The Yankees' bats stayed hot in Seattle with an 11-5 win over the Mariners

Seattle—The Yankees took down the Mariners 11-5 in game one of this three-game series. Clarke Schmidt got the start for the Yankees, and Emerson Handcock took the mound for the Mariners. 

Julio Rodriguez started the scoring early for the Mariners with a solo home run to make it a 1-0 Mariners lead in the bottom of the first inning. 

Schmidt picked up a big strikeout to help work out of a second and third one-out jam in the bottom of the second inning. 

In the top of the third inning, Trent Grisham tied things up with his 11th home run of the season that bounced off the heel of Julio Rodríguez's glove to make it a 1-1 game. 

“I feel like my mentality is in the right place,” Grisham said on his early-season success. "I’m not going up there trying to do it there, just kinda coming, and I’m just putting really good swings on the ball right now.”

The Marniers took the lead right back in the bottom of the third inning with a solo bomb from Jorge Palonco to make it a 2-1 game. 

Oswaldo Cabrera made a beautiful sliding catch in foul territory to help Schmidt retire the Mariners in order in the bottom of the fourth inning. 

Grisham tied things up at 2-2 in the top of the fifth with his second solo bomb of the night and his 12th of the season. Aaron Judge followed that up with a single to left field, his second hit of the night, to raise his average to .414. The next batter, Ben Rice, hit a rocket double to put two runners in scoring position with one out. Paul Goldschmidt then delivered an RBI single to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. Then Cody Bellinger came through with a line drive RBI single to right field to make it a 4-2 game and extended Bellinger's hitting streak to eight games in a row. 

A couple batters later, Austin Wells broke this game open with a three-run bomb to straight away center field to extend the Yankees' lead to 7-2 and cap off a six-run inning where the Yankees brought nine men to the plate. 

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Schmidt retired the Mariners in order on just eight pitches and picked up two more strikeouts to put his total up to six in the ballgame. 

Schmidt worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth inning, as he has now retired 11 straight Mariners hitters.

Goldy Knocks led off the top of the seventh with his second knock of the night as he lined a single up the middle. A couple of batters later, Volpe snuck through a ground ball single just past the diving Rowdy Tellez, allowing Goldy to go first to third. The next batter, Wells, picked up a sac fly to extend the Yankees' lead to 8-2. 

Randy Arozarena led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a double into the right field corner to knock Schmidt out of the game. Mark Lieter Jr. replaced Schmidt on the mound and gave up an RBI bloop single to Dylan More to cut into the Yankees' lead and make it an 8-3 game.

Clarke Schmidt’s final line: six plus innings pitched, three hits allowed, three earned runs, two walks, and six strikeouts on 92 pitches. Schmidt threw his cutter 34% of the time, the knuckle curve 24%, the sweeper 22%, the sinker 18%, and the fastball 2% of the time. Schmidt’s stuff was very solid tonight, just made two big mistakes, and those were both deposited into the stands for home runs. 

Tim Hill replaced Leiter Jr. on the mound in the bottom half of the eighth inning and served up a two-run home run to Cal Raleigh to make it an 8-5 game. Devin Williams came into the game to replace Hill and picked up the final out of the eighth inning. 

Beli led off the top of the ninth with his second single of the ballgame, and the next batter, Anthony Volpe, crushed a two-run bomb to extend the Yankees' lead to 10-5. The next batter, Oswaldo Cabrera, picked up a single up the middle, as now every Yankee in the starting nine has a hit on the night. The next batter, Peraza, was hit by a pitch, and Grisham followed that up with a single to left field to load the bases.

Judge picked up a sac fly to make it an 11-5 game. But, Cabrera was hurt during the play as he awkwardly slid into the home plate to try to avoid the tag. They had to have an ambulance come onto the field to remove Cabrera, which you rarely see. It was truly a heartbreaking scene, praying that Cabrera is okay, but that did not look good.

“That's terrible,” Judge said about the Cabrera injury. “Especially with how much Cabrera means to this team. For him to get hurt on a play like that, just kinda speaks to the guy he is. We got a little bit of a lead, and he’s still fighting until the very last out. Everyone in here feels terrible because we just know how much he works, how hard he works, and how much he cares for everybody in this room… You never like seeing that happen to anybody but especially a guy like that.”

Ian Hamilton replaced Williams on the mound and worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth inning to close this ballgame out. 

The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow with Max Fried on the mound, and Bryan Woo will take the ball for the Mariners. The first pitch will be at 9:40 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Great game all around for the Yankees' offense as Grisham had two more home runs. Judge had two more hits tonight as his average is now .414 with a 1.283 OPS. Goldy Knocks had two more hits tonight as his average is up to .350 with an .895 OPS. Wells had a big night with four RBIs and a big three-run bomb. Volpe had a two-hit night with a two-run bomb in the ninth. Rice only had one hit on the night, but he hit the ball hard all night long, just didn't have much to show for it. Great start from Schmidt as he put together a second straight quality start. But it felt like all of that was spoiled due to a very scary ankle injury from Oswaldo Cabrera in the ninth. It was a very scary scene. If you didn't see it, consider yourself lucky, and I am praying for a speedy recovery for Cabrera.