The night before, the Yankees wrote off the loss as a fallout from the volatile sport. Seattle’s Tapper and Bloop found holes against Reid and Clay Holmes, who coughed up the game.
In baseball, it was a deserved loss.
On Tuesday, few events were coincidental.
The Mariners played like a team the Yankees should consider at some point this year.
In front of a crowd of 31,257 in the Bronx, Brian Wu & Co. allowed just five hits in a 6-3 loss to the Yankees, backed by the Mariners’ four home runs.
After winning seven straight games, the Yankees (33-17) lost the first two games of a four-game set against the team that led the American League West, but their pitching was particularly impressive.
Coach Aaron Boone’s team suffered consecutive losses for the first time since April 29-30.
The Yankees recorded three hits after the fourth inning, the most of which was a three-run homer by Gleyber Torres in the seventh inning, bringing them within one run.
It was a nice moment for Torres, who was starting to regain some energy at the plate, but ultimately it didn’t matter.
The Mariners got one back in the eighth when Luke Lally rudely welcomed recent call-up Clayton Andrews to the plate with a first-pitch home run, and then got another in the ninth when Dylan Moore hit his second home run of the night off Nick Vardy.
The Yankees brought in Juan Soto and Aaron Judge as potential tying hits in the eighth inning, but both struck out.
In the ninth inning, Jose Trevino and Torres approached closer Andres Munoz, but Oswaldo Cabrera, who could have tied the game, struck out to end the game.
The Mariners (27-22) had built a lead on Clark Schmidt, but Schmidt had no problem ending a streak of eight consecutive quality starts by Yankees starting pitchers.
The right-handed pitcher allowed four hits, two walks, and two runs in five innings, with six strikeouts.
Three of those baserunners and their two runs came on 30 pitches in the third inning, which was Schmidt’s fault.
In that frame, Josh Rojas hit a double, then Moore hit a full-count cutter for the rest of the dinger and a two-run edge that seemed to be enough for Wu.
The 24-year-old right-hander pitched six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits with no walks and seven strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 0.57 in three starts this year.
The Yankees only had one at-bat with a runner in scoring position against Wu.
In the fourth inning, Alex Verdugo hit a slice double that hit the left-center field wall and stole third base on an error by center fielder Julio Rodriguez.
But with two outs, Anthony Rizzo chopped out.
On a night when the Mariners worked on their arms and bats, the Yankees couldn’t afford to waste such an opportunity.
