The New York Yankees (89-63) earned their sixth win in their last seven games and finally clinched at least a wild-card spot by beating the Seattle Mariners 2-1 on Wednesday night. The storied team has a five-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East.
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Once again to play in October
The Seattle Mariners (77-75), who remained five games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West and four and a half games out of the wild-card race, had their two chances. They finished with a 9-2 record with runners in scoring position and left an impressive 10 men on base.
The Yankees opened the scoring in the second inning of the game with one out. Dominguez took a few steps away and was able to steal second base, with a throw from Raleigh from behind the plate that went to center field and resulted in an error, which allowed Dominguez to advance without any problems to third base. Anthony Rizzo then hit a single to right field to drive in Dominguez’s run.
Justin Turner stands up for Seattle
For the Seattle Mariners, they managed to tie the game with a solo home run by Justin Turner off reliever Clay Holmes with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, a hit that landed just inside the foul pole in left field.
Both starters pitched at a fairly optimal level, although neither of them influenced the final decision of the game. For his part, Nestor Cortes pitched six innings in total and did not allow any runs for the Yankees. The left-hander only allowed four hits, gave three walks, and was able to strike out six opponents.
Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller also pitched six innings, allowing one run on two hits and four walks while striking out eight of his opponents.
It should be remembered that, in the tenth inning, with Jason Dominguez as the automatic runner, Anthony Rizzo was able to connect with the first pitch of the inning from the Seattle Mariners relief pitcher, Collin Sinder (3-4) towards the right field corner and the victory of the team from the Big Apple was confirmed.
Yankees reliever Luke Weaver (6-3) got the win, and Ian Hamilton pitched a scoreless 10th inning for his first save of the season.
In the bottom of the 10th inning, Cal Raleigh led off with a single to left field, sending automatic runner Julio Rodriguez to third base. Hamilton then struck out Randy Arozarena, who lost control of his final swing and the bat sailed down the third base line toward teammate Rodriguez. The Mariners’s star player ducked into foul territory to avoid the hit but then seemed to forget that it was not a dead ball at any point.
New York Yankees catcher Austin Wells threw to third base where Jazz Chisholm Jr. was defending and tagged Julio Rodriguez as he tried to return to base. Hamilton easily struck out Justin Turner to end the game.
New York Yankees is the first team to clinch a playoff berth this year in the American League, extended its lead over second-place Baltimore in the East to five games with 10 games remaining.
The Yankees managed just two hits off starter Bryce Miller but scored two RBIs off Rizzo, who gave them the early lead with a second-inning single for his first RBI since September 2.
