By Tim Booth
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Luis Severino pitched around trouble to throw seven shutout innings, Brett Gardner hit a solo home run off Felix Hernandez and the New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners 4-1 on Thursday night.
Severino (6-4) was overpowering when he needed to be, striking out six and getting his fastball to flash triple-digits on the stadium scoreboard even in the seventh inning. He allowed eight hits, but was outstanding when in trouble. Severino pitched out of jams in the first, second and most notably the fourth inning when Seattle had runners at the corners with no outs and was unable to score.
Gardner took advantage of the one mistake by Hernandez (5-4), driving a 2-1 pitch into the right-field seats with one out in the sixth. Other than that, Hernandez was as good as he’s been in 2017, striking out a season-high nine and pitching at least seven innings for the second time.
Aaron Judge added a broken-bat RBI single in the eighth inning. It was just his fourth hit in 29 at-bats since the All-Star break. The Yankees added a pair of runs in the ninth with two outs on Robinson Cano’s throwing error, allowing Didi Gregorius and Todd Frazier to score.
Three of New York’s four runs were unearned.
It was a vintage performance by Hernandez, all the way down to the lack of run support — a staple of his career with the Mariners. Hernandez has always pitched well against New York, and he was successful staying on the edges with his fastball, getting the Yankees to chase offspeed pitches out of the zone.
But he paid for the one mistake he made. Hernandez left a fastball in the middle of the plate, and Gardner smacked his 16th home run of the season.
The Mariners left eight runners on base in the first five innings, including failing to score in the fourth inning with runners on first and third and no outs. Mitch Haniger popped out on the infield and Jarrod Dyson’s shallow flyball failed to get Kyle Seager in from third. Mike Zunino walked to load the bases, but Severino got a groundout from Jean Segura to end the inning.
Cano had an RBI double in the ninth.
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