The Mariners Came Into Yankee Stadium Cold, and It Showed

Ryan McMahon and Trent Grisham each hit a two-run single in the seventh on Tuesday, which is a strange sentence and also the entire game. Four runs, one inning, two singles that were not especially loud. The Yankees won 4-1 and the Mariners went quietly, which by now is the pattern rather than the exception.

Seattle got to the Bronx having lost five in a row and 14 of its last 19. That skid has dragged the club to eight games under .500, its low-water mark of the season. Teams go through this. What makes Seattle's version uncomfortable is the timing, because August is when a wild-card team is supposed to be separating itself and the Mariners are instead 4.5 games back and running out of calendar.

The Yankees are in the opposite position and it is worth being precise about it. New York leads the American League wild-card race outright. Six games back of Tampa Bay in the East, first in the race everyone in the East eventually falls into.

Two things that chart is not saying. These clubs are not chasing each other, and being 4.5 back in the wild card is not automatically better than being six back in a division. The Yankees are six behind in a race they probably will not win and first in the one they probably will. Seattle is closer to a smaller gap and behind more teams to close it.

The series wraps Wednesday. A sweep would put Seattle nine games under and effectively out of the conversation before Labor Day. Taking two of three does not fix the last three weeks, but it would let the Mariners leave New York with something other than a longer streak, and at this point that is the realistic goal.