SEATTLE (AP) Rookie Gary Sanchez kept up his torrid stretch with his seventh home run in the past nine games, and Masahiro Tanaka won his fourth straight start, leading the New York Yankees to a 5-0 win over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday. Sanchez and Castro had provided the Yankees early offense with solo homers in the first and second inning, respectively.
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The want and need for an extra inning out of their starting pitcher and a six-man bullpen with not every reliever available put the Mariners and Servais in a precarious position.
Walker (4-8), recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A Tacoma, allowed four runs – three earned – and six hits in 5 2/3 innings, with three walks and five strikeouts.
Tanaka worked out of a jam in the second when Adam Lind singled with one out and took third on Leonys Martin’s line-drive single off the wall in right.
Gary Sanchez (2-for-3, HR, 2B, RBI, two walks) is one of five Major League Baseball players since 1913 with nine or more homers in his first 21 games; Colorado’s Trevor Story hit 10 in his first 21 games earlier this year.
Offensively on Monday night at Safeco Field, the Mariners started off the 3-game series strong notching 7 runs on 10 hits.
Blue Jays 7, Angels 2: Russell Martin had three hits and two RBIs, and R.A. Dickey pitched 6 2/3 innings for his first home win since July 10. But he got Mark Teixeira to fly out to left and Brett Gardner to ground out to second to end the game.
Sanchez had already homered again in his first at-bat and doubled his third time up, adding to a historic career start.
Iwakuma lasted six innings, allowing six hits while walking two and striking out three.
“I definitely was not expecting that, especially that last at-bat because I think there was no outs so I thought they would let me hit”, Sanchez said through an interpreter. He is 4-0 in four career starts against the Mariners, including 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA at Safeco Field.
The Mariners climbed back to a season-best 10 games over.500 at 67-57 and remained one game behind Baltimore in the race for the American League’s final wild-card berth.
Following an impressive win over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday evening, the Yankees hoped to close out this series and road trip with a win.
Mariners: RHP Tony Zych was recalled from a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma and activated off the 60-day disable list Tuesday. NY rookie Gary Sanchez belted two homers on Monday after being named AL Player of the Week earlier in the day for batting.524 with four shots last week.
NY added a run in the second when Aaron Judge was hit by a pitch and Aaron Hicks and Tyler Austin followed with consecutive singles.
Mariners: RHP Drew Storen (3-3, 5.77 ERA) was placed on the 15-day DL with right shoulder inflammation. Tanaka will be facing former Japanese teammate Hisashi Iwakuma, with whom he played from 2007-11 with Rakuten. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
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A highly touted prospect as a catcher, the Yankees signed Sanchez as an global free agent when he was 16.
