Edgar Sends Yankees Reeling Martinez’s Homers Help New York To Its Seventh Straight Defeat
Edgar Martinez hit two home runs and drove in four runs Friday night as the Seattle Mariners beat New York 7-4, sending the Yankees to their seventh straight loss.
The Yankees’ losing streak is the franchise’s longest since an eight-game skid in September 1991. The Mariners are 7-1 against the Yankees this season, including 5-0 in the Kingdome.
With the score tied 2-2 in the third inning, Martinez hit a 412-foot, three-run homer off Andy Pettitte (6-8) after a double by Luis Sojo and a walk to Ken Griffey Jr.
Martinez, who leads the major leagues with a .370 batting average, led off the seventh with his 24th homer.
It was Martinez’s second two-homer game of the season and sixth of his career.
Chris Bosio (9-6) allowed two runs on four hits in the second inning, and eight hits in 5-2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one.
The Yankees took a 2-0 lead in the second on RBI singles by Tony Fernandez and Randy Velarde.
The Mariners came back with two runs in the bottom half on Dan Wilson’s two-run single.
After Martinez’s first home run, the Mariners added a fourth run in the third on Tino Martinez’s double-play grounder. Pettitte lasted only 2-2/3 innings. He surrendered six runs on five hits and five walks, four of whom scored.
Ruben Sierra hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth off Bobby Ayala. It was his 16th home run.
The Mariners went back over .500 (56-55) and closed to within two games of Texas in the A.L. wild-card race. The Yankees, now 2-9 on a 13-game road trip, remained 4-1/2 games back.
Notes
Edgar Martinez, with his two homers and two walks, improved his on-base percentage to .504, the best in the majors… . The Yankees are 2-15 on the road against West Coast teams (Oakland, California and Seattle) this year… . They have been outhomered in the last 11 games 15-2.
Ken Griffey Jr. has tentatively scheduled surgery to remove the plate from his left wrist on Oct. 28 in Seattle… . Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, who left the game Thursday because of back spasms, will likely miss the rest of this series and could miss as much as 10 days. … Not only was Griffey’s game-winning home run Thursday the first game-ending long ball of his career, it was the first game-ending hit of his career, period.
It was unanimous in the New York clubhouse that Joey Cora’s game-tying single off shortstop Tony Fernandez’s glove in the ninth inning Thursday should have been ruled an error. Official scorer Harland Beery was asked by the Yankees to review his decision, but he declined to change it.