Aaron Judge led off the eighth inning with a tiebreaking home run as the New York Yankees rallied to defeat the host Seattle Mariners 3-2 on Wednesday afternoon.
Paul Goldschmidt also homered for New York, which took two of three games in the series between division leaders. Yankees leadoff hitter Trent Grisham was robbed of a homer by Seattle center fielder Julio Rodriguez with a leaping catch at the wall in the first inning.
Judge went deep off Mariners reliever Carlos Vargas (1-3), lining a 444-foot shot to left-center field. It was the MLB-leading 15th homer of the season for Judge, who also tops the majors in batting average (.412) and RBIs (41).
Yankees reliever Ian Hamilton (1-0) got the victory and Luke Weaver struck out the side in the ninth to earn his fourth save of the season.
The Mariners took a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Leody Taveras reached first on a throwing error by second baseman DJ LeMahieu and Leo Rivas grounded a one-out single to right. Both runners advanced as Miles Mastrobuoni hit a soft grounder back to the mound. After a walk to Jorge Polanco, Rodriguez lined a two-run double down the right field line.
The Yankees cut their deficit in half in the sixth inning as, with two outs, Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez hit back-to-back doubles to right.
New York tied it in the seventh as pinch hitter Goldschmidt led off the inning with a liner down the left field line on reliever Gabe Speier’s first pitch.
The Mariners threatened in the bottom of the eighth against Yankees reliever Fernando Cruz as Cal Raleigh lined a one-out single to right and Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch. But Cruz got Dylan Moore to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Neither starter factored into the decision.
New York’s Will Warren allowed two unearned runs on three hits over five innings, with one walk and a career-high nine strikeouts. Seattle’s Luis Castillo gave up one run on six hits in six innings, with two walks and six strikeouts.
The Mariners’ J.P. Crawford was a late scratch from the lineup, with Mastrobuoni replacing him both at shortstop and atop the lineup. There was no immediate word from team officials why Crawford was out.
