The Yankees beat the Mariners 4–2 on Saturday for their 2nd win in a row over Seattle
For their second win in a row in Seattle after winning the opener on Friday, the Yankees defeated the Mariners 4–2 on Saturday evening behind 6.0 very solid innings from Lance Lynn and a tie breaking homer in the 7th by the Yankees backup catcher.
Lynn only allowed two runs in his 6.0 innings after allowing six runs in 3.2 innings in his previous start. Lynn had struggled in his previous four starts with a combined 19 runs in 18.2 innings. Lynn showed a lot of improvement by limiting runs in this game and retiring the side in order in the second, fourth and sixth innings.
Lynn was taken out of the game after only 76 pitches because the Yankees had their three best healthy bullpen relievers ready to pitch.
Mike Zunino’s homer to center in the third and Dee Gordon’s RBI single to left in the 5th added up to the two runs Lynn gave up.
The game was tied at two when Lynn came out of the game after Andrew McCutchen blasted a home run in the first inning and Giancarlo Stanton hit a sacrifice fly to right that scored Brett Gardner.
McCutchen hit zero homers with the Yankees in the five games the Yankee played against Detroit and at Oakland before their flight to Seattle before his luggage was temporarily lost. He now has a homer in two consecutive games after his luggage was lost and not delivered to his hotel room after the flight to Seattle.
McCutchen is struggling overall at the plate with only three hits in 22 at-bats since joining the Yankees but his two homers could be a sign of him starting to improve at the plate. He had hit well in six games before the trade to the Yankees as he had a .316 average (6–19) with two doubles, a homer and two RBI.
Zach Britton, David Roberson and Dellin Betances pitched the last three innings and combined to allow only one hit and one walk, both of which came from Betances.
Britton, who allowed six earned runs in his first eight games with the Yankees after being traded from the Orioles, has now allowed only two runs in his last nine games. He has lowered his ERA from 4.70 to 3.82 in those nine games.
Robertson struck out all three batters he faced and threw 15 of his 21 pitches for strikes in his flawless eighth inning. He moved into 25th place in the Yankees all time strikeouts list as his three strikeouts improved his total to 659, which is 41 fewer than Herb Pennock, who is in 24th place.
Betances pitched the 9th and recorded his third save of the season. He had three strikeouts and has struck out at least one batter in 38 consecutive games and has at least 100 strikeouts in five consecutive seasons.
He made things interesting in the 9th after loading the bases after allowing a double, hitting Robinson Cano on a pitch that got away from him and then walking Nelson Cruz, but then Betances was able to gear down to struck out Denard Span and Kyle Seager swinging to end the game.
“Tonight he finds himself in a little bit of trouble, but he keeps making pitches,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “He kept pounding the strike zone with his fastball and breaking balls, and he came up with a lot of big pitches in that inning. I was just proud of Dellin.”
Austin Romine hit a big homer in the 7th inning that was the deciding run in the game. His 367 foot homer to right off of Nick Vincent was his 10th of the season. The Yankees now have an impressive 10 players with at least 10 homers this season.
The Yankees added an insurance run in the top of the 9th with Gleyber Torres’s sacrifice fly to right that scored pinch runner Tyler Wade.
With the first two wins in this series the Yankees have now won 10 of the last 12 games that they have played against the Mariners going back to last season.
The Yankees gained two games in the division in the last two days and are now 7.5 games behind the Red Sox with six games still to play against their long time rivals. They are still 3.5 games ahead of the Athletics for the first wild card spot.
