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New York Yankees Recap: Mark Teixeira’s Grand Slam Carries the Yankees to Victory

By Michael Cambria

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After wrapping up a four game set against Oakland in the Bay Area in which they went 1-3, the New York Yankees (26-25) headed up north to the evergreen state to pay their old friend Robinson Cano and the Seattle Mariners (24-26) a visit. To open the series, Seattle sent arguably the best pitcher in baseball to the mound in Felix Hernadez (8-1, 1.91 ERA) to face off against their former prized prospect Michael Pineda (6-2, 3.36 ERA).

On paper, this matchup had the making of a bonafide pitchers duel, and through the first three innings of the ballgame it sure looked like one. Through three frames, ‘King Felix’ held the Yankees hitless while Michael Pineda scattered just three hits. Both pitchers were rolling, but the Yankees finally broke through in the fourth inning.

Brett Gardner and Chase Headley opened up the inning with back-to-back singles. With Gardner on third and Headley on first, Felix coughed up a rare wild pitch to Alex Rodriguez that resulted in Gardner crossing the plate and giving the Yankees the first lead of the ballgame. Hernandez followed up the wild pitch with back-to-back walks to A-Rod and Mark Teixeira. With two outs and the bases loaded, Felix induced a ground ball double play off the bat of Brian McCann which ultimately plated Headley, giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

The Yankees followed up their two run fourth inning with an even bigger fifth inning. Everyones favorite Yankee, Mr. Stephen Drew started things off with a walk. Recent Yankees call up Ramon Flores followed up the walk with a single. Gardner than walked, and again with the bases loaded the Yankees managed to score another run off a Chase Headley sacrifice fly. A-Rod followed up with a single of his own and than the flood gates opened. After a brief coaching visit to the mount, Mark Teixeira stepped in with the bases loaded and one out, and on a 2-0 fastball he cleared the bases with a monstrous Grand Slam to right centerfield, giving the Yankees a commanding 7-0 lead. Teixeira now has a career .303 batting average off Felix Hernandez with eight home runs and 23 RBI.

After the grand slam Felix managed to get Brian McCann to strike out swinging, but Carlos Beltran followed McCann up with a deep couple to centerfield, which chased King Felix from the ballgame. His final line was 4.2 IP, giving up six hits, seven earned runs, five walks and four strikeouts.

The Mariners managed to  get two runs on the board in the bottom of the seventh off a Kyle Seager lead-off single followed by a Seth Smith triple and an Austin Jackson double, but the Yankees bullpen shut the door right after.

Justin Wilson came on with one out and runners on first and second in the seventh, replacing Michael Pineda after a quality start in which he went 6.0 innings pitched, giving up seven hits and two earned runs while walking two and striking out nine against his former team. Wilson got out of the jam by striking out Mike Zunino and forcing pinch-hitter Rickie Weeks to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Dellin Betances replaced Justin Wilson in the bottom of the eight and struck out the Mariners batters in order, sending down Logan Morrison, Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz. However, after a nasty slider in the dirt that Cruz swung at and missed, the ball skipped to the backstop and Cruz reached first base. With two out and one on, Betances got Kyle Seager to ground out to first base to end the inning.

Chasen Shreve came on for the ninth inning and immediately got Seth Smith to ground out to shortstop, however, after a throwing error by Didi Gregorius, Smith reached not only first, but even second base. It was Gregorius’ seventh error of the season. Shreve rebounded to get Austin Jackson and pinch-hitter Willie Bloomquist to fly out to left field and Mike Zunino to ground out to short to end the ball game.

Michael Pineda improved to 7-2 while the Yankees improves their overall record to 27-25. The Yankees are back in action tomorrow night at 10:10pm EST for game two of the three game set. It’ll be C.C. Sabathia (2-7, 5.67 ERA) v. Mike Montgomery, a 25-year old prospect who will be making his major league debut.

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