SEATTLE – They didn’t have John Olerud to cheer, Alex Rodriguez to jeer or Jason Giambi to fear.
The 46,359 who filled Safeco Field on Friday still got something all too familiar.
The New York Yankees, just as they did the last time they played in Seattle, pummeled the Mariners with eight extra-base hits in an 11-3 victory. It gave the Yankees their 18th victory in the 26 games they’ve played at Safeco Field.
Olerud, back in to Seattle for the first time since the Mariners released him last month, didn’t start against Mariners left-handed starter Ron Villone.
Rodriguez was a late scratch from the lineup because of a viral infection.
And Giambi wasn’t on the trip as he recovers from a benign tumor.
In their place rose Ruben Sierra, a former Mariner who drove in five runs with an RBI double in the second inning and a grand-slam homer in the Yankees’ six-run fourth.
He wasn’t alone.
Miguel Cairo, starting at third in place of Rodriguez, finished with two singles and an RBI triple; Derek Jeter had a single and a double; Gary Sheffield a single, double and two walks; Bernie Williams a single and a three-run homer in the third inning; and Jorge Posada a solo home run in the ninth to finish the scoring.
“You never anticipate anything like that,” said Villone, 4-3. “When I get guys on base, I expect to get ground-ball double plays, not lasers in the gaps.”
Oh, were there lasers.
Eight of the Yankees’ 14 hits were for extra bases, repeating a performance from early this season at Safeco.
On May 8, in the second game of a three-game series, the Yankees rocked Mariners pitchers for eight extra-base hits in a 6-0 victory. Three of those came against Villone, who pitched two innings of relief in that game and gave up two doubles and a homer.
It was just as ugly Friday.
Villone walked Hideki Matsui to start the second inning and Sierra drove him home with a double.
Jeter led off the third with a single, Sheffield doubled into the left field corner and Williams hit his 15th homer over the left-field fence for a 4-0 Yankees lead.
Villone didn’t stop anybody in the fourth. Enrique Wilson doubled, Cairo tripled and Jeter doubled, Sheffield walked and Williams singled.
“Every time I threw a good pitch inside or away, they laid off,” Villone said. “Then when I put the ball back on the plate, they crushed it.”
Villone was out of the game when the Yankees laid their biggest blow.
Scott Atchison relieved with one out in the fourth and the Yankees ahead 6-0, and he struck out his first hitter, Posada. Matsui followed with a single to load the bases, and Sierra cleared them.
Sierra’s grand slam was his second this season and the 299th home run of his career.
It put the Yankees ahead 10-0 in an offensive show that illustrated why they are so good this season.
The Mariners have more hits than the Yankees this season – 1,062 to 1,050 – but the Yankees have 83 more home runs (178 to 95) and 173 more RBI (615 to 442).
“No one is having a ridiculous year, but all of them are having a productive year,” Mariners manager Bob Melvin said. “They’re all in the 70s in RBI and they’re all hitting around .270 to .290. But they have more runs and RBI and more home runs.
“All the good stuff.”
The best the Mariners could do against Yankees right-hander Jon Lieber was Miguel Olivo’s two-run homer in the fifth inning and Jolbert Cabrera’s sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Bret Boone went 0-for-4 and saw his career-best hitting streak end at 16 games.
Ichiro Suzuki didn’t get the ball out of the infield on his first three at-bats and wasn’t even around for a fourth, having been replaced in the eighth inning by Cabrera. Suzuki’s league-leading average dropped two points to .360.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
