6/22/23

Mariners 10, Yankees 2

(New York, NY) Frustrations were unleashed on Thursday night in the finale of a three-game series between the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees. Seattle had only scored three total runs in the first two game of the series while the Yankees had homered their way to a couple of wins. That all changed Thursday as the Mariners started fast and poured on the offense early en route to a blowout win to avoid the sweep 10-2.

Seattle’s offense gave their rookie pitcher Bryan Woo plenty of run support before Woo even took the mound. In the top of the 1st, Julio Rodriguez recorded the first hit of the ballgame with a single and Ty France joined him on base as he was hit by a pitch. Teoscar Hernandez capitalized on the early RBI opportunity. Julio attempted to steal third, but a line drive into center field dropped in for a base hit. That allowed Rodriguez to score easily to put Seattle on the board 1-0.

The line kept moving for the M’s in the 1st as a Cal Raleigh singled to load the bases with just one out. After a frustrating first two games of the series, Eugenio Suarez came up with a big hit as the third baseman lined one down the left field line for a base hit. France and Hernandez scored on Geno’s 10th double of the season to make it 3-0. Mike Ford then drove in Raleigh with a sacrifice fly to right field to give Woo and the Mariners a 4-0 lead as the Yankees came to the plate for the first time.

Woo would pitch a quick 1-2-3 1st and by the time he went back out for his second inning of work, the lead was even bigger. Kolten Wong began the 2nd with his first home run as a Mariner with a solo blast well out over the wall in right center to make it 5-0 M’s. A couple of batters later, Ty France one upped his teammate with an absolute bomb 430 feet for his seventh long ball of the year to extend the lead to 6-0.

Chaos and confusion took over in the top of the 3rd. With Eugenio Suarez on first and one out, Mike Ford hit a slow roller to Josh Donaldson at third for what looked to be an inning-ending double play. However, Donaldson booted the grounder which allowed everyone to be safe. Suarez tried to move up to third on the error since nobody was covering, but pitcher Domingo German looked to get over to third in time. Donaldson threw the ball to German but the Yankee pitcher missed the throw and it went out of play and into the camera well. That allowed Suarez to score to make it 7-0 but manager Scott Servais was convinced Mike Ford should move to third instead of second as he believed Ford reached first prior to the throw going out of play. After a lengthy review, Servais was correct and Ford moved to third base with one out. He would then score on a deep sacrifice fly by Jose Caballero to extend the Seattle lead a little bit more to 8-0.

While Bryan Woo continued to quiet the Yankee bats, the Mariner bats were louder than a 1980s Beastie Boys concert. In the top of the 4th, Teoscar Hernandez hit an absolute laser beam at 110-mph out to center field for a solo shot to make it 9-0 Seattle. Teo’s 13th homer of the year wouldn’t be all the offense in the inning as Seattle still needed their Yankee Stadium home run. That came off the bat of Cal Raleigh. The Mariner catcher looked like he had hit a double off the wall, but with the short porch in right the ball just cleared the top of the wall for Raleigh’s 10th home run of the season and also putting the Mariners in double digits up 10-0.

From there on it was the Bryan Woo show. The rookie’s pitch count was high due to quite a few full counts and some walks but those were the only positives for the Yankees for most of the game. Woo did not allow a hit until a single by Gleyber Torres with one out in the 6th broke up the no-hitter. Another single by Anthony Rizzo followed off the top of the right field wall and that ended the day for Woo. Ty Adcock came in and helped out his fellow rookie by getting Giancarlo Stanton to hit into a double play to end the inning and keep the Yankees off the board. Bryan Woo went 5 1/3 innings and allowed just the two hits with no runs on three walks and five strikeouts.

10-0 was still the score into the 9th where we got the rare treat of seeing a position player pitch. Isiah Kiner-Falefa pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 9th for the Yankees including a strikeout of Eugenio Suarez. In the bottom of the 9th, Chris Flexen looked for a quiet inning but would not get one. With Anthony Rizzo on first with one out after a walk, Kiner-Falefa showed he could do damage with his bate as well as he hit a two-run home run for his fourth of the season to get the Yankees on the board trailing 10-2. Flexen would then finish out the ballgame from there to help the M’s avoid the sweep, winning the finale in the Bronx 10-2 and earning Bryan Woo his first MLB win.

Seattle (36-37) will now head to Baltimore to take on the Orioles (45-28) to end a six-game East Coast road trip. Logan Gilbert (4-4, 4.31 ERA) will open the series for the Mariners as he looks to try to find a little more consistency on the mound this summer. Opposite him will be Kyle Gibson (8-4, 3.94 ERA) who is familiar with the Mariners from his two seasons with the Texas Rangers. Gibson has been very consistent as of late giving up 2-3 runs in each of his last four starts dating back to May. First pitch for game one is scheduled for Friday at 4:05pm but there is doubt about that start time and the game itself due to heavy rain in the forecast in Baltimore.

Matt’s Takeaways

Well it wasn’t the prettiest series but at least Seattle is leaving the Bronx on a high note. This offense has to be better. I hate to sound like a broken record but the problem is so blatantly obvious I have to keep going back to it. Against a Yankees lineup without Aaron Judge a series win was so obtainable for the Mariners but bad at bats cost them again. I get that Gerrit Cole is a stud on the mound. One run against him is understandable. But game two with your ace on the mound against a guy who just got called up from Triple A should be a win every single time. Seattle has got to be more selective at the plate and do a better job of controlling the count. The chase rate has got to go down especially when you see what Teoscar Hernandez is doing since he has stopped chasing so many pitches. This team is not out of it but if they don’t start showing that they can beat some good teams, some of your favorite players might be wearing a different uniform after the trade deadline.

Notable Performances

Mariners

• Teoscar Hernandez- 3-4, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
• Eugenio Suarez- 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI, R, 2 BB
• Bryan Woo (W, 1-1)- 5.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO

Yankees

• Isiah Kiner-Falefa- 1-1, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Anthony Rizzo- 1-2, R, 2 BB
• Domingo German (L, 4-5)- 3.1 IP, 8 H, 10 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO

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