Seattle @ New York preview
Yankee Stadium
Last Meeting ( Sep 20, 2009 ) NY Yankees 1, Seattle 7
The New York Yankees return home feeling pretty good about themselves following one of their more dramatic comeback victories of the season.
They’ll need all the good vibes they can muster because a legitimate Yankee-killer awaits them in the opener of a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
Mariners left-hander Cliff Lee (6-3) is riding his own wave of momentum, one that has carried him to consecutive complete-game victories in his last two outings.
Beating New York at home is no easy task, but one would never know it judging by the success Lee has enjoyed against the Yankees in the Bronx.
Although he is 4-4 lifetime against New York, Lee has won his last four starts at Yankee Stadium - allowing just five runs total.
Lee also has a lot of recent success to build upon against the Yankees, beating them twice in the World Series last year when he was with the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Yankees were stymied by another left-hander on Sunday. Los Angeles Dodgers southpaw Clayton Kershaw limited the Bronx Bombers to just two runs and five hits in seven innings.
But New York stormed back with four runs in the ninth off closer Jonathan Broxton to send the game into extra innings, where the Yankees won it on Robinson Cano’s two-run home run in the 10th.
Such a stirring comeback cannot help but energize a ballclub – not that Yankees starter Phil Hughes needs an additional boost.
Hughes (10-1) carries a five-game winning streak into Tuesday's contest and he promises to be fresh, not having pitched since June 19 after the Yankees' brass elected to have him skip a turn to manage the right-hander’s innings.
The 24-year-old Hughes also has enjoyed the kind of run support that could make some pitchers blush with embarrassment. He's 8-1 with a no-decision in his last 10 outings, a span in which New York has scored a total of 87 runs and failed to score at least eight runs just twice.
It’s not likely he’ll need that generous backing against the Mariners, who rank last in the American League with 255 runs scored and are anchored in the cellar of the AL West with a 31-44 mark.
Seattle is so desperate for offense that it traded for slugging first baseman Russell Branyan over the weekend. A curious move indeed, particularly since the team let Branyan depart as a free agent in the offseason after he belted 31 homers for the Mariners in 2009.
Then again, despite his sensational pitching, Seattle is preparing to deal Lee in the next month, given that he will become a free agent at the end of the year.
Lee has gone the distance in three of his last four outings. He allowed one run on nine hits in an 8-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs last time out. That followed a six-hit shutout against the Cincinnati Reds.