For the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners, the big bats have yet to get going.
But the pitching is in midseason form.
Luis Castillo went six scoreless innings and Cal Raleigh hit a walk-off single in the ninth inning as the Mariners defeated the visiting Yankees 2-1 on Monday night.
The three-game series resumes Tuesday when New York’s Max Fried (1-0, 0.00 ERA) and Seattle’s Logan Gilbert (0-0, 5.06) take the mound for their second starts of the season after pitching on Opening Day. Fried is 0-1 with a 1.59 ERA in three career starts against the Mariners; Gilbert is 2-3, 6.57 in seven starts versus the Yankees.
The first time through the rotation has been stellar for both clubs, who have aspirations of representing the American League this fall in the World Series.
While the Yankees have played just four games, their starters — Fried, Cam Schlittler, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers — have combined to allow two runs on 12 hits over 20 1/3 innings, with five walks and 22 strikeouts. That’s an 0.86 ERA.
Though the Mariners’ starters have an ERA nearly a run higher (1.84), they’ve been nearly as dominant through five games. Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo, Emerson Hancock and Castillo have given up six runs on 13 hits in 29 1/3 innings, with six walks and 38 strikeouts.
“We’ve got so many guys in this rotation who could be an ace,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “They’ve been phenomenal.”
The Yankees allowed just one run in sweeping a three-game series at San Francisco.
“It was incredible – one run in three games,” Yankees captain Aaron Judge said. “Especially an opening series, you never know what’s happening. Guys are pumped up, and it’s usually high-scoring games. Our starting rotation came out there and attacked the zone and really just dictated the ballgames.”
As for the hitters, the Yankees are batting just .224 as a team while the Mariners are at .218.
Judge, the reigning AL MVP, has a pair of homers but is batting just .188. Raleigh, the runner-up for MVP last season, had just two hits in 16 at-bats — with 11 strikeouts — before getting the winning hit on Monday.
Wilson had intended to give Raleigh the day off before he came on as the designated hitter in the seventh inning.
“For Cal to go from getting the day off to getting a walk-off … when you have big moments like that, it does give you confidence,” Wilson said. “Give him a lot of credit for putting up a really strong at-bat. Cal’s a worker. During the game he’s trying to stay loose. He wants to win more than anyone.”
The Yankees’ biggest success offensively Monday was going 5-for-5 with the ABS system in challenging balls and strikes called by plate umpire Mike Estabrook.
“When you have that kind of success rate, it’s not going to be like that every night, but I thought every one was obviously warranted and a couple in some key spots to give us a chance to build an inning,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We just weren’t able to build much offensively.”
-Field Level Media
