Santana’s HR Lifts Mariners to Victory Over Yankees

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New York Yankees 3, Seattle Mariners 4

In a clubhouse with little playoff experience, Carlos Santana is the old man who can be relied on for advice and guidance.

And every now and then, he’ll come up with a clutch hit or two to remind us that he’s still a pretty good player.

Santana’s go-ahead two-run homer during Seattle’s three-run seventh inning snapped a 0-for-17 slump, and the Mariners rallied to beat the slumping New York Yankees 4-3 on Wednesday.

Seattle won the season series 4-2, thanks to two tense, one-run victories over New York for the second week in a row. Tuesday night, the Mariners won 1-0 in 13 innings. The teams could meet again in the playoffs, with the Yankees leading the AL East and Seattle in the first AL wild-card spot.

For the Yankees, who have lost eight of ten games, Aaron Judge hit his major league-leading 45th home run of the season.

Since mid-June, when it lost four of five to the Los Angeles Angels, Seattle has not lost a series to a team other than AL West leader Houston. Since the All-Star break, Seattle is 10-10, including 13 games against Houston and New York.

Seattle improved its record in one-run games to 27-14.

Kyle Higashioka‘s two-run homer on the 115th and final pitch from Seattle starter Robbie Ray in the seventh inning snapped the Yankees’ 19-inning scoreless streak, and Judge’s longball against Penn Murfee (3-0) made it 3-1 later in the frame.

Murfee then struck out DJ LeMahieu and Anthony Rizzo, before Diego Castillo pitched a perfect eighth and Sewald finished.

Ray and New York starter Nestor Cortes were both outstanding, following standout performances by Gerrit Cole of the Yankees and Luis Castillo of the Mariners on Tuesday.

Cortes struck out 10 batters and did not allow a hit until the sixth inning, when Sam Haggerty homered off the left-field foul pole with one out.

Cortes was removed after allowing consecutive singles to Ty France and Mitch Haniger to start the seventh inning. France won 3-2 thanks to Haniger’s hit.

Albert Abreu (2-2) struck out Eugenio Suarez but left a changeup in the middle of the plate, which Santana smacked, his seventh home run since joining Seattle in June.

With Cleveland, Santana, 36, made the playoffs four times in four seasons.

Ray pitched 6 1/3 innings and allowed three hits and two runs. He struck out seven batters but walked five, a season high.

NEXT UP

RHP Domingo German (1-2, 5.09 ERA) will start the first game of a three-game series against the Red Sox on Friday.

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