Mariners Game Recap: Young Yankees Best Kuma, M’s 5-0

The youngsters on the New York Yankees backed their starter, Masahiro Tanaka, in today’s 5-0 win versus the Mariners.

Coming into this afternoon’s game, it was anyone’s guess which story-line would take front stage. Would the Mariners move up in the wild card standings, potentially coming to within a game of the final playoff spot?

Would the two Japanese starters, Tanaka and Hisashi Iwakuma have an epic battle into the late innings? Or would the young Yankees- who were supposed to be part of the rebuilding phase- continue their surprising offense surge to keep the Yankees in Wild Card contention? Unfortunately for the hometown Mariners, the Yankees 26 and under studs continued their success in route to an easy win.

It didn’t take long for the Yankees brightest new star, Gary Sanchez (23), to shine. In the first inning, with no one on and two outs, he blasted a ball into the left-field upper deck seats in Safeco Field. It was his 9th home run and 16th RBI in just 21 games. Sanchez is now just the 3rd AL player in the past 100 years with at least nine homers in his first 21 career games.

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In the 2nd the kid Yankees were at it again. With Aaron Judge (24) taking base due to a hit by pitch, Aaron Hicks (26) singling to put 2 men on. Now, Tyler Austin (24) was at the plate and he was ready to pad the Yankees lead. Hitting a base knock to left, Austin would bring Judge home, making the lead 2-0.

In the 4th it would be Hicks this time that would score via a Brett Gardener sacrifice fly, expanding that lead to 3-0. Meanwhile, in that same time frame the M’s would have their chances to shrink the Yankees lead, only to come up short.

Twice (in the 2nd and 3rd) the Mariners would have multiple runners on base. Both Adam Lind and Leonys Martin singled in the 2nd without touching home base. Then Nori Aoki, who doubled before Seth Smith walked would follow suit in the 3rd.

By the 2nd half of the ballgame both teams would scatter hits and base runners with little to show for anything. The Yankees did manage 2 more runs -1 in the 7th and 1 in the 9th- but the M’s just never got anything going, at least in the run column.

The Mariners did get 2 hits each from Aoki, Martin and Robinson Cano, so that’s a plus. Cano’s recent hot streak- 7 hits in his last 3 games- has bumped his batting average to within .03 of the .300 benchmark.

The loss today meant the Mariners would lose only their 2nd series of the month. It was also the end to, what started out as pleasant home visit, only to end in disappointment.

Next: Shoemaker Shuts Down Mariners in Anaheim

After winning the first 2 games at home against the Milwaukee Brewers, the Mariners ended their short 6 game stint in Seattle losing 3 of 4, an overall record of 3-3. The M’s head to Chicago tomorrow, facing the Whitesox, to start 6 game road trip.