Yankees 3, Mariners 2: Brett Gardner leaves, relievers game wins

It was one of those wins that fans will remember if the Yankees pull off a serious run in the playoffs. One night when the bullpen held back opposition in the first set, the offense did just enough when it was important to win the game, capped by Brett Gardner in the clutch with a single out in the 11th. As Boston lost to Toronto, tonight’s Yankees closed the lead in a 3-2 marathon victory over Seattle.

Yankees’ starter Wandy Peralta stepped out treating. He capped an 11 throws, three up, three down first by striking out Kyle Seager on three throws. Good vibes early on. Marco Gonzales followed suit for Seattle however. Seager knocked down a 111 mph laser on Aaron Judge’s staff – at least partially in self-defense – to complete an otherwise ordinary opening stanza.

Peralta returned to build on the work of her yeoman. Unfortunately, a simple bloop with an out ruined his perfect game. He bounced back from that crushing disappointment, however, and froze Jake Fraley with a two-hit slider. After former Yankees farm worker Luis Torrens was single, skipper Aaron Boone signed on for The Stephen Ridings Experience.

Ridings finished the round on a Grounder in the second, then came back for the third. He went on to show what electrified Yankees fans when he first appeared. Unlike his early days when he took out everyone he faced, tonight was Ridings II: Groundball Boogaloo. Three of his four withdrawals were on worm-burners. In the bottom of the third, the Yankees obediently came down for the guy with a 2.09 HR / 9 and xERA over 7.00. I do not want to talk about it anymore.

Joely Rodríguez took the slope for the Bombers in the fourth. Aside from a single single from Ty France, it continued the great work of the Yankees Bullpen Arms. The pitching parade resumed with newcomer Clay Holmes in the fifth. Like his predecessors, he retired the Mariners with little drama.

Sadly, the Yankees remained determined to make Gonzales a Hall of Famer and suck life out of Yankee Stadium, as the bottom of the Order waved at Gonzales’ offers. A 0.108 xBA in five rounds… that’s not what you want.

Holmes came back for sixth, but after a single from Mitch Haniger, Boone went to the more familiar Lucas Luetge to deal with Seager. Honestly… registering 16 scoreless outings in a pen game before the club started bringing in higher leverage weapons? This is the best scenario. Unfortunately, after Luetge pulled Seager out, back-to-back singles gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead. Ideally, more (but still good enough).

New Yankee Anthony Rizzo took it upon himself to try and put the Yankees on the board with a single with a sixth out. He then stole the second while Aaron Judge threw a third blow. Sadly, stealing third place and coming home wasn’t a realistic plan, so Rizzo stayed after a steal from Giancarlo Stanton.

Luetge came back to the hill, and after making up for giving up the game’s first point by registering the first two strikeouts in the seventh, Jonathan Loaisiga came in to keep the Mariners down. Although he gave up a brace and walked out, Loaisiga escaped the seventh unscathed and gave the bats another chance to break through.

Finally, with two strikeouts at the end of the seventh and Gleyber Torres in second after a single and a clumsy base stolen… Seattle went to the bullpen. Small wins, I guess. 2021 Marco Gonzales left the game after throwing 6.2 white innings. Baseball is so predictable. And not at all annoying. Did the Yankees bring the race? Of course not. Sometimes baseball is really predictable. (Thanks to Kyle Higashioka for deciding to crash this rally. It would happen again before the end of the night.)

Brett Gardner hit Jonathan Davis and worked a solid batting against new Mariner reliever and former Rays nemesis Diego Castillo in the bottom of the eighth. The baseball gods rewarded Gardy with a first step. DJ LeMahieu followed that up with another base on balls, bringing Anthony Rizzo to the plate; 43,180 fans – the biggest crowd of the season – were absolutely begging for a reason to explode.

Castillo threw Rizzo 1-0 down, and now the fate of the Yankees rested in the heart of the Order’s hands as the judge, Stanton and Gallo loomed. And finally, fortunately …

… a laser bag fly left by Judge brought home a run with ducks still on the pond. It wasn’t exactly a thunderclap, but he tied the contest to 1-1.

Unfortunately, Stanton decided to be About the brand for the 2021 Yankees and embarked on a mind-boggling double play – No.103 for New York this season – to complete what was a loaded base, with no opportunity. If there had been a TOOTBLAN somewhere in the sleeve, that would have been perfect (annoying ly). En route to the ninth, with Zack Britton trying to keep the Mariners down. After 10 easy pitches did just that, the Yankees had a chance to end the game without dealing with the Manfred rules.

Gallo failed, but Torres doubled down and the Yanks were one shot away from putting this baby to bed. An intentional walk to Odor and a popup from Higashioka brought Gardner to the plate with a chance to win it. But a shallow right popup spoiled another opportunity. Bonus songs in the Bronx.

Chad Green arrived from the paddock with the infamous runner already in second. Stupid rule. A JP Crawford RBI single on a two-stroke curve later, and Seattle led again. Exasperating sport. A hit ’em, throw’ em double play and a flying ball stopped the bleeding. The Yankees had one last chance against former Baby Bomber Erik Swanson.

Gardner started 10th in second. Another stupid rule. LeMahieu did a four-length walk, then Rizzo took off, which almost resulted in a Gardy TOOTBLAN, to start. Judge broke down and the game remained in Stanton’s hands.

After his maddening double play earlier, Big G redeemed himself with a shallow center-right single that tied the game.

The energy was back in the Stadium, but a Gallo K blocked two runners, sending the game to 11th.

Albert Abreu, the ninth striker of the evening, came out for the said 11th inning. Two balls to Gallo and a nice defensive play from Odeur to Abreu first put the Yankees in a position to capitalize on the terrible runner of the second base rule and send this rowdy crowd home happy.

Gallo started half-time as a phantom runner. After Torres weakly exited and Seattle intentionally stepped Odor for the second time tonight, Higashioka… just… failed to crush a three-run dinger. Instead, he hit.

It simply meant that the heroism was left to the oldest and perhaps most maligned Yankee: Brett Gardner.

Gardy put up another tough fight, eventually ending in center fielder to score Gallo and win this one for the good:

It was a huge win, if only for another reason that a loss would have been devastating after the Yankees relievers’ incredible performance tonight. The relief corps was asked to provide nine good innings; they delivered eleven. As a bonus, rookie Abreu won his first career victory.

On an added note, the game started off with some great news from the YES booth, where Michael Kay revealed that former Yankee and current YES broadcaster Paul O’Neill is a new grandparent. Congratulations to Paulie and her family on this wonderful news.

As for the Yankees, there is no rest for the tired. They’ll continue that streak with the Mariners tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. ET with Andrew Heaney looking for a better second start in the stripes and Chris Flex leaving for Seattle.

Play tomorrow. Win tomorrow. That’s it.

The score of the box