NEW YORK — One afternoon after the Yankees finally looked capable of breaking open a game, the offense disappeared again. The contrast was sharp enough to capture the problem that has followed New York through much of its recent stretch.
Ten runs Wednesday became none Thursday. Four hits replaced the previous night’s 12. Max Fried and four scoreless innings from the bullpen kept the game within a single swing, but the Yankees never found it in a 1-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners at Yankee Stadium.
The defeat prevented a three-game sweep and dropped the Yankees to 68-53. With Tampa Bay idle, New York slipped 6 1/2 games behind the Rays in the AL East. The Yankees still left the homestand with a 6-3 record, but their seventh shutout loss exposed the same narrow margin that has repeatedly forced their pitching staff to be nearly perfect.
Logan Gilbert supplied much of the reason. The Mariners right-hander worked six scoreless innings, allowed four hits, struck out seven and walked one. Seattle’s bullpen finished the shutout, with Andres Munoz striking out two in a perfect ninth for his 21st save.
Strange Grisham mistake erases the Yankees’ best early chance
The Yankees had chances before Gilbert settled in, but their most unusual missed opportunity arrived in the third inning.
Ali Sánchez lined a one-out single down the right-field line. Trent Grisham followed by driving another ball into the same area and reached second standing up. For a moment, the Yankees appeared to have runners at second and third with one out.
Then Seattle challenged.
Replay showed Grisham’s foot coming off the second-base bag as he finished the play. Shortstop Leo Rivas kept the tag on him, and the safe call was overturned. Instead of two runners in scoring position with one out, Sánchez remained at third with two outs.
Ben Rice grounded out to end the inning.
The mistake became especially costly because the Yankees did not put another runner in scoring position until the seventh. In a game that ended 1-0, the difference between one out and two outs in the third became one of the afternoon’s defining details.
Grisham’s baserunning miscue also came less than 24 hours after he drove New York’s offense. He homered twice, doubled home the go-ahead run and finished with four RBIs in Wednesday’s 10-5 comeback win. The next afternoon, a few centimeters between his foot and second base helped erase what looked like another extra-base hit.
Mariners catcher turns ABS into another weapon
Seattle catcher Jhonny Pereda created a second layer of frustration for the Yankees by repeatedly using the automated ball-strike challenge system successfully.
Pereda won four ABS challenges during the game. Two of the most damaging came in the sixth inning, when challenges turned pitches initially called balls against Grisham and Spencer Jones into called third strikes.
The system hurt New York again in the seventh. Jose Caballero walked, advanced to second on an error and stole third. Ryan McMahon also walked, putting the Yankees in their best late-game position.
Amed Rosario pinch-hit with the tying run 27.4 meters from home plate. Another Seattle challenge reversed the call and produced a strikeout, taking away a potential avenue for the rally before the Mariners escaped.
The sequence illustrated how little separated the teams. Seattle did not overwhelm New York offensively. The Mariners instead won the details: Grisham lost contact with the base, Pereda won his challenges, and the Yankees went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
Fried’s rare home run becomes the entire margin
Max Fried had almost no room for a mistake, and the one pitch he wanted back decided the game.
Weston Wilson led off the second inning and drove a 2-2 cutter into the left-field seats. It was only the second home run Fried has surrendered this season and his first allowed since April 16.
The homer also made Wilson the first Mariners player to homer in a 1-0 victory over the Yankees.
Fried allowed one run on five hits and two walks over five innings. He struck out four and threw 55 of 88 pitches for strikes. The left-hander fell to 4-4 despite lowering his season ERA to 2.81. He has a 1.82 ERA with 29 strikeouts over 24 2/3 innings across his past five starts.
Fried said the outing required him to work without his best command. His frustration centered on the two-strike pitch Wilson punished.
“Was definitely a grind, didn’t feel like I necessarily had my best stuff and was a little erratic,” Fried said. “But was able to make some big pitches, relied on Ali [Sánchez] and defense — we had some really nice defensive plays today.
“Definitely wish I had that two-strike [pitch] back to Wilson. But all in all, [we] grinded and [it] was definitely a hard-fought game today.”
Yankees pitching leaves four innings for a comeback
The Yankees gave the lineup every opportunity to erase the one-run deficit after Fried departed.
Ryan Yarbrough, Yerry De Los Santos and Fernando Cruz combined for four scoreless innings. Seattle finished with five hits, and the Yankees pitching staff did not allow another run after Wilson’s second-inning homer.
Rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr. also helped Fried escape traffic with his glove. New York turned double plays in the fourth and fifth innings, keeping Seattle from building on its lead.
Luis García Jr. supplied half of the Yankees’ four hits. He doubled to begin the second inning, but Lombard fouled out, Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out and Caballero popped out. García finished 2-for-4.
Manager Aaron Boone pointed to those early opportunities while crediting Gilbert for taking control as the afternoon progressed.
“I thought early on we had some good at-bats against [Gilbert], right from jump with [Trent] Grisham and [Spencer] Jones smoking balls for outs in the first inning, and then [Luis] García [Jr.] leads off the second with a double, gives us a good scoring opportunity,” Boone said. “But from there, we just weren’t able to do much.”
Another one-run game tightens the pressure
Gilbert improved to 9-7 with his fifth scoreless start of the season. Eduard Bazardo worked around two runners in the seventh, José A. Ferrer retired the Yankees in order in the eighth and Muñoz closed it.
The Yankees have now lost their past three defeats by scores of 1-0, 2-1 and 3-1. They scored only two total runs in those games despite receiving enough pitching to stay within striking distance each time.
That pattern has changed the feel of almost every late inning. Boone described the stretch as one in which the Yankees are constantly operating under postseason-like pressure.
“It’s been playoffs every day, it feels like,” Boone said. “I got people on the street saying, ‘Hey, it’ll turn around.’
“I’m like, ‘We’re doing all right.’ ”
Lombard, who went 0-for-4 but again contributed defensively, offered a similar view of the low-scoring games.
“Games like this are battles,” Lombard said. “And that’s how games are in October. So just practice finding a way to win those tight games.”
The Yankees have won 18 of their past 29 games despite the offensive strain. They now leave the Bronx for series in Toronto and Baltimore with the postseason race intact, but Thursday showed how quickly one baserunning mistake, one successful challenge or one misplaced cutter can decide a game when the lineup produces nothing.
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