Yankees 7, Mariners 5: Giancarlo Stanton’s walk-off home run completes improbable comeback

Have you heard that Giancarlo Stanton is on the Yankees now? If you somehow missed it, let me remind you. He’s here, and it’s incredible. He’s also the reason the Bombers finished off a remarkable comeback against the Mariners. It was a roller coaster of a game that ended with the Yankees on top by the score of 7 - 5.

Let’s start with the bad to get it out of the way. Jonathan Loaisiga’s encore performance didn’t go over nearly as well as his debut. He battled location right away, but also suffered from a ton of soft-contact hits. His defense bailed him out on a number of occasions. The first two innings alone benefited from a double play, deep fly ball out, and a brilliant snag at the hot corner from Miguel Andujar. The Yankees defense, however, plays like a double-edged sword. It got Loaisiga through the first few innings, but it also backfired on him later.

Case in point: Seattle jumped ahead in the fourth inning on an odd series of events. After walking Kyle Seager, Loaisiga allowed a single to Denard Span. That moved Seager to third base. The Yankees appeared to have caught Span straying too far off base, so Gleyber Torres fired to first. His throw was off, however, and Seager came home to score.

Johnny Lasagna allowed a double to Ben Gamel, sandwiched between two outs, and that was it for him. He left with two runners on and two outs. Chasen Shreve came on to face Dee Gordon, but the left-hander’s struggles continued. A Gordon single cleared the bases and the M’s had a three-run lead. We’ll get to Shreve later, though.

The final line on Loaisiga reads: three runs on six hits across 3.2 innings pitched. He struck out four in the process, but walked two batters. He struggled to throw strikes, and appeared at times to shy away from the zone. That can be expected for such a young arm. At least he has another start under his belt. He also has an ERA now — 3.12 (2.87 FIP). A lot of firsts tonight.

Now, let’s talk Shreve. The Yankees really have a Shreve problem. He’s basically unusable. If allowing the inherited runners to score wasn’t bad enough, he came back out for a second inning and coughed up a few of his own. That they came with two outs makes it even more infuriating. Aaron Boone somehow thought it would be a good idea to go back to out for a third frame, a move that felt like the Yankees were hanging him out to dry. He ended up being lifted for Jonathan Holder, but I’m curious to see where he goes from here.

Meanwhile, the Yankees’ offense struggled to muster much of anything against Hernandez. He wasn’t vintage King Felix by any means, working in and out of jams all night. The veteran right-hander began to falter in the fifth inning, though. A double off the bat of Andujar and a walk to Aaron Hicks set the Yankees up. Aaron Judge then cashed in with a two-RBI single to make it 5 - 2, Yankees.

They continued to chip away at the lead in the bottom of the seventh. Clint Frazier led off the frame with a hustle double against James Pazos. Judge moved Red Thunder to third before a Didi Gregorius sacrifice fly plated the run. Alex Colome relieved Pazos and struck out Stanton to end the inning. He wouldn’t be so lucky in the eighth, however, as he ran into Gary Sanchez.

Just like that, the game was tied. Aroldis Chapman retired the side in order, giving the Yankees a chance to walk it off in the bottom of the ninth against Ryan Cook. That they did, thanks to a two-out single from Gregorius and this glorious, moonshot home run from Stanton:

Ball game. Yankees come back to take game two in thrilling fashion. They will go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 PM. It will be Luis Severino against James Paxton. Should be fun!

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