Mariners fail to contain Yankees again, dropping series to New York
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – For a second straight night, the Seattle Mariners fell to the New York Yankees in blowout fashion. Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert only went four innings in this outing as, similar to Bryce Miller who pitched yesterday, the Yankees were able to tee off on Gilbert’s fastball and tag seven runs against him with five of them earned. The Mariners weren’t able to keep up with the Yankees attack, as Seattle only pushed two runs across home plate and only had two hits for most of the game. The Mariners have struggled heavily in this series as the Yankees have eaten their fastball-heavy pitchers alive, and it will be interesting to see if young George Kirby on the mound Wednesday can help salvage the series before this homestand ends.
The New York Yankees batters got after Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert early and often (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Gilbert gets blasted
Similar to yesterday’s starter Bryce Miller, Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert struggled in his outing against a Yankees team that hits the fastball well, a pitch that Gilbert tends to heavily rely on. New York got after Logan early, as the first two batters reached base before they racked up three runs in the first inning. The Yankees only got a single in the next inning, and while there was a small sliver of hope that Gilbert would’ve settled in after that, it was squished the next inning as New York did more damage. It was mixed results, as two batters singled and two got out before rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe blasted a three-run homer to double the Yankees lead. Centerfielder Greg Allen homered in the fourth inning to record the seventh and final run against Gilbert in his outing. While he did mix in his slider, both that and his fastball proved to be unreliable against New York.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert struggled in his outing, before he was relieved by Trevor Gott and Tayler Saucedo (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Bats quieter in tonight’s loss
Compared to yesterday against the Yankees when Seattle put up six runs, the Mariners were only able to push two across home plate in this battle. Back-to-back doubles in the fifth inning got Seattle on the board after Sam Haggerty walked to leadoff, but that was all the Mariners were able to put together besides a smattering of base hits. Seattle having some big knocks was nice to see, but ultimately again it wasn’t enough against New York and their starting pitcher (former Mariner) Nestor Cortes. It wasn’t a throw away sort of day at the plate, but for a few reasons just was not enough. It‘s very tough to go toe-to-toe when your opponent plates ten runs, but only getting two won’t do in very many ballgames anyway.
The Seattle Mariners batters struggled somewhat against the New York Yankees pitching, plating two before Tom murphy and manager Scott Servais were thrown out for arguing a strike call (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Quick notes
The Mariners dropped the 2nd game of the series against the Yankees tonight 10-2… despite the loss they are still 6-3 on the homestand thus far.
Ty France went 3-for-4 with an RBI.
Tonight marked his 15th multi-hit game of the season so far and he trails only Julio Rodríguez (18) for the most on the team.
He’s hit safely in 6 of the last 8 G…in that span he is batting .310 (9x29) with a double, 3 home runs, 4 RBI and 3 walks.
J.P. Crawford extended his current hitting streak to 5 games following a single in the 6th inning… it is his 2nd 5-game hitting streak this season (highest: 8 games, 5/5/23-5/15/23).
Following tonight’s game, Crawford holds the longest current hitting streak on the Mariners.
He has hit safely in 8 of the 9 games of the current homestand, during which he is batting .282 (11x39) with 1 double, 2 home runs, 5 RBI and 2 walks.
Tom Murphy went 1-for-1 with 1 walk in tonight’s game.
Murphy picked up the Mariners 1st hit of the night on a double in the 2nd inning… it was his hardest hit double this season 108.3 MPH and the hardest hit ball of the game.
He now has 7 doubles on the season so far, with 5 out of the 7 coming in the month of May.
During his appearances in May, he is batting .276 (8x29) with 5 doubles, 1 home run, 2 RBI and 3 walks.
Teoscar Hernández picked up 1 double, 1 walk and 1 RBI on the night… he ranks 3rd among Mariners hitters this season in RBI with 28 (highest: Eugenio Suárez, 34 RBI).
His double in the 5th inning scored the Mariners 2nd run of the night and extended his current hitting streak to 4 games… he has hit safely in the last 6 of 7 games.
Cal Raleigh entered the game in the bottom of the 6th inning and doubled in his first at-bat… it marked his 10th double of the season.
Eugenio Suárez picked up 1 hit on the night… Suárez has reached base safely in 8 of the 9 games in the homestand so far.
AJ Pollock and Sam Haggerty each drew a walk on the night.
Pollock has picked up at least 1 walk in each of his starts on the current homestand and Haggerty scored the Mariners first run of the night after he reached base.
After tonight’s game, Julio Rodríguez snapped an 8-game hitting streak, only one game shy of his career-high… his 9-game career-high hitting streak came on 6/27-7/5/22.
In his 5th start at T-Mobile Park this season, Logan Gilbert threw 4.0 innings and allowed 7 hits, 7 runs (5 ER), 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, 2 home runs over 90 pitches.
The Mariners bullpen (Trevor Gott, Tayler Saucedo and Darren McCaughan) combined for 5.0 innings tonight.
Gott and Saucedo have each only allowed 1 earned run this season over 11.2+ innings of relief work.
McCaughan is the first Mariners reliever with 6+ strikeouts in a game since Tommy Milone (7 SO) on Aug. 4, 2019 at Houston
It is the first time Seattle pitching has allowed 10+ runs in back-to-back games since Aug. 20-21, 2021 @ HOU.
The Yankees challenged a tag play at 1st base in the top of the 6th inning. The call was overturned and Greg Allen was ruled safe.
The Yankees challenged a trap catch in the 8th inning when Julio Rodriguez made a diving effort that was originally called a catch…the play was overturned and New York won the challenge.
Mariners manager Scott Servais and catcher Tom Murphy were ejected in the bottom of the 6th inning… it was his Servais’ 21st ejection as Mariners manager and 2nd time this season (other: May 5 vs. Houston).
New York Yankees starting pitcher Nestor Cortes (and former Mariner) had a good outing in the win for New York (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
What’s next?
Following the past two ugly defeats, the Mariners will look to bounce back and end the homestand and series against New York on a high note. Seattle looks to salvage a game from these three against the Yankees when they meet tomorrow, May 31st with a first pitch time of 6:40PM PST, just as the previous two games first pitch times. The Mariners will have young starting pitcher George Kirby on the mound to duel with At the ballpark tomorrow, the team will be celebrating “Northwest Parkinson’s Foundation night” and “ALS Awareness night.” While the ticket deadline for those events is closed, but sure to check the “Theme and Community nights” tab of the Mariners ticket website to see what else the team is doing at T-Mobile Park.