A night prior, the Yankees wrote off the loss as a function of a volatile sport. Seattle’s tappers and bloops found holes against Clay Holmes, who coughed up a lead and a game.
It was the kind of defeat that comes naturally in baseball.
On Tuesday, there was little incidental or accidental.
The Mariners played like a team that the Yankees could have to reckon with at some point this year.
Bryan Woo & Co. let up just five hits in a stingy performance that was backed by four Mariners home runs in a 6-3 Yankees loss in front of 31,257 in The Bronx.
After winning seven straight, the Yankees (33-17) have dropped the first two games of a four-game set against the AL West leaders, whose pitching especially has impressed.
Aaron Boone’s bunch has lost consecutive games for the first time since April 29-30.
The Yankees registered three hits after the fourth inning, the largest a three-run home run by Gleyber Torres that brought them within one run in the seventh inning.
It was a nice moment for Torres, who has begun to show life at the plate, but it was one that ultimately did not matter.
The Mariners got one run back in the eighth inning, when Luke Raley rudely welcomed recent call-up Clayton Andrews with a first-pitch home run, and another in the ninth, when Dylan Moore launched his second homer of the night, this one against Nick Burdi.
In the eighth, the Yankees brought up Juan Soto and Aaron Judge as the potential tying runs, but both were retired.
Jose Trevino and Torres reached against closer Andres Munoz in the ninth, but potential-tying-run Oswaldo Cabrera struck out to end it.
The Mariners (27-22) had built their lead against Clarke Schmidt, who was merely OK and snapped a streak of eight consecutive quality starts by Yankees starters.
The righty allowed two runs on four hits and two walks while striking out six in five innings.
Three of those base runners and both of those runs occurred in a 30-pitch third inning that became Schmidt’s undoing.
In that frame, Josh Rojas doubled before Moore cracked a full-count cutter to left for a dinger and a two-run edge that seemed like plenty for Woo.
The 24-year-old righty pitched six scoreless innings in which he allowed just two hits without a walk and struck out seven, lowering his ERA to 0.57 in three starts this year.
The Yankees only managed one at-bat with a runner in scoring position against Woo.
In the fourth inning, Alex Verdugo sliced a double to the wall in left-center and took third base on an error by center fielder Julio Rodriguez.
But with two outs, Anthony Rizzo chopped out.
On a night that the Mariners flexed their arms and bats, the Yankees couldn’t let such opportunities go to waste.
Source
