose schedule start day ended up being three innings out of the bullpen) and he turned in yet another tough-as-nails performance in a high-leverage situation. Loaisiga got the Mariners' 2-3-4 hitters in order, preserving the slim lead with just three outs left to go.
When the bullpen door swung open in the bottom of the ninth, Aroldis Chapman’s imposing frame did not emerge, but rather Chad Green’s. It was a move that manager Aaron Boone had been hinting at for a while, and though Green ran the count full to each of his first two batters, he ultimately slammed the door on a victory without allowing a base runner.
This felt like the type of game the Yankees would have lost a week ago. They did not cave late in the game, though, or have an unseemly miscue turn a win into a loss. They beat the Mariners in a game that was in their control from the jump, and if they can do it again on Thursday afternoon, they’ll leave Seattle with a sweep.
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