NEW YORK _ On the one-year anniversary of the Mariners' last no-hitter, which was thrown by James Paxton in Toronto, another left-handed Seattle starter flirted with such a magical possibility.
Rookie Yusei Kikuchi, pitching for the first time in Yankee Stadium, seemed totally comfortable in what purports to be an intimidating setting. Using a balanced mix of his three best pitches _ fastball, curveball and slider _ he efficiently worked his way through the Yankees lineup, delivering a second straight stellar performance and leading the Mariners to a 10-1 win Wednesday.
After throwing seven innings and allowing one run on three hits with 10 strikeouts in his previous outing in Cleveland, Kikuchi pitched a season-high 7 2/3 innings, allowing just one run on three hits with a walk and three strikeouts to improve to 2-1.
The Mariners (20-19) provided plenty of run support for him, banging out 14 hits, including solo home runs from Mitch Haniger and Edwin Encarnacion and a two-run homer from Ryon Healy, who also had a career-high three doubles on the night.
With Paxton now a Yankee and watching in the dugout, Kikuchi carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning.
After walking the first batter of the game, a less than ideal scenario, Kikuchi retired 16 straight batters with relative ease. In five innings pitched, he threw just 59 pitches with a pair of strikeouts.
But the no-hit bid ended with one out in the sixth inning with Seattle leading 5-0. Kikuchi elevated a 0-2 fastball to No. 9 hitter Mike Tauchman, who took a defensive swing and produced a broken bat bloop over Healy's head at third base and into shallow left field. D.J. LeMahieu followed with a single. With runners on the corners, the Yankees got their only run off Kikuchi when Luke Voit hit a deep sac fly to right field. Kikuchi came back to strike out Clint Frazier looking to end the inning.
With his pitch count under control, Kikuchi worked a 1-2-3 seventh inning and started the eighth with the Mariners leading 7-1. He retired the first two batters, but gave up another bloop single to Tauchman that ended his night.
Having thrown a season-high 106 pitches and the top of the order coming up to face him a fourth time, manager Scott Servais went to the bullpen. Right-hander Cory Gearrin gave up a single to LeMahieu, but struck out Voit to end the eighth.
The Mariners scored four runs in four innings off Yankees spot starter Jonathan Loasiga, who was starting in place of the injured Paxton. It was highlighted by Haniger's third-inning solo homer and a two-run fourth inning on an RBI double from Dylan Moore and an RBI single from Dee Gordon.
Seattle poured it on against the Yankees' bullpen.
Encarnacion whacked his fourth homer in his past five games in the fifth inning _ a solo shot into the left field seats that made it 5-0. He now has a team-high 12 homers on the season.
Healy crushed a two-run homer to right field in the eighth inning, while Domingo Santana's RBI double and Omar Narvaez's two-run single tacked on three more in the ninth.
