Mariners lose seesaw battle to Yankees, 9-6

Cole Young hits first-ever big-league home run but Mariners pitching can’t keep up

Six runs is usually enough for the Mariners to win a game. Last season, six runs would have been an absolute luxury. But not tonight, not in Yankee Stadium, and not against this lineup, as the Mariners lost to the Yankees, 9-6.

It was a battle between rookie pitchers tonight in the Bronx, with Mariners rookie Logan Evans facing off against Cam Schlittler, making his big-league debut. But their service time is about the only thing these two hurlers have in common; Schlittler is known for a triple-digit fastball, while Evans, whose fastball is about as fast as Schlittler’s slider, relies on mixing pitches with a diverse arsenal.

Schlittler was as advertised: his fastball came out 97-99 and topped out at 99.9 on his first batter, a ball to J.P. Crawford that resulted in a walk. However, he came back to put down Julio Rodríguez, flying out on a 93 mph slider, struck out Cal Raleigh on 99.6 right on the plate, and hit 100 mph battling Randy Arozarena before striking him out on a foul tip at 99.7. It appeared that it would be a long night in the Bronx for the Mariners, and actually, things did improve from there, which is about all the good you can say about this game.

Meanwhile, it was a rough start for Evans, who fell behind his first two batters, allowing Jasson Dominguez to single ahead of the always dangerous Aaron Judge, who he walked. A Bellinger single past Luke Raley brought in the first run of the night, and the trouble would continue from there. Another single from Stanton made it 2-0, and then a productive out from Jazz Chisholm made it 3-0 before Evans was finally able to staunch the bleeding.

The Mariners got a run back in the third on what was a historic game for J.P. Crawford, who, with today’s start, passed Alex Rodriguez for most starts at shortstop for the Mariners in franchise history (he made a slick play in the field too to steal a hit from Anthony Volpe). Captain Crawford took advantage of that short porch for a 344 foot home run to cut the Mariners’ deficit to two runs:

But the Yankees got that run right back, with Jazz Chisholm going dead-center against Evans in the third. That was a particularly frustrating at-bat, because Evans went 0-2 on Chisholm and then nibbled around the plate before putting a sinker in a juicy part of the plate that Chisholm was able to smack over the wall. At this point my ROOT feed started cutting out intermittently, which felt merciful.

Jorge Polanco took his turn in the fourth to close the gap up again, turning on a fastball on the inner half of the plate and launching it into the second deck - no short porch needed.

107.1 off the bat and 417 feet, and also Polanco’s second home run already in July after hitting just two in May and June combined. We’re not asking for April “better hitter than Aaron Judge” Polo, but a happy medium between that and no-power-Polo would go a long way for the Mariners in the second half.

Unfortunately, Evans would give that run back and more in the fifth, making a costly mistake to Chisholm, again in a two-strike count. With Cody Bellinger on with a single after Evans had had him in an 0-2 count, Evans missed his spot to Chisholm and put it right into the lefty loop zone for Chisholm to pull into the right-field seats. After another single, that would end Evans’s night (Cal Raleigh would gun down Goldschmidt ill-advisedly trying to steal on new pitcher Carlos Vargas to end the inning). The concern about Evans I had in spring training was his lack of an out pitch, and that came into play tonight: six of the nine hits Evans surrendered were in two-strike counts, and two more were in 0-1 counts. It’s a tough combination of Evans’s more hittable stuff and the tiny bandbox of Yankee Stadium, but that’s an issue that needs to be solved, especially so long as this offense continues to scuffle.

But again, the Mariners came back. After Schlittler struck out Cal Raleigh with Julio on after a double, Randy Arozarena greeted new pitcher Jonathan Loáisiga with his seventh home run in the past nine games, and his first away from T-Mobile Park since June 10th (which was in turn his first away from TMP since May 18th, which was his first away homer since April 17th).

Carlos Vargas had the sixth inning and gave up hits to three of his first four batters, allowing one run to score and putting runners on the corners for Aaron Judge, who smashed a double down the left field line to make it 9-4. The rain intensified at this point, making an already miserable scene all the more miserable.

A moment of happiness in the seventh, though: the two rookies in the lineup combined for another pair of runs, with Ben Williamson doubling and Cole Young again taking advantage of the short porch for his first-ever big-league home run:

But alas, that’s as close as the Mariners would be able to get. In a way, this game felt like a microcosm of the season as a whole: every time the Mariners would get close or gain a little ground, the Yankees would answer back and put the game even further out of reach. It’s an unpleasant analogue to the way the Mariners have been chasing the Astros for the past two months, having small moments of glory but never gaining meaningful traction in the standings. In that way, it feels like it sums up the experience of Mariners fandom, the Zeno’s paradox of needing to arrive at the halfway point before arriving at the endpoint, only to find the endpoint always just out of reach; the answer to the old riddle “what draws ever closer but never arrives.”

Until tomorrow.