Game 9 Recap: Strikeouts Bury Yankees in Loss to Seattle Mariners

The New York Yankees (4-4) rolled out an intriguing lineup against the Seattle Mariners (3-6) on Friday night. Dustin Ackley took over Alex Rodriguez‘s DH spot and Chase Headley started in the ninth spot of the batting order for the first time in his career. Luis Severino (0-1, 5.40) was on the mound against Seattle’s Nate Karns (0-1, 7.20). The Yankees also called up LHP Tyler Olson and optioned RHP Luis Cessa to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre prior to the game.

Yankees lineup:

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Brett Gardner, LF
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Brian McCann, C
5. Carlos Beltran, RF
6. Dustin Ackley, DH
7. Starlin Castro, 2B
8. Didi Gregorius, SS
9. Chase Headley, 3B

Mariners lineup:

1. Norichika Aoki, LF
2. Seth Smith, DH
3. Robinson Cano, 2B
4. Nelson Cruz, RF
5. Kyle Seager, 3B
6. Adam Lind, 1B
7. Chris Iannetta, C
8. Leonys Martin, CF
9. Ketel Marte, SS

Gardner got the party started with a bullet home-run against Karns to the short porch in right field. It was his first of the season, which was a welcomed sight for the Yankees who certainly need Gardner to heat up if he’s going keep hitting at the top of the lineup.

Severino was nearly untouchable through his first couple of innings, but he hit a snag in the third. Iannetta led off the inning with a single and advanced to second base on a wild pitch to Martin. Castro bailed Severino out with eye-popping and lightning-fast reflexes. Martin lined a laser to Castro, who was breaking toward the bag, but was able to snag the ball behind his back and turn a double play.

Seth Smith snuck a double past a diving Teixeira in the fourth with one out, and Robinson Cano was up next. In two pitches Severino sunk him in an 0-2 count, but Cano poked an RBI-single into right-center and tied the game at 1-1.

The Yankees were looking to get that run back early in their half of the 4th. After Ackley walked to begin the inning, Castro hit a rocket single into left field to put runners on the corners with no outs. Castro advanced to second on a wild pitch from Karns and both runners were in scoring position for Didi, who ended up striking out. Headley followed Gregorius and also struck out, leaving it to Ellsbury to get the job done. But he would make for the third straight K in the scorebook, and the Yankees wasted a valuable opportunity to put more runs on the board.

It came back to haunt them in a hurry. Severino surrendered a two-run homer to Iannetta in the fifth before even collecting the first out. Luckily for the Yankees, Severino wasn’t too phased as he got the next three Mariners batters to fly out. But once again, the long ball severely hurt another Yankees starter.

For the second inning in a row the Yankees offense was threatening to score. A Gardner single and a walk to Teixeira brought McCann to the plate. But another strikeout did nothing more than tack on an unproductive out to the board. With Beltran coming up to the plate, the Yankees were already 0-7 with RISP. Beltran smoked a ball to the warning track but Martin made a spectacular catch for the second out, and Gardner advanced to third on the play. Ackley flew out to left field to end any thought of a Yankees rally.

Heading into the sixth, the Bombers were 0-8 with 4 Ks with RISP.

Severino served up another run off an RBI-single by Adam Lind with runners on first and second, lengthening Seattle’s lead to 4-1. Kirby Yates was called upon to replace Severino in an outing where yet another Yankees starter couldn’t complete six innings. They’ve only accomplished that task in three of the first nine games this year. After giving up a walk to Ianetta that loaded the bases, Yates punched out Martin to escape the jam.

A bloop double from Didi and two walks gave the Bombers a ray of hope in the bottom of the sixth. Teixeira faced off against ex-Yankee Vidal Nuno with the bases loaded and two outs. But Nuno won the battle by getting Teixeira to ground out to shortstop and turn the game over into the seventh.

The Mariners scored a run per inning throughout the rest of the game and the Yankees ultimately lost 7-1, falling below .500 on the season.

At 1:05 PM ET on Saturday it’s CC Sabathia (1-0, 4.50) and Felix Hernandez (0-1, 0.69) battling it out on the mound. Yankees fans can catch the game on YES Network and MLBN (out-of-market only).