Mariners end losing skid with extra innings win versus Yankees

Backed by a stellar outing from Bryan Woo, the Seattle Mariners overcome late adversity to even their series with the New York Yankees.

On a season-high four game losing streak, the Seattle Mariners needed something special to beat the New York Yankees on Tuesday night. And it came courtesy of a sublime start by Bryan Woo, some excellent defense and timely hitting in a 2-1 extra innings win.

After relying heavily on a resurgent offense for the majority of this season, Tuesday night hearkened back to last year when the Mariners ground out victories on the back of the best rotation in the majors. Woo really was at his best, on a night when the M’s desperately needed it.

There had been preseason predictions by some of the mainstream media that Woo would be the Mariners’ best starter this year, which has so far turned out to be the case. Albeit it’s almost been by default thanks to the injury absences of Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, along with the struggles of Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller.

Bryan Woo leads the way

In any event Woo was stellar against the potent Yankees lineup, holding them to four hits through 6.1 shutout innings. He didn’t allow any walks, struck out six and set the stage for the Mariners to win, combined with Cal Raleigh’s RBI double in the bottom of the fourth for a 1-0 lead.

However the Yankees persevered and tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the ninth helped by a throwing error from Dylan Moore, to take the game into extra innings. Fortunately for the Mariners their bullpen held strong, and a rejuvenated J.P. Crawford hit a walkoff single in the bottom of the 11th — his sixth career walkoff hit — to secure a hard-fought 2-1 win.

It really was a war of attrition for the Mariners with their own lineup similarly struggling against the Yankees’ red-hot Max Fried, who entered the evening with a barely believable 1.05 ERA. For the night as a whole the M’s only managed six hits and two walks, but it proved to be enough when combined with the efforts of Woo and the bullpen.

Woo has been the most consistent starter for the Mariners so far this season, with him going at least six innings in all eight of his starts. He’s the first Mariner to achieve this since Hisashi Iwakuma went nine straight back in 2014, and is tied for the Major League lead with the Philadelphia Phillies’ Zack Wheeler.

Unsurprisingly, Woo was understated when discussing his performance postgame with the media. He said:

“Like I always talk about, just try and be consistent. Try to know what they’re going to get out of me every fifth day.”

Woo has been this and more, leading all Mariners starters with a 1.5 WAR. It’s still relatively early of course, but he is currently projected to set career-bests with a 2.84 ERA, 2.69 FIP and 0.888 WHIP.

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Mariners put in a total team effort

The Mariners would have been lost without the outing from the righty, but the bullpen also deserves a lot of credit. They combined to go 4.2 innings and allow just one hit, three walks and one unearned run, while also striking out seven.

This included an excellent eighth inning by Matt Brash, who managed to strike out of the deadly Aaron Judge. Brash has yet to allow a run in four relief outings since returning from injury, with him also picking up his first hold of the season against the Yankees.

Mariners manager Dan Wilson was impressed by what he saw from Brash on the night. He said:

“It has not taken him very long, and to be in that kind of a leverage situation pretty quickly, and for him to respond like he did was phenomenal.”

Wilson was complimentary and appreciative of the team performance as a whole, especially against such a strong opponent. He said:

“Seeing what our guys do, nothing has wavered from how they approach things. The at-bats were great. The pitching was great. The defense was good. That’s what we do and to see it pay off here and in an extra-inning setting, that’s what we do and that’s how we do it.”

The Mariners improve to 23-18 and lead the AL West by 1.5 games as of Wednesday morning. They will now take aim at winning the series versus the Yankees, hoping that Castillo can rediscover some of the magic which made him so good in his first two seasons in Seattle.

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rodgers Photography

What’s your prediction for Wednesday afternoon’s rubber match? Will the Mariners prevail against the Yankees, or lose their second straight series? Let us know in the comments section below.