SEATTLE_The kid that was deemed expendable by the New York Yankees led off with the double and the designated hitter that's still essentially playing on one leg drove him home.
Ben Gamel, who had already homered against his former team earlier in Saturday's game, led off the bottom of the 10th with a double to center. Following an intentional walk to Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz stroked a single into left field, allowing Gamel to race home to give the Mariners a 6-5 walkoff win over the New York Yankees before a season-high crowd of 46,197.
The mood of the sold-out crowd at Safeco Field was dire, well except for a noticeably vocal contingent of Yankee fans, when Edwin Diaz squandered Cano's go-ahead homer in the eighth by giving the run right back in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and up 1-2 on Ronald Torreyes, who singled home Jacoby Ellsbury with the tying run.
But Gamel, who never really fit into the Yankees outfield future and was acquired in a minor-league trade last August, continued to show he's going to be an every day player for the Mariners going forward.
Seattle did most of its damage in the third inning against Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka. The veteran right-hander came in to the game having allowed 24 homers on the season_third most in the majors. Seattle put him in the lead for most given up when the inning came to an end.
With Seattle down 1-0, Mike Zunino started the scoring, launching a solo homer into the Mariners bullpen to tie the score at 1-1. It was Zunino's 14th homer in 71 games this season. Two batters later, Gamel produced the same result, launching a solo blast into right field to give Seattle a 2-1 lead against his former team. It was the sixth homer of the year for Gamel. The Mariners picked up two more runs with two outs. Danny Valencia and Mitch Haniger delivered back-to-back singles to push the lead to 4-1.
Ariel Miranda gave the Mariners a decent if not lengthy performance. He worked 51/3 innings, giving up two runs on five hits with a walk and four strikeouts. After giving up a run in the second and then being given a lead, he allowed a run in the sixth.
With his command meandering and Miranda fortunate to have allowed more runs_aided by Kyle Seager's stellar defensive play at third base_manager Scott Servais went to his bullpen with one out in the sixth with Aaron Judge and a run of right-handed hitters coming to the plate. The move only partially worked. Judge crushed a misplaced sinker on a 2-2 count, launching a solo homer to right-center to shave the lead to 4-3. Steve Cishek got the next two right-handed hitters to end the frame.
Making his Mariners debut against his former team, right-hander David Phelps looked sharp pitching a scoreless seventh inning and getting the first out of the eighth. With lefty Brett Gardner coming to the plate, Servais went to his left-handed specialist Marc Rzepczynski. Gardner came in hitting just .175 against left-handers with a .311 slugging percentage, but his one hopper to short was just slow enough for him to be able to beat out the throw to first for an infield single.
Servais then turned to his best set-up man Nick Vincent, who hadn't allowed a run at home. Vincent gave up a double to Clint Frazier on his first pitch and Judge was intentionally walked to load the bases. The Yankees tied the score on Matt Holliday's sac fly to right field. Seattle escaped the inning tied when Mitch Haniger made a nice running catch on Gary Sanchez's low line drive to right field.
