Yankees erupt in seventh to slip past Mariners

SEATTLE – Bobby Abreu homered and drove in three runs, Jason Giambi also connected and the New York Yankees rallied for five runs in the seventh inning to beat the Seattle Mariners 7-4 on Saturday night.

One night after Brandon Morrow held them hitless for 72/3 innings in his first major league start, the Yankees overcame four RBIs by Seattle’s Raul Ibanez to move within 7 1/2 games of Boston in the A.L. wild-card standings.

New York, which has reached the postseason in 13 consecutive years, has 20 games remaining.

Before the game, manager Joe Girardi wasn’t conceding anything – though he acknowledged the climb back to contention is ominously steep.

His Yankees then showed the motivation – no, desperation – of a team in danger of elimination soon. Especially after Ibanez’s three-run homer off Sidney Ponson in the sixth gave Seattle a 3-2 lead.

In the seventh, Johnny Damon reached on a fielder’s choice grounder. Damon stole second and third while reliever Sean Green (4-5) walked Derek Jeter on a full count.

Rookie Justin Thomas entered to face Abreu, whose home run in the first gave New York an early lead. Abreu lined a triple into the right-field corner that scored Damon and Jeter. Third-base coach Bobby Meacham was jumping up and down, clapping and yelling as New York took a 4-3 lead.

Roy Corcoran entered and hit Alex Rodriguez with his first pitch, a wayward breaking ball into Rodriguez’s upper arm. Giambi drove Corcoran’s next pitch to left-center for a ground-rule double that made it 5-3. Xavier Nady’s RBI groundout scored Rodriguez, and Hideki Matsui singled home Giambi to cap the five-run surge.

Ponson (8-5) won for the second time since July 21. He allowed Ibanez’s homer and four singles in six innings.

Ibanez bent down to golf a 1-1 pitch for his 23rd homer, giving him 100 RBIs for the third consecutive year and fourth time in 13 major league seasons.

He added an RBI single in the eighth off Joba Chamberlain, who allowed three hits in his second appearance since missing 24 games while on the disabled list with rotator cuff tendinitis.

Mariano Rivera, making his first appearance since Aug. 29, entered with two on and two outs in the eighth and got Jose Lopez to ground out. Rivera pitched a perfect ninth for his 33rd save in 34 chances.

Ryan Rowland-Smith allowed seven hits and three runs in 61/3 innings for Seattle, which lost to the Yankees for the ninth time in 10 games.

Abreu’s home run off the Australian was his first in 126 at-bats. That was Abreu’s longest power outage since last April and May.

In the sixth, Giambi hit his 29th home run, a line drive just over the railing of bleachers in right. It was Giambi’s 206th home run with the Yankees, surpassing Dave Winfield for 10th in team history.