Mariners stop skid with extra-innings 2-1 win over Yankees

The Mariners attempted to win tonight’s game with a bold strategy: not allowing the Yankees, who have one of the most terrifying offenses in the league, to score any runs. And for nine innings, it worked. Until it didn’t. But the Mariners snatched an extra-innings victory anyway (and Casey Legumina snatched a win away from Bryan Woo, about which I’m sure he is very sorry and also not at all sorry), providing just enough offense to stop the four-game skid in its tracks.

After Max Fried opened with a five-pitch inning against the top of the lineup, the Mariners actually got something going against baseball’s best ERA in the second, stringing together a pair of one-out hits with singles from Mitch Garver (yay!) and lefty matador Dylan Moore, both to the left side of the infield. But Donovan Solano grounded into a double play to end the threat. I am tired of typing “Solano grounded into a double play.” Please, make it stop.

The Mariners were able to cash in on a single in the fourth; after Julio shot yet another single through the six-hole, Cal Raleigh continued to trend upwards, just missing a home run to the deepest part of the park:

Dylan Moore then walked, prompting a visit from the Yankees pitching coach to equip Fried to deal with the fearsome visage of—Donovan Solano? Knock it off. Get serious. To his credit, Solano worked a full count before flying out on the 12th pitch of the at-bat, leaving Fried’s pitch count at 71 through four, which is better than one might have expected given the first inning. Fun fact from Alex Mayer: that 12-pitch at-bat was tied for the longest at-bat of Solano’s career; the last one happened in 2023, and the one before that happened exactly ten years to the date before that. Donovan Solano has been playing baseball for a very long time, but he should probably not be playing baseball for the Seattle Mariners anymore.

Bryan Woo, eventually given one slender run of support, navigated a tough Yankees lineup, posting a scoreless first thanks to Julio, who took everybody’s “fly zone” jokes last night personally:

That would turn out to be important, as Cody Bellinger doubled behind Judge, which would have driven in the first run of the game. Instead, Woo worked six scoreless innings with six strikeouts, including a fun one on the changeup and an even more fun one where he got Aaron Judge chasing after a sweeper.

Woo had to fight in the sixth, when with two outs, Trent Grisham parachuted a little shot into right field that Leody Taveras couldn’t glove. That triggered the five-word horror story: Aaron Judge With Men On. Thankfully, Woo was able to contain Judge to a single, again to right field, and Bellinger—the owner of the only extra-base hit off Woo to that point—flew out to left to end the threat.

“I felt like I executed late in counts much better,” said Woo in assessing his night, also noting that he felt like his fastball and off-speed felt the same in terms of intent, and agreed that he might have had a little extra edge to him, first in playing the role of the stopper during this losing streak, and also in doing it against the Yankees, one of the league’s best offenses.

“If you truly love competing and playing at the highest level, you want to face the best, see how you match up against the best. So I want the ball in that moment, go toe to toe, and just try to trade blows and see who wins.”

Woo couldn’t make it through the seventh, getting his first out but then giving up a bad-luck ground ball double to Austin Wells that stayed just fair down the first-base line. Dan Wilson then brought in Gabe Speier to work a pocket of righties that included Anthony Volpe, who he walked; the Yankees then executed a double steal to put runners in scoring position with just one out. But Speier dug deep, striking out the switch-hitting Jasson Dominguez and Oswaldo Peraza, leading to a very stoked Speier. This Speier is on Feier.

“Gabe throws just as well against the righties as the lefties,” said Dan Wilson postgame. “He ended up getting a lot of right handers tonight, and he was able to work through it and did a really nice job for us there to get us out of that inning.”

[Kate note: Ended up getting a lot of right handers? But aren’t the hitters…on a list? A line, one might even call it.]

The Mariners refused to give their pitching staff any additional cushion against the Yankees bullpen, meaning Matt Brash had to work the eighth with that same whisper-thin margin against the top of the Yankees lineup. Brash was able to get pinch-hitter Ben Rice swinging for the first out, but then gave up a full-count single to Trent Grisham: six word horror story, volume II.

But, plot twist: it was a horror story for Judge, who struck out on three straight Brash sliders.

But Brash was far from out of the woods, having to face Bellinger. In a 2-2 count, Brash got Bellinger to fly out harmlessly to center field. Welcome back, Matt Brash, here’s some baptism by fire, and he emerged unburnt.

Not so unburnt: Andrés Muñoz, who hadn’t pitched since May 7. Muñoz hit Paul Goldschmidt with a pitch to start off the inning; Goldschmidt then stole second, which is just insulting. A swinging bunt by Wells moved Goldschmidt to third, bringing up Volpe, who also swinging-bunted, but Dylan Moore overthrew the throw home, allowing the run to score and tying the game while also advancing the runner to second. Jasson Dominguez was punched out on a low strike call, and Aaron Boone absolutely lost his mind, remaining and hollering long after he was run from the game and requiring the first base ump to intervene. Of note, Wells should have been punched out during his at-bat, which changed the entire trajectory of the inning, but live by the wonky zone, die by the wonky zone. Pr vice versa. Muñoz got Peraza to ground out to end the inning, but the Mariners now had to win the game in the ninth after failing to score a run since the fourth inning—and do so against Luke Weaver, who’d already shut down the top of the lineup previously.

Spoiler alert: they did not win the game in the ninth, instead going down 1-2-3, with Randy Arozarena’s on-base streak coming to a crashing halt. That brought Carlos Vargas out to face the top of the Yankees lineup and a ghost runner in the tenth, and he too did a heroic job, striking out pinch-hitter DJ LeMahieu fresh off the IL and Trent Grisham, intentionally walking Aaron Judge because duh, and then getting Bellinger to fly out to put the Yankees down harmlessly.

The Mariners had an opportunity against Devin Williams with their own ghost runner, advancing Garver to third on a pinch-hit Miles Mastrobuoni sacrifice bunt, but pinch-hitter Rowdy Tellez couldn’t get the run home, flying out softly, and Taveras grounded out.

Casey Legumina in the 11th navigated around both his Manfred Man and a walk to Anthony Volpe to post a scoreless inning, and was gifted a win for his troubles, when lefty Tim Hill allowed a left-on-left hit to J.P. Crawford, having already surrendered a base hit to Ben Williamson for the youngster’s first hit of the night. While Randy saw his on-base streak come to an end, maybe J.P.’s will start again; it was a tough night for Cap’n Crawford outside of that last at-bat, as he batted leadoff against the tough lefty Fried and had collected three strikeouts and no hits on the night up until that point.

“Please stay fair, let me put something in play tonight, please,” J.P. said he whispered to the ball as it sliced down the line, perilously close to going foul.

Perhaps respecting the new dad, the ball obeyed.

Credit this one to J.P. but mostly to the pitching staff and especially the bullpen, who should rightfully all have a share in this win. The Yankees lineup is ferocious, and the pitching staff throttled them down all night, with their only run coming on a pretty fluky play in the ninth. It’s still not the complete team win we saw when the Mariners were playing their best ball, but at least the losing streak is over, and the team even has a chance at a series win tomorrow—ideally requiring less of a Herculean effort from the pitching staff this time.