Ty France hit a go-ahead RBI single during Seattle’s four-run ninth inning against reliever Clay Holmes, leading the Mariners to a 5-4 victory over the New York Yankees on Monday night.
The Mariners snapped New York’s seven-game winning streak with their big inning against Holmes (1-1), who failed to save his 13th out of 15 opportunities this season.
“We’ve had a lot of crazy wins here over the last seven, eight years that I’ve been here, but I don’t know of anything wilder than that one,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “Tremendous effort by our guys just hanging in there.”
Luke Raley, who had two of Seattle’s three hits off starter Marcus Stroman, hit an infield single to Gleyber Torres, and Julio Rodríguez scored on the second baseman’s error. Mitch Haniger followed with an RBI single, and Dominic Canzone hit a tying sacrifice fly to the warning track in right.
“I just think we never give in,” Raley said. “Obviously, Holmes has been throwing the ball really well, and we’re able to kind of dink and dunk them for a couple of runs. So always good wins to be able to do that.”
France then grounded a 2-0 sinker to right field for a 5-4 lead, giving Seattle its second late comeback win on a 10-game trip, two days after rallying in the eighth to beat Baltimore.
“Two good ball teams and obviously we see kind of where we stand, and we can go out and beat these guys and just good confidence,” Raley said. “Coming in here it’s a tough place to play, and just being able to walk away with the opening game of a series is great.”
Eduardo Bazardo (1-0) allowed an RBI single to Jon Berti in the bottom of the eighth, pushing New York’s lead to 4-1 before Seattle’s comeback. It was the Mariners’ second win in 23 games when trailing through eight innings.
Andrés Muñoz got the last three outs, stranding Juan Soto at first for his ninth save. Muñoz struck out Aaron Judge with a 100.8 mph fastball and finished the game by retiring Alex Verdugo.
