Knowing Brett Gardner was done for the year and after getting swept in a four-game series against the Oakland A's, a call from the Seattle Mariners was just what the doctor ordered. Long-time Mariners outfielder and the first of the Japanese superstar imports, Ichiro Suzuki, wanted to leave the rebuilding organization with it's roster of young players and join a team comparable to his 38 year old age, and the Yankees fit that description to a tee.
The convenient part was that the Yankees were visiting Seattle, so after Ichiro was traded to the Yankees in a sweetheart deal for D.J. Mitchell and some other nobody prospect, plus only having to pay $2 million of his salary this season, he only had to travel a few yards to join the Yankees in the visiting clubhouse.
Not taking number 51, which has been last worn by Bernie Williams in a Yankee uniform and nobody else since, Ichiro went with number 31. Fellow Japanese countryman Hiroki Kuroda ironically became the first Yankee pitcher Ichiro made his Bomber debut behind. Nick Swisher, still hurt from the hip injury in Oakland, was out of the lineup, and paved the way for Ichiro to take his usual spot in rightfield. In his first at-bat Ichiro singled and later stole a base, but the Yankees were behind 1-0 until they scored three runs in the top of the 4th inning from a double and a couple of singles to make it 3-1 Yanks. Kuroda settled in and only gave up the 1 run on 3 hits with 9 strikeouts to join Ivan Nova and CC Sabathia as 10-game winners in the rotation. Alex Rodriguez added a bomb of a homerun to leftcenter in the 8th to pad the lead to 4-1, which might be last homerun of the season as it turns out. Technically a save scenario by the bottom of the 9th, Rafael Soriano came back after blowing a save the day before and achieved his 25th save of the season.
The addition of Ichiro made the Yankees lineup deeper and more threatening, but this combined power thinned out a game later as Alex Rodriguez would go down with a fracture in his left hand that will sideline him for 6-8 weeks, basically the majority of remaining regular season games. Hard-throwing Mariners ace Felix Hernandez would be the reason why as a string of wild pitches towards the night of his night would plunk three Yankee batters, including A-Rod who took a 89 mph change-up off his left hand. Rodriguez went down in pain immediately and needed to helped off the field by manager Joe Girardi and trainer Steve Donahue.
Hernandez's former teammate and mentor Freddy Garcia opposed him and pitched well for the Yankees, only giving up three runs in 7.1 innings of work. Unfortunately for him, the Yankees couldn't get much off of King Felix beside a Granderson solo homer in the first. Trailing 3-1 when A-Rod was plunked in the top of the 8th, it would turn into a bases loaded situation for the Yanks, but the best they could is add one run from an RBI lineout by Mark Teixeira who scorched the ball directly to the Seattle centerfielder. The Yankees gave it right back in the bottom of the 8th when three walks and an infield single issued by the bullpen gave Seattle their 2-run cushion back at 4-2. The Yanks wouldn't be able to rally against closer Tom Wilhelmsen and lost the game in addition to A-Rod for 6-8 with the fracture that won't require surgery, but certainly a DL stint and time to write more children's books.
With the west coast trip officially a disaster after losing another future hall of famer to injury and dropping five of the last six games, the Yankees wanted to capture the rubber game and have something to half-smile about on the flight back to New York. Hisashi Iwakuma started for Seattle and gave the Yankees a scare by throwing inside to Derek Jeter to lead off the game. Jeter reacted shortly thereafter by crushing a pitch deep to leftfield in a rare show of pull-power to put the Yanks up 1-0. Ivan Nova started for the Yankees and was sloppy all the way through. He gave Seattle two runs back in the 1st, including a walk with the bases loaded, and in total would walk six in 5 innings, his shortest outing of the season.
In the 8th inning, trailing 2-1 and on the break to losing another series for the consecutive time, the Yankees put together a 4-run rally and it was Jayson Nix of all people who came up with a tremendously clutch pinch-hit double with the bases loaded that cleared the bags and swung the game 4-3 in the Yanks favor. Russell Martin would knock Nix in as well to make the score 5-2, and in the 9th Rafael Soriano made the comeback complete by finishing off the Mariners for his 26th save of the season.
