Two comebacks aren’t enough, Yankees fall 6-5 to Mariners

Source: FanGraphs

Well that was a rough one. The Yankees showed some Fighting Spirit and rallied to tie Saturday night’s game against the Mariners twice — twice! — but ultimately, the bullpen took yet another loss. The final score was 6-5 in ten innings. The bullpen has been pretty great since the All-Star break, but still, bullpen losses stink. It’s Saturday and it’s a West Coast night game, so let’s bullet point this one:

• Tanaka’s Bad Inning: Epitome of a One Bad Inning start for Masahiro Tanaka. He allowed four runs on four hits (including two homers) and a hit batsmen in the third inning, and no runs on two hits totals in his other five innings. The solo homers sucked. The bigger problem was four straight batters reaching with two outs to plate two additional runs. Blah. Tanaka retired the last ten batters he faced. His line: 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 6 K. I don’t know either.
• The First Comeback: After the Mariners took a 4-1 in the third inning, the Yankees chipped away. A Garrett Cooper triple and a Ronald Torreyes sac fly made it 4-2 in the fifth, an Aaron Judge solo homer made it 4-3 in the sixth, and a Matt Holliday sac fly tied it up 4-4 in the eighth. That eighth inning rally was set up by a Brett Gardner infield single and a Clint Frazier double. Holliday has really struggled lately. The two-strike sac fly was much appreciated.
• The Second Comeback: Immediately after the Yankees tied the game in the top of the eighth, Robinson Cano took David Robertson deep in the bottom half. First pitch of the inning too. Wasn’t even a bad pitch. Down and away heater, and Cano hit it out the other way. Great hitter does great hitter things. Sucks. Anyway, in the ninth, Didi Gregorius drew a leadoff walk and Torreyes came through with the game-tying two-out single after pinch-runner Jacoby Ellsbury moved up on a wild pitch. Can’t say I saw that coming.
• The Walk-Off Loss: Not really much to say about the game-losing rally. Adam Warren just didn’t have it. Ben Gamel smoked a leadoff double, Cano was intentionally walked, then Nelson Cruz yanked a ball to left for a walk-off single. What can you do? First earned run allowed by Warren since May 23rd. If Cruz had any decency, he would have hit a walk-off three-run home run so the Yankees could have avoided another one-run loss. They’re now 9-19 in one-run games, which means little but annoys lots.
• Leftovers: Every starter had a hit except Todd Frazier, who did drive in New York’s first run with a double play. He is 1-for-13 with the Yankees so far … the other Frazier had a single and a double, both crushed off the wall. He was thrown out at second trying to stretch the single into a double … Tommy Kahnle struck out three and hit a batter in his scoreless inning. He’s faced ten batters as a Yankee: six strikeouts, two fly outs, one ground out, one hit batsman.

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Don’t miss our Bullpen Workload page either. The Yankees wrap up this four-game series with the Mariners — as well as this eleven games in ten days road trip — Sunday afternoon. That’s a 4pm ET start. Luis Cessa and Yovani Gallardo are the scheduled starters. Not-so-bold prediction: runs will be scored. (Update: Caleb Smith, not Cessa, will start Sunday. The Yankees announced the late change following the game.)

Minor League Update: I have neither the time nor the energy for a full DotF tonight. Sorry. Here are the box scores and here’s the short version: OF Jake Cave had three hits, RHP Bryan Mitchell allowed three runs in 6.1 innings, CF Jorge Mateo drew a walk, CF Estevan Florial had two singles and a double, SS Wilkerman Garcia had two singles, DH Steven Sensley hit a solo homer, and 3B Andres Chaparro hit two homers.