YANKEES WIN SERIES AGAINST MARINERS; LIFE IS GOOD

Freddy Garcia did not have his best stuff, as his velocity was way down - his off-speed pitches were in the 70's. However, he was able to fool Seattle batters by mixing his pitches and varying his low velocities, getting into and out of trouble in the early part of the game. In the top of the first, a wild pitch moved Dustin Ackley from second to third, allowing him to score on Jesus Montero’s single. The Yankees helped themselves with a fantastic throw from Nick Swisher to nail Jesus Montero at the plate for the third out.

One consistent thing we saw from Garcia was that he got himself into trouble with two outs. With two outs, Mariners hitters were 3 for 7 with four walks. They had men in scoring positions in three of those 5 innings. However, with help from the defense, he only gave up one run under those conditions and was able to come out on top.

Christ Stewart was the MVP of the game, scoring three times on a single, a double, a walk, and a stolen base. He was only retired once in the entire game. The Yankees played small ball well today, manufacturing runs against starter Hisashi Iwakuma in three of the five innings that he worked. In the first inning, it was a Curtis Granderson walk, a Robinson Cano double, and an infield single by Mark Teixeira that scored the first run. In the second, it was a Chris Stewart double followed by a Curtis Granderson single that scored the second run. A Chris Stewart single, stolen base, and a Derek Jeter single scored the third run in the fourth. It was nice seeing them not relying exclusively on the home run for scoring.

In the bottom of the fifth, Raul Ibanez hit a monster solo home run - his 15th of the year - past the Yankees bullpen, giving the Yankees a 4-2 lead at the time. He got a 2-run single with the bases loaded in the sixth, giving him a 2 for 4 day with three runs batted in.

Besides the Swisher throw to the plate, the Yankees showed some great defense today. Mark Teixeira caught a laser hit from Trayvon Robinson in the top of the fourth. Ichiro Suzuki made a fantastic play to end the 3rd, fighting the sun to make a difficult catch, and fought the sun on another fly ball in the 7th. Jayson Nix had a nice diving stop in the top of the 7th. Derek Jeter made a nice catch on a liner in the 6th, also from Trayvon Robinson. Rafael Soriano caught a liner back to the box on his first pitch in the ninth.

Some honorable mentions:

• Ichiro Suzuki got a lucky break in regards to his now 12 game hitting streak, with a popup that was lost in the sun by center fielder Michael Saunders, giving Ichiro a double.
•  Boone Logan came in and retired every batter he faced in the 6th and 7th innings.

All in all, a nice way to end the homestand. Final Score: Yankees 6 - Mariners 2

--Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Writer




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