Eric Chavez and Jayson Nix will be seeing alot more playing time with Alex Rodriguez gone for the next two months, and a good test will come in the last place Red Sox, who make their first trip to New York this season and despite having a bad season so far, will always find a way to make it Yankees-Red Sox...
The convenient part was that the Yankees were visiting Seattle, so after Ichiro was traded to the Yankees in a sweetheart deal for D.J. Mitchell and some other nobody prospect, plus only having to pay $2 million of his salary this season, he only had to travel a few yards to join the Yankees in the visiting clubhouse.
Not taking number 51, which has been last worn by Bernie Williams in a Yankee uniform and nobody else since, Ichiro went with number 31. Fellow Japanese countryman Hiroki Kuroda ironically became the first Yankee pitcher Ichiro made his Bomber debut behind. Nick Swisher, still hurt from the hip injury in Oakland, was out of the lineup, and paved the way for Ichiro to take his usual spot in rightfield. In his first at-bat Ichiro singled and later stole a base, but the Yankees were behind 1-0 until they scored three runs in the top of the 4th inning from a double and a couple of singles to make it 3-1 Yanks. Kuroda settled in and only gave up the 1 run on 3 hits with 9 strikeouts to join Ivan Nova and CC Sabathia as 10-game winners in the rotation. Alex Rodriguez added a bomb of a homerun to leftcenter in the 8th to pad the lead to 4-1, which might be last homerun of the season as it turns out. Technically a save scenario by the bottom of the 9th, Rafael Soriano came back after blowing a save the day before and achieved his 25th save of the season.
The addition of Ichiro made the Yankees lineup deeper and more threatening, but this combined power thinned out a game later as Alex Rodriguez would go down with a fracture in his left hand that will sideline him for 6-8 weeks, basically the majority of remaining regular season games. Hard-throwing Mariners ace Felix Hernandez would be the reason why as a string of wild pitches towards the night of his night would plunk three Yankee batters, including A-Rod who took a 89 mph change-up off his left hand. Rodriguez went down in pain immediately and needed to helped off the field by manager Joe Girardi and trainer Steve Donahue.
Hernandez's former teammate and mentor Freddy Garcia opposed him and pitched well for the Yankees, only giving up three runs in 7.1 innings of work. Unfortunately for him, the Yankees couldn't get much off of King Felix beside a Granderson solo homer in the first. Trailing 3-1 when A-Rod was plunked in the top of the 8th, it would turn into a bases loaded situation for the Yanks, but the best they could is add one run from an RBI lineout by Mark Teixeira who scorched the ball directly to the Seattle centerfielder. The Yankees gave it right back in the bottom of the 8th when three walks and an infield single issued by the bullpen gave Seattle their 2-run cushion back at 4-2. The Yanks wouldn't be able to rally against closer Tom Wilhelmsen and lost the game in addition to A-Rod for 6-8 with the fracture that won't require surgery, but certainly a DL stint and time to write more children's books.
With the west coast trip officially a disaster after losing another future hall of famer to injury and dropping five of the last six games, the Yankees wanted to capture the rubber game and have something to half-smile about on the flight back to New York. Hisashi Iwakuma started for Seattle and gave the Yankees a scare by throwing inside to Derek Jeter to lead off the game. Jeter reacted shortly thereafter by crushing a pitch deep to leftfield in a rare show of pull-power to put the Yanks up 1-0. Ivan Nova started for the Yankees and was sloppy all the way through. He gave Seattle two runs back in the 1st, including a walk with the bases loaded, and in total would walk six in 5 innings, his shortest outing of the season.
In the 8th inning, trailing 2-1 and on the break to losing another series for the consecutive time, the Yankees put together a 4-run rally and it was Jayson Nix of all people who came up with a tremendously clutch pinch-hit double with the bases loaded that cleared the bags and swung the game 4-3 in the Yanks favor. Russell Martin would knock Nix in as well to make the score 5-2, and in the 9th Rafael Soriano made the comeback complete by finishing off the Mariners for his 26th save of the season.
Eric Chavez and Jayson Nix will be seeing alot more playing time with Alex Rodriguez gone for the next two months, and a good test will come in the last place Red Sox, who make their first trip to New York this season and despite having a bad season so far, will always find a way to make it Yankees-Red Sox...
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