Johnny Brito out pitched Luis Castillo as the Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners, 4-2, on Wednesday night at The Stadium.
Takeaways
– The Yankees got on the board first in the third inning off of Castillo. After a leadoff walk from Anthony Volpe, Jake Bauers launched a towering two-run homer over the right-center field wall to give the Yanks a 2-0 lead. Bauers finished 1-for-2 with a walk.
Billy McKinney added to the Yankees lead in the fourth with a one-out solo shot. McKinney went 2-for-3 and is now hitting .317 since his call up.
– Castillo, once a trade target for the Yankees, has had a very successful career against New York. In four career games, he’s 1-1 with a 2.36 ERA but his team’s are 3-0 in his last three starts against the Bombers. However, Wednesday was different as the Yanks made him work and picked up three runs against him. His final line: 5 IP, four hits, three earned runs, four walks and three strikeouts.
– Brito gave the Yanks nearly six innings of shutout baseball. In his last start — May 20 against the Cincinnati Reds — he went just four innings and gave up four runs. Wednesday, the 25-year-old shut out the Mariners through 5.2 innings and scattered just three runners (two hits, one walk).
Brito was pulled after walking his final batter in the sixth by Aaron Boone. Brito went 5.2 innings (81 pitches/51 strikes) while giving up two hits, one walk and striking out three. In 11 games (10 starts), Brito is now 4-3 with a 4.89 ERA.
– After receiving another vote of confidence from Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner on Wednesday’s The Michael Kay ShowVolpe produced at the plate going 1-for-2 with a walk and a solo shot in the seventh inning.
The shortstop’s homer was his 10th of the season, putting him third among American League rookies. He’s also only the fourth Yankee rookie to have 10-plus home runs and 15-plus stolen bases in a season, joining Alfonso Soriano (2001), Bobby Brown (1980) and Tony Lazzeri (1926).
-The Yankee bullpen did its job in relief of Brito. Jimmy Cordero got four outs while Wandy Peralta got the first two batters he faced before giving up a solo shot to Dylan Moore that cut the Yankee lead to 4-1. Michael King finished the eighth inning, but got into trouble in the ninth. He gave up a walk and single to lead off the inning before he got Teoscar Hernandez to fly out. Tommy Kahnle came in and got Jarred Kelenic to fly out and cut the lead to 4-2 and struck out Eugenio Suarez to end the game.
As for the struggling Yanks, not much has changed. After his three-hit night on Tuesday, Anthony Rizzo finished 0-for-3 with a walk but did have a lot of hard-hit balls. Josh Donaldson went 0-for-4 and Giancarlo Stanton got the day off.
Highlights
What’s Next
The Yankees look for the three-game sweep against the Mariners on Thursday at The Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm.
Domingo German (4-4, 4.30 ERA) is slated to take the mound for the Yanks and he’ll be opposed by RHP Bryan Woo (0-1, 7.30 ERA).