Last night the Yankees defeated the Seattle Mariners to win their second game in a three-game set in Seattle. Rizzo led the team with two RBIs, one coming in extra innings, and winning the game for New York. The Mariners let the game slip away late in the 10th with a costly baserunning error.
Mariner’s star Julio Rodríguez’s centerfielder was on third base with Randy Arozarena at the plate. During his at-bat, Arozarena struck out swinging and lost his bat in the process, flinging it towards third base. J-Rod ran off the base to avoid the bat and casually walked back. Yankee’s catcher Austin Wells made the heads-up play to throw to third and as Rodríguez dove back to third he was tagged out by Jazz Chisholm. The next at-bat Justin Turner struck out, giving the Yankees the win 2-1.
“I just saw a bat flying up to my face and I just ran away from it,” and after that, I was just in a little bit of shock, and I didn’t get back to third base in time. After I saw the bat, I thought it was going to be a dead play,” J-Rod said after the game.
This error comes just one day after the Mariner’s Victor Robles made a mistake on the basepath, stealing home on a 3-0 with two outs in the first inning.
The loss for the Mariners put them three games behind the Minnesota Twins for the final wild-card spot in the AL.
As for New York, the win makes them the first team in the AL to clinch a playoff spot and gives them a five-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles (who they will play next week) for first place in the AL East.
The final game of this series is set to begin at 4:10 p.m. this afternoon.