NEW YORK _ When owner Hal Steinbrenner said earlier this month that it would be a "failure" if the Yankees didn't make the playoffs, is it possible he was thinking of the quality of the rest of the clubs in the AL wild-card race?
The Yankees beat Seattle on Sunday, 10-1, at Yankee Stadium. The Mariners, who began the day one-half game out of the second wild-card spot, committed five errors _ all of them in the Yankees' six-run first inning _ and dropped to one game over .500.
The Yankees, who improved to 70-59, started the day as the first wild card, with a 3 { -game cushion over the second wild card (Minnesota). The Yankees also trailed the Red Sox by 3 { games in the AL East.
Six teams, including the Mariners, started the day within three games of the Twins. Three of them are under .500.
The Yankees were more than happy to take advantage of the Mariners' miscues.
They scored six runs in the first. Five of them were unearned because of five Seattle errors, including three by shortstop Jean Segura, leading many, many, many, many clever people on Twitter to joke about this not being the Little League World Series game that was also held on Sunday.
The Mariners had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on three straight one-out hits, the last of which was Nelson Cruz's RBI double. It could have been worse, but starter Masahiro Tanaka struck out Kyle Seager with runners on second and third and got Mitch Haniger on a fly ball to center to end the inning.
The Yankees tied the score against left-hander Andrew Albers (2-1) on a one-out double by Starlin Castro (4-for-4, RBI) and Gary Sanchez's RBI single to left that was overrun by Ben Gamel for error No. 1, allowing Sanchez to reach second.
Aaron Judge walked before Didi Gregorius sent a pop-up to the triangle where the shortstop, left fielder and center fielder meet in left-center field. They met, but Segura missed the ball after calling off the outfielders, and it fell in for error No. 2 to load the bases.
Chase Headley grounded a potential inning-ending double play ball to third base, but Seager, uncertain about whether to tag third or throw to second, bobbled the ball for error No. 3 as the Yankees took a 2-1 lead.
Todd Frazier struck out for the second out. Jacoby Ellsbury, who drove in four runs with a single and three-run homer in the Yankees' 6-3 victory on Saturday, lined a double to left-center.
Two runs scored easily. As Headley reached third, Segura dropped the relay throw for error No. 4. Headley headed home, but the throw from Segura skipped past catcher Mike Zunino for error No. 5, allowing Headley to score to make it 5-1 and Ellsbury to take third.
That's five errors over the first eight batters. Ronald Torreyes followed with an infield single to score Ellsbury and give the Yankees a 6-1 lead.
Seattle almost picked up another error on Castro's leadoff grounder to third in the second. Seager threw high to first, but Castro may have beaten it out anyway, and the overworked official scorer credited Castro with a single.
In the third, the Yankees used three two-out singles, the last by Castro, to score a seventh run. Headley hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth to make it 8-1. Greg Bird added a pinch-hit, two-run single in the seventh.
Tanaka (10-10) went seven innings and allowed one run and six hits with one walk and 10 strikeouts.
