Mariners at Yankees
The Seattle Mariners seem to bring out the best in the New York Yankees, who continued their domination in the series with a dramatic walk-off win Tuesday night. A winners of seven in a row over Seattle at Yankee Stadium and 15 of 18 overall against the Mariners, surging New York looks to continue its mastery when the teams resume their four-game series on Wednesday night.
Gio Urshela belted a tying two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to set up DJ LeMahieu's game-winning single to lift the Yankees to their 13th win in 17 games. Urshela was among four players with two hits apiece for New York and is 16-for-36 over his past dozen games to boost his batting average to .360. The crushing defeat was the eighth loss in nine games for Seattle, which started the season 13-2 but is at .500 at the midway point of the 10-game road trip. Jay Bruce had three hits and an RBI and Edwin Encarnacion homered for the Mariners, who have been outscored 65-29 during their 1-8 tailspin.
TV: 6:35 p.m. ET, ESPN, ROOT Northwest (Seattle), YES (New York)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Mariners LH Yusei Kikuchi (1-1, 3.98 ERA) vs. Yankees RH Jonathan Loaisiga (1-0, 2.70)
A well-rested Kikuchi turned in a dominant performance his last time out at Cleveland on Friday, registering a career-high 10 strikeouts while limiting the Indians to one run on three hits over seven innings. The 27-year-old pitched a scoreless innings in his previous outing that was preceded by five consecutive starts in which he gave up at least three runs. Kikuchi has made five of his eight starts on the road, where he is allowing opposing hitters a .266 batting average against as opposed to a .196 mark in his three home outings.
Loaisiga will be summoned from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take the place of left-hander James Paxton and he will make his fourth appearance and third start this season for New York. The team's top pitching prospect, the 24-year-old Nicaraguan tossed three scoreless innings of two-hit ball to pick up the win at the Los Angeles Angels on April 24 and allowed a combined three runs over seven innings in his previous two starts. Loaisiga faced the Mariners last June in his second career start and gave up three runs in 3 2/3 innings.
WALK-OFFS
1. Encarnacion has homered three times during a five-game hitting streak.
2. Yankees RH Tommy Kahnle had his streak of 11 consecutive scoreless and hitless appearances stopped.
3. Mariners 2B Dee Gordon is 5-for-9 in the series.