The Yankees scored five runs in the first two innings, and that proved to be enough in their 5-4 win over the Seattle Mariners.
Here are the key takeaways …
– The Yankees got off to a fast start once again on Wednesday night. After a pair of walks against Yusei Kikuchi, Luke Voit – fresh off his five-hit night – ripped a single into left to make it a 1-0 game. Next up, Gleyber Torres lined a single that skipped in front of Shed Long Jr. to score two more and make it 3-0. It could have been even more, but a Gio Urshela double took an unlucky hop over the wall to prevent another run.
– Nick Nelson got the emergency start for the Yankees with Domingo German needing to undergo a root canal on Wednesday morning. With the Yankees needing some length, Nelson had a nightmare of a start, hitting Mitch Haniger with a pitch and walking three other hitters. His ball-four pitch to Jake Fraley was also a wild pitch, allowing Seattle’s first run to score.
After Nelson’s third walk loaded the bases, Aaron Boone had seen enough, pulling Nelson in favor of Luis Cessa, who was able to strand the bases loaded and keep it a 3-1 game after one.
– In the top of the second inning, Aaron Judge got a hanging slider from Kikuchi and he did not miss it, destroying a two-run homer to left for this 20th big fly of the season. It wasn’t quite the Herculean blast that Judge nearly hit out of T-Mobile Park in 2017, but it still traveled 429 feet and put the Yankees up 5-1.
– Cessa was terrific for the Yankees in relief, going 3.1 scoreless innings. Despite all of Nelson’s control issues, the Mariners didn’t record their first hit of the game until the bottom of the fourth inning, when Tom Murphy grounded a single up the middle that deflected off the second base bag.
After Cessa did his job, the Yankees ended up using German after all, as he came in to pitch in the fifth. German had gotten up in the bullpen earlier in the game, seemingly just to check how he felt.
He pitched a clean fifth, but the Mariners got to him in the sixth, as Murphy smacked a three-run home run with two outs to make it a 5-4 game after six innings. German buckled down and got the Yankees through the seventh, as he allowed three runs (all unearned due to an Urshela error) while striking out five in 3.0 innings.
– Voit may never want to leave Seattle, as he had two more hits after five on Tuesday. Voit, Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Tim Locastro all had multiple hits on the night.
– Jonathan Loaisiga was filthy in the eighth, striking out two. In the ninth, Boone turned things over to Chad Green to try to earn a one-run save. Green pitched into a couple of three-ball counts, but he retired the side 1-2-3 for the save.
Highlights
What’s next
The Yankees and Mariners close out their series on Thursday afternoon at 4:10 p.m.
Jordan Montgomery will face righty Logan Gilbert in the series finale.