6/21/23
Yankees 4, Mariners 2
(New York, NY) After getting absolutely demolished by the New York Yankees in Seattle, the Mariners definitely wanted to at least make the three-game series in the Bronx more competitive. While they have done just that, the results remain just as frustrating for Mariner fans. New York did a fantastic job of raising Luis Castillo’s pitch count while scoring runs as the Mariner offense couldn’t get going until it was too late. The late game push wasn’t enough as Seattle dropped the series with a 4-2 loss.
The Bronx Bombers were not missing anything at the plate against the Mariner ace. Luis Castillo usually has one of the best fastballs in baseball but could not get many swings and misses with his heater on Wednesday night. He still hung zeros until the bottom of the 3rd. An eight pitch walk by Anthony Volpe began the inning and a new Mariner killer continued to haunt his former team. Jake Bauers drove his sixth home run of the season out of Yankee Stadium for a two-run shot to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
La Piedra didn’t have to throw too many pitches in the bottom of the 4th as he only needed 13 to record three outs. New York would mix in some more offense in those 13 pitches. Billy McKinney walloped a fastball well out of the park for his second home run in as many days. With now three home runs on the season, McKinney gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead.
Castillo only went five innings and struggled with his walks again as he allowed four free passes to Yankee hitters. The bullpen actually pitched very well once again. There was only one hiccup by the Mariner bullpen but unfortunately that cost them another run. Yankee rookie Anthony Volpe jumped all over a first pitch fastball from Gabe Speier for his 10th home run of his rookie campaign. The Mariner deficit grew a little bit more as they trailed 4-0.
When Wandy Peralta entered for the Yankees to pitch the top of the 8th, it looked like the Mariners were going to go away without much of a fight again. Two quick outs had manager Scott Servais making some changes. He pinch hit Dylan Moore for Kolten Wong as Moore looked for his first hit of the season after coming off of the IL a couple of weeks ago. He found that hit in a big way. The utility man hit his first home run of the season as his first hit to get Seattle on the board trailing 4-1.
Michael King was tasked with recording the final three outs in the top of the 9th for the Yankees but the Mariners didn’t make it too easy. Julio Rodriguez led off the inning with a walk and Ty France followed with a single to bring the tying run to the plate. Teoscar Hernandez couldn’t tie the game as he flew out to fairly deep center field, but did move Rodriguez to third with one out. Aaron Boone went back to his bullpen to bring in Tommy Kahnle to try to preserve their lead. Jarred Kelenic avoided hitting into a double play with a flyout to center that was deep enough to score Julio and make it 4-2. Eugenio Suarez would once again go down looking to finish off the ball game though to kill the comeback bid as Seattle dropped the middle game of the series 4-2.
Seattle (35-37) will now look to avoid the sweep in the series finale on Thursday at 4:05pm. Bryan Woo (0-1, 7.30 ERA) will look for his first career win but is coming off back-to-back strong outings after a very rough debut. Domingo German (4-4, 4.30 ERA) will go for the Yankees and face the Mariners for the second time this season. Back on May 29th, German went 6 1/3 innings and allowed four runs on seven hits with three walks and four strikeouts in Seattle.
Notable Performances
Mariners
- Jarred Kelenic- 1-3, RBI
- Dylan Moore- 1-1, HR, RBI, R
- Luis Castillo (L, 4-6)- 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 3 SO
Yankees
- Billy McKinney- 2-3, HR, RBI, R
- Jake Bauers- 1-2, HR, 2 RBI, R, BB
- Jhony Brito (W, 4-3)- 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO
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