Surprisingly, the Seattle Mariners strolled into Yankee Stadium prouder than a peacock with a MLB best 7-game winning streak despite their iconic player Ichiro being traded to the Yankees. Of course, the Seattle rotation would work out where Felix Hernandez was scheduled to pitch one of the games, fresh off of beating the Yankees last week and breaking A-Rod's hand.
Speaking of aces, it had been a while since CC Sabathia had dominated a game and the light-hitting Mariners lineup couldn't come at a better time. Facing him was the crafty veteran Kevin Millwood, who had been able to hold his own against the Bombers in two previous starts this season. Sabathia looked nasty early and didn't surrender his first hit until the 4th inning, which also was a solo homerun by Casper Wells. That only made the game 2-1 as the Yankees grabbed the 2-run lead an inning earlier from a single from Curtis Granderson that scored Ichiro and Russell Martin. Sabathia took matters from there and would keep Seattle off the board through the next four innings. Eric Chavez gave CC more breathing room in the 6th with a high-arcing 2-run homer which barely made its way over the right field wall. The Yankees tacked on two more runs in the 7th after Millwood's night was done against the Mariner bullpen to command a 6-1 lead. With a low pitch count, Yankee manager Joe Girardi allowed Sabathia to go for the complete game, but the wheels were turning after the big guy walked the leadoff hitter, then served up a 2-run homerun deep to right to David Ackley. With his closer Rafael Soriano ready in the bullpen for the save situation at 6-3 Yankees, Girardi put his trust in his ace to finish it out, and he did. Sabathia did it all himself for his 11th win of the season and added 10 strikeouts to his season total.
With a complete game under the Yankees' belt, Seattle decided to return the favor and sent their ace out the following day to do the same exact thing. King Felix was every bit the King going 9 innings and only giving up 2 hits with 2 walks, and most importantly, no runs, for his 10th victory of the season. The Yankee highlights (or lowlights) include a Cano double in the 2nd and an Ichiro Suzuki single in the 3rd. For Seattle, they took a 1-0 in the top of the 2nd from an RBI single from Mike Carp off of the bad-lucked Hiroki Kuroda. That's all Seattle would need as the Yankee bats were non-existent all afternoon against the hard-throwing rightly. In fitting fashion to the whole afternoon, Robinson Cano struck out to end the game at 1-0 Seattle Mariners. It was another complete game win for Hernandez against the Yankees, something he does far too often.
A sweep against Seattle was necessary after miserably dropping two out of three against the Orioles at home earlier in the week, but now the Yankees had to settle to respectively win the rubber match before heading up north for a road trip. Former Mariner Freddy Garcia was assigned the task to get the win against his former club. Another former, as in former Yankee Jesus Montero, got Seattle a run in the 1st with an RBI single that scored David Ackley. The Yankees tied it up immediately after in the bottom of the frame off of Japanese import Hisashi Iwakuma when Mark Teixeira scored Jeter on an infield single to second that was helped out by the defensive shift placed on the Yankee first baseman. The Yankees kept chipping away at Iwakuma with runs in the 2nd and 4th that gave Garcia a 3-1 lead to work with. In the top of the 5th, the once Yankee bluechip struck against for another RBI single which cut the Yankee lead down to one run at 3-2. Raul Ibanez was the story the rest of the way with a homerun in the bottom of the 5th, and then a single in the 6th that plated two more runs and made it 6-2 Yankees. Although not a save situation, Girardi had Soriano work the 9th inning since he practically didn't pitch all week. Ibanez would end his day with 3 RBIs and Freddy Garcia's 5 innings of work was enough to qualify him for the win, the 5th of 2012 and the 150th in his career.
There would be no bounceback after dropping two of three to the Red Sox and the Yanks looked even more sluggish by barely going 3-3 on the rest of the homestead against two far-inferior teams. The 63-44 Yankees will need to pick up quick as they go up to Detroit to face a club that's starting to hit their stride in the AL Central and was the team that knocked the Yankees out of the postseason last season....
Speaking of aces, it had been a while since CC Sabathia had dominated a game and the light-hitting Mariners lineup couldn't come at a better time. Facing him was the crafty veteran Kevin Millwood, who had been able to hold his own against the Bombers in two previous starts this season. Sabathia looked nasty early and didn't surrender his first hit until the 4th inning, which also was a solo homerun by Casper Wells. That only made the game 2-1 as the Yankees grabbed the 2-run lead an inning earlier from a single from Curtis Granderson that scored Ichiro and Russell Martin. Sabathia took matters from there and would keep Seattle off the board through the next four innings. Eric Chavez gave CC more breathing room in the 6th with a high-arcing 2-run homer which barely made its way over the right field wall. The Yankees tacked on two more runs in the 7th after Millwood's night was done against the Mariner bullpen to command a 6-1 lead. With a low pitch count, Yankee manager Joe Girardi allowed Sabathia to go for the complete game, but the wheels were turning after the big guy walked the leadoff hitter, then served up a 2-run homerun deep to right to David Ackley. With his closer Rafael Soriano ready in the bullpen for the save situation at 6-3 Yankees, Girardi put his trust in his ace to finish it out, and he did. Sabathia did it all himself for his 11th win of the season and added 10 strikeouts to his season total.
With a complete game under the Yankees' belt, Seattle decided to return the favor and sent their ace out the following day to do the same exact thing. King Felix was every bit the King going 9 innings and only giving up 2 hits with 2 walks, and most importantly, no runs, for his 10th victory of the season. The Yankee highlights (or lowlights) include a Cano double in the 2nd and an Ichiro Suzuki single in the 3rd. For Seattle, they took a 1-0 in the top of the 2nd from an RBI single from Mike Carp off of the bad-lucked Hiroki Kuroda. That's all Seattle would need as the Yankee bats were non-existent all afternoon against the hard-throwing rightly. In fitting fashion to the whole afternoon, Robinson Cano struck out to end the game at 1-0 Seattle Mariners. It was another complete game win for Hernandez against the Yankees, something he does far too often.
A sweep against Seattle was necessary after miserably dropping two out of three against the Orioles at home earlier in the week, but now the Yankees had to settle to respectively win the rubber match before heading up north for a road trip. Former Mariner Freddy Garcia was assigned the task to get the win against his former club. Another former, as in former Yankee Jesus Montero, got Seattle a run in the 1st with an RBI single that scored David Ackley. The Yankees tied it up immediately after in the bottom of the frame off of Japanese import Hisashi Iwakuma when Mark Teixeira scored Jeter on an infield single to second that was helped out by the defensive shift placed on the Yankee first baseman. The Yankees kept chipping away at Iwakuma with runs in the 2nd and 4th that gave Garcia a 3-1 lead to work with. In the top of the 5th, the once Yankee bluechip struck against for another RBI single which cut the Yankee lead down to one run at 3-2. Raul Ibanez was the story the rest of the way with a homerun in the bottom of the 5th, and then a single in the 6th that plated two more runs and made it 6-2 Yankees. Although not a save situation, Girardi had Soriano work the 9th inning since he practically didn't pitch all week. Ibanez would end his day with 3 RBIs and Freddy Garcia's 5 innings of work was enough to qualify him for the win, the 5th of 2012 and the 150th in his career.
There would be no bounceback after dropping two of three to the Red Sox and the Yanks looked even more sluggish by barely going 3-3 on the rest of the homestead against two far-inferior teams. The 63-44 Yankees will need to pick up quick as they go up to Detroit to face a club that's starting to hit their stride in the AL Central and was the team that knocked the Yankees out of the postseason last season....
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