Mariners suffer major case of blahs against Max Fried, Yankees

They couldn’t hit Yankees ace Max Fried.

They didn’t pitch particularly well.

And they looked disoriented at times on defense.

Other than all that, a banner day for the Seattle Mariners.

Six games in, the Mariners had their first blah performance of the season in a forgettable 5-0 loss to the Yankees on Tuesday night before a crowd of 32,790 at T-Mobile Park.

The Mariners had little chance against Fried, the veteran left-hander signed last year to a $218 million deal. Just two Mariners – a Julio Rodríguez walk and a Josh Naylor single – reached base through the first six innings, and they didn’t advance a runner past first until there were two outs in the seventh.

Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch and Brendan Donovan followed with a broken-bat single, the Mariners’ first – and only – mini-threat against Fried, who then got Victor Robles to fly out to end the seventh inning.

And that concludes your Mariners “highlights” for the night.

In a series pitting two World Series hopefuls, the Mariners won the opener Monday night, 2-1, on Cal Raleigh’s walk-off single.

The Yankees (4-1) were in control from the jump Tuesday night.

For the rubber match Wednesday afternoon, the Mariners (3-3) will turn to George Kirby. The Yankees will counter with Cam Schlittler, their 25-year-old flame-throwing right-hander.

Logan Gilbert, in his second start, was tagged for five runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings, with three walks and six strikeouts.

Gilbert pitched better than his final line would indicate. He gave up a hard-luck blooper off Giancarlo Stanton’s bat that gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but Gilbert did leave a hanging splitter over the plate that Stanton hammered for an 112.8-mph RBI double in the sixth inning to make it 4-0.

That was Gilbert’s final pitch.

Cole Wilcox came in and surrendered a sharp single to Jazz Chisholm Jr., extending the Yankees’ lead to five.

Gilbert did make Aaron Judge look human for one night. That’s no small feat.

Judge struck out twice and grounded out to Leo Rivas for a 6-3 double play.

Gilbert, though, lacked his usual command, and eventually the Yankees wore him down.