SEATTLE — During the New York Yankees’ recent slump, Aaron Judge talked of needing to get the bats started early and stop being in the position of playing from behind as much.
For the past two games, the Yankees’ slugger has done his part in making sure New York’s offense is providing some early punch.
“It’s big. You can just tell the flow of the game is different,” Judge said.
Judge capped New York’s early offensive outburst against Seattle All-Star Yusei Kikuchi with his 20th home run of the season, and the Yankees held on for a 5-4 win over the Mariners on Wednesday night.
For the second straight game, the Yankees scored a flurry of runs in the first two innings, but this time had to withstand Seattle’s late rally.
Judge’s two-run homer was clubbed into the second deck of the left field seats and gave New York a 5-1 lead. Luke Voit had a two-out RBI single in the first inning and Gleyber Torres followed with a two-run single as the Yankees scored three in the first inning for the second straight game.
Kikuchi (6-4) struggled badly in his first start since becoming an All-Star for the first time. His fastball velocity was down and both his cutter and slider caught too much of the plate early in the game.
The result was a lot of loud contact from the Yankees that Kikuchi was fortunate didn’t result in more runs. He allowed a season-high five runs and eight hits and settled down later in his outing to retire the final seven batters and get through five innings.
Domingo Germán was originally slated to start for the Yankees, but underwent an emergency root canal on Wednesday morning and was scratched from starting. Nick Nelson started and failed to make it out of the first inning thanks to three walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch that plated a run for Seattle.
Luis Cessa (2-1) became the difference maker for the Yankees. Cessa threw 3 solid innings after Nelson, including escaping a jam in the first inning. Cessa allowed just one hit.
New York Seattle
ab r h bi ab r h bi
LeMahiu 2b 4 0 0 0 Crawford ss 4 0 0 0
Judge rf 4 2 2 2 Haniger rf 3 2 0 0
Sanchez c 4 1 0 0 Seager 3b 3 0 0 0
Stanton dh 5 0 2 0 France 1b 4 1 1 0
Voit 1b 4 1 2 1 Fraley dh 3 0 0 0
Torres ss 4 0 1 2 Murphy c 3 1 2 3
Urshela 3b 4 0 1 0 Long Jr. lf 4 0 0 0
Gardner cf 4 0 0 0 Moore 2b 3 0 0 0
Locastro lf 4 1 2 0 Trammell cf 3 0 0 0
Totals 37 5 10 5 Totals 30 4 3 3
New York 320 000 000 — 5
Seattle 100 003 000 — 4
E—Urshela (7). DP—New York 1, Seattle 0. LOB—New York 8, Seattle 3. 2B—Urshela (14), Locastro 2 (2), Stanton (8). HR—Judge (20), Murphy (7).
IP H R ER BB SO
New York
Nelson 2/3 0 1 1 3 1
Cessa W, 2-1 31/3 1 0 0 0 1
German H, 1 3 2 3 0 0 5
Loaisiga H, 11 1 0 0 0 0 2
Green S, 3-4 1 0 0 0 0 2
Seattle
Kikuchi L, 6-4 5 8 5 5 3 5
Chargois 1 0 0 0 0 0
Middleton 1 1 0 0 0 0
Steckenrider 1 0 0 0 0 2
Sewald 1 1 0 0 0 1
HBP—Nelson (Haniger). WP—Nelson.
Umpires—Home, Todd Tichenor; First, Chad Whitson; Second, Jim Reynolds; Third, Tony Randazzo.
T—3:02. A—17,205 (47,929).
