Yankees 5, Mariners 3: Joey Gallo’s signature moment

What started off as a boring, dull game was soon electrified by a two-out rally in the seventh. Tonight, we had a few great things: Joey Gallo was the hero with two doubles and a go-ahead dinger, Michael Kay cited WAR on the YES broadcast once again, and the Yankees defeated the Mariners, 5-3.

Neither Nestor Cortes nor Tyler Anderson dazzled tonight, yet they kept their opposing offenses under the wraps, for the most part. Cortes’ command was not there. Fans have grown accustomed to the crafty southpaw throwing pitches exactly where he needs to, but it was just was not his night in terms of dotting up:

Even so, Cortes only let in two and kept his ERA at 2.15 for the season. One run came via a Mitch Haniger sacrifice fly in the top of the third, and the next from this towering fly ball hit by Seager on a hanging curveball in the fourth that traveled over the wall.

Seager launched this one at 42 degrees. He may have not crushed it, but when you leave pitches like this right over the plate, it does not take much to get it over the short porch in right field. Thankfully, the Yankees would be the benefactors of a similar shot later on.

Chad Green followed up Cortes and looked like he had the stuff in his first inning out there. He started it off with a double play, then ripped off this sweet curveball to end the inning.

Then came Mariners phenom Jarred Kelenic. This time, Green hung a curveball and Kelenic punished him for it. Green has a tendency to hang this pitch. It’s never ideal getting stung by your second-best offering, but ‘tis the game.

On the Yankees’ side of things, Gallo was the star of the night. His two doubles alone were enough for a great game. The second was smoked down the right field line with an exit velocity of 107.7 mph. However, that was not his hardest-hit ball of the evening.

That mighty blow came on Gallo’s clutch, go-ahead three-run homer in the seventh, which was a wall-scraper, but struck at 109.5 mph and launched even higher than Seager’s home run. It was hit at 48 degrees, the highest home run in the Yankees’ Statcast era, as Kay cited on the broadcast.

Even Gallo wasn’t sure there for second, but he willed it over the wall:

The homer capped off a two-out rally started by an Aaron Judge single, followed by a walk from Giancarlo Stanton, and then of course, Gallo’s light-tower blast. I’d be lying if I said that this is what we expect from Gallo because that’d be irrational, but we definitely know that this is what he can do on any given night. When you hit the ball that consistently hard, anything put in play is bound for success, even when you hit it that high. The stadium erupted after the homer; Rizzo and Gallo have provided plenty of excitement thus far in their short tenures in pinstripes.

After the rally, Zack Britton came in throwing his bowling-ball sinkers. He’s looked much better the last two times out. He got a double play of his own, in classic Britton form, and had a relatively easy inning on his way to handing it off to Chapman. Speaking of which, he has looked much better as well ... at least before his yippy outing today. Chapman came into this appearance with six straight scoreless appearances, but just did not have much command at all.

Less than half of Chapman’s 30 pitches were strikes, he issued a walk and a wild pitch, and he allowed the dangerous Mitch Haniger to step to the plate as the go-ahead run. The Seattle slugger worked Chapman to 3-0, but thankfully, the veteran held it together enough to notch the save on a deep fly ball to left. That secured the 5-3 win and allowed the crowd to finally exhale.

The Yankees will be led a by a pitcher to be named later* tomorrow, as they try to clinch their fourth straight series win. Marco Gonzales will take the hill for the Mariners. Let’s hope the bats show up early and often.

*Update: It’s reliever Wandy Peralta as the opener. Let’s get weird, I guess.

Box Score