NEW YORK — The box score credited Ryan McMahon and Trent Grisham, and for good reason.
The two of them drove in all four runs in the Yankees’ 4-1 win over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. Their two-run singles in the seventh inning turned a one-run deficit into a comfortable lead. Those are the names that will live in the recap.
But the inning did not start with them. It started with a hard line drive off the bat of a player who did not drive in a single run all night. He scored none of the four. He barely got a mention.
That player was Luis Garcia Jr. And the way his night unfolded, mostly in the margins, is the clearest sign yet of why the Yankees paid a steep price to get him.
The double that set everything in motion
The Yankees had gone hitless with runners in scoring position through six innings. They trailed 1-0 after a Randy Arozarena home run off starter Ryan Weathers. The offense looked stuck in the same rut that has defined its summer.
Garcia broke the spell. He led off the seventh with a double off the right-field wall against reliever Michael Rucker. It was his second two-bagger of the night. Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with a single that pushed Garcia to third, the Yankees’ first hit with a runner in scoring position all evening.
From there, the pressure did the work. Chisholm stole second. Spencer Jones walked to load the bases. Then McMahon and Grisham delivered the two-run singles that broke the game open. Garcia scored the first run of the rally. He did not need a RBI to be the reason it happened.
The underlying numbers backed up the eye test. Garcia’s two doubles left the bat at 111 mph and 106 mph. Even his outs were scalded. For a lineup starved of hard contact, it was a different kind of at-bat.
A steep price for a middle-of-the-order bat
The Yankees acquired Garcia from the Washington Nationals on Aug. 2. The cost was significant. New York sent four right-handed pitchers to Washington: relievers Yovanny Cruz and Jake Bird, both with big-league time, plus prospects Jack Cebert and Ben Grable. Cebert ranked as the Yankees’ No. 14 prospect, per MLB Pipeline.
Garcia arrived in the middle of a breakout season. He was hitting .283 with 23 home runs, a .560 slugging percentage and an .873 OPS in 104 games for the Nationals. That slugging mark led the entire National League at the time of the deal.
The trade even carried a piece of history. According to Jayson Stark of The Athletic, Garcia was the first player ever dealt in midseason while leading his league in slugging. The move mirrored the Philadelphia Phillies’ acquisition of NL batting leader Luis Arraez, giving both East division contenders a league leader at the deadline.
The Yankees made the deal out of need. Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger have all missed time, thinning a lineup that entered Tuesday hitting a Majors-worst mark since the All-Star break. Garcia, a left-handed bat, gave manager Aaron Boone a proven run producer to plug into the heart of the order.
Boone saw it coming
Boone did not hide his enthusiasm when the trade was announced. Speaking about Garcia after the deal, the Yankees manager kept it blunt.
“He rakes,” Boone said. “He can really hit.”
Boone also framed Garcia as a hitter who had turned a corner, pointing to his platoon splits as a reason the Yankees valued him so highly against right-handed pitching.
“He’s been a hitter who has really come of age this year,” Boone said. “One of the best left-vs-right hitters in the National League.”
The early returns support the praise. Garcia is 6-for-23 with a home run and just one strikeout in six games since joining New York. The lone strikeout stands out for a lineup that has chased and missed all summer.
Why the Yankees needed exactly this
Garcia projects as a first baseman and designated hitter for now, likely sharing time with Paul Goldschmidt against certain matchups until Stanton returns. The fit is about balance. Garcia hits right-handed pitching hard, which is where the Yankees have most needed help.
The larger point is impact. In an MLB.com poll of writers on which traded hitter would most affect the playoff race, Garcia was the top choice, drawing more votes than Arraez. The Yankees were widely judged to have made the deadline’s most meaningful offensive addition.
Tuesday offered a small preview of that promise. Garcia did not drive in a run, yet he was the engine of the only inning that mattered. The win pushed the Yankees to 67-52. They remain second in the AL East, six games behind the Tampa Bay Rays, and hold a comfortable lead in the AL wild-card race while trying to hold off the surging Boston Red Sox.
The Yankees continue their series with Seattle on Wednesday night. Garcia will be back in the lineup, still adjusting to his new team, still showing why the front office was willing to pay for him. For a club leaning on its pitching and waiting on its stars, his bat may be the piece that decides how far this season goes.
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