New York Yankees 5 – Seattle Mariners 0
Looking for the series win, the Yankees turned to Masahiro Tanaka against his fellow countryman, Hisashi Iwakuma.
In the first inning, Gary Sanchez continues the best broken record a Yankees fan has heard this year. With no one on and two outs, Gary Sanchez took Iwakuma deep to left for his ninth home run of the season. In the bottom of the first inning, Masahiro Tanaka received more help from a Baby Bomber.
With two outs, Robinson Cano hit a single to right field but tried to stretch it to a double. Right fielder Aaron Judge came up throwing and easily got the former Yankee out at second.
In the second inning against Iwakuma, Judge reached base the hard way when he was hit by a pitch. Aaron Hicks moved him to second and Tyler Austin brought him around to score on a single to left field. The Yankees added another run in the fourth inning when birthday boy Brett Gardner came up to bat with the bases loaded and hit a sacrifice fly to put the Yankees ahead by three.
Iwakuma was replaced on the mound by Arquimedes Caminero and the hard-throwing reliever started the inning by giving up an infield single by Brett Gardner. After a sacrifice by Didi Gregorius advanced Gardner to second, respect was shown to the rookie Sanchez. An intentional walk of Sanchez came back to haunt Caminero and the Mariners when Mark Teixeira went the other way for a run-scoring single. Caminero rebounded with a pair of strikeouts but the four-run lead was held up by Tanaka.
In seven scoreless innings, Masahiro Tanaka allowed six hits while walking one and striking out five.
Tyler Clippard came on for the eighth inning and got two outs but also gave up a pair of singles. With the potential tying run on deck, no chances were being taken as Dellin Betances came in and got pinch-hitter Mike Zunino to strikeout looking, ending the inning and the threat against the shutout.
Starlin Castro added a sacrifice fly in a ninth inning that featured a second intentional walk of Gary Sanchez. Dellin Betances pitched a scoreless ninth inning to complete the shutout in the series win.
Win – Masahiro Tanaka (11-4)
Loss – Hisashi Iwakuma (14-9)
Save – Dellin Betances (6)
Notables
Yankees
*Gary Sanchez – 2 for 3, R, 2B, Solo home run (9) in the 1st, RBI (16)
*Brett Gardner – 1 for 3, 2 R, BB, RBI (30)
Mariners
*Nori Aoki – 2 for 4, 2B
*Robinson Cano – 2 for 4
Current Yankees Record: 65-61
