SEATTLE — The winning run was scored just three batters into Wednesday’s game, when Yankees rookie Gary Sanchez smashed Hisashi Iwakuma’s first pitch into the bleachers above the left-field wall.
There was still plenty of baseball to be played, of course, runners left on base and a gradual widening of the gap between the teams.
But from the moment Sanchez’s seventh homer in the past nine games left his bat, the ultimate outcome was never in much doubt.
The Yankees defeated the Mariners 5-0 on Wednesday afternoon at Safeco Field, a crowd of 41,536 watching the hosts lose their first series since the end of July.
The game was the last of a six-game homestand, with a seven-game road trip starting tomorrow in Chicago against the White Sox. The loss pulled Seattle (67-59) another game closer to .500 and 2.5 games back of the American League’s second wild-card berth.
Sanchez continued his hot start to life in the major leagues — and the Mariners never even really got going.
The 23-year-old catcher out of the Dominican Republic followed up on his first-inning homer with a hard-hit double in the fifth and two intentional walks. Sanchez is hitting .531 with seven runs, three doubles, 10 RBI.
Iwakuma was shaky all afternoon but kept the Mariners in it.
New York doubled its lead in the bottom of the second, when Aaron Judge beat Norichika Aoki’s throw to the plate. It went up 3-0 in the fourth, when Brett Gardner lifted a sacrifice fly into deep right field. But Robinson Cano spared Iwakuma further damage with a backhanded play deep in the hole, and the righty worked out of danger again in the fifth by inducing a one-out double play.
Iwakuma lasted six innings, allowing six hits, walking two and striking out three.
His Japanese countryman, Masahiro Tanaka, kept the Mariners off balance for seven strong innings. Seattle rarely even threatened.
Leonys Martin missed a two-run home run by about six inches in the bottom of the second — instead settling for about as long a single possible — and Cano grounded into a double play with two on in the third. Otherwise, Tanaka cruised.
Tanaka threw seven innings, scattering six hits and walking one. He struck out five, two of them in his final inning.
Aoki’s single with one out in the eighth was Seattle’s first hit in three innings, inspiring a short-lived “Let’s go, Mariners” chant from the crowd at Safeco Field. Seth Smith struck out, and Cano singled. Mike Zunino pinch-hit for Nelson Cruz, going down looking when reliever Dellin Betances fooled him with a 1-2 offspeed pitch.
Tony Zych followed Arquimedes Caminero and Nick Vincent out of the Mariners bullpen, allowing the first two batters he faced to reach base in the top of the ninth. Starlin Castro lifted a sacrifice fly into left field, setting the final score and settling for a good a game that had long since felt decided.
