A-Rod’s homer ruins Mariners in 4-3 loss to Yankees
NEW YORK – The much-needed push the Mariners say they require to erase the sour taste of a disappointing first half is on hold for at least one more day.
The Mariners ran into the Alex Rodriguez resurrection tour when they returned Friday from the All-Star break with a 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
Rodriguez broke a 3-3 tie in the seventh inning with a no-doubt drive to right-center field against reliever Joe Beimel (0-1), who had just replaced starter Mike Montgomery.
“It was a sinker that didn’t sink,” Beimel said. “Usually, I throw that pitch and it drops to the bottom of the zone. He just put a good swing on it, went with it and went the other way.”
A-Rod’s homer was his 19th of the year after missing all of last season while serving a suspension. It also countered a pair of homers by Kyle Seager against Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka.
“I had the matchup I wanted,” manager Lloyd McClendon said. “This guy (Rodriguez) is hitting less than .200, and the guy on deck (Mark Teixeria) is less than .111 against left-handers’ breaking stuff.
“We had the guys in there we wanted. We just didn’t execute the pitch.”
Rodriguez, with 673 career homers, hit his first 189 career homers from 1994-2000 as a Mariner – and he has now hit 34 against them in 125 games over the other 14 years of his career.
Tanaka (6-3) gave up three runs, on Seager’s two homers, in seven innings before Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller closed out the victory. Miller got his 19th save.
Montgomery bounced back from a career-worst outing against the Angels by delivering his sixth quality start in nine outings. He held the Yankees to three runs in six innings.
New York took a 1-0 lead on Chris Young’s one-out homer in the second inning.
The Mariners answered on Seager’s first homer, a one-out drive to right in the third inning, but Young helped the Yankees regain the lead in the fourth inning with a leadoff double. Chase Headley followed with a grounder up the middle for an RBI single.
The Yankees’ lead only lasted until Seager, in his next at-bat, crushed a first-pitch sinker from Tanaka for a two-run homer with two outs in the fifth.
In the bottom of the fifth, Rodriguez singled and Teixeira walked. Brian McCann then tied the game by lining an RBI single to right. It stayed 3-3 until A-Rod happened.
The M’s have recalled right-handed reliever Tom Wilhelmsen from Triple-A Tacoma. He takes the spot left open when reliever Danny Farquhar was sent down Sunday.