Yankees blast 4 HRs to hand Mariners fourth straight loss at T-Mobile Park, 11-5
Emerson Hancock’s early innings in Monday’s opener with the New York Yankees suggested another strong start when the Mariners needed it most — but a disastrous fifth unraveled the right-hander’s promising night.
The Bronx Bombers swatted five consecutive hits, launched two home runs and plated six runs in the fifth, a quick and consequential frame that claimed and widened New York’s lead. Yankees catcher Austin Wells capped the outburst with a three-run homer to center field, a 409-foot blast well beyond Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez’s reach.
Yankees CF Trent Grisham homered twice, Wells drove in four runs, and New York toppled the Mariners in the first of three games at T-Mobile Park, 11-5.
“I made a couple mistakes, and they made me pay for it,” Hancock said. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to keep going after them.
“I’ll wear this one. … Baseball is what it is. You move on, you keep working, and you show up tomorrow and see what happens.”
Following their best 36-game stretch to begin a season since 2003, the Mariners (22-18) have dropped four straight contests and cling to a 1.5-game lead in the American League West.
Grisham hit identical solo home runs off Hancock in the third and fifth innings, a pair of game-tying, 412- and 415-foot blasts to straightaway center field. Rodriguez nearly robbed Grisham’s first, rising above the wall for a highlight-reel play only for the eventual dinger to glance off the outfielder’s glove and out of sight.
Yankees superstar Aaron Judge, who leads MLB with a .414 batting average, 14 home runs and 40 RBI, went 2-for-3 with a third-inning double, sacrifice fly, and two walks.
“I thought Emerson threw the ball pretty well for us there in the first four innings,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Couple of jams with some walks but able to get out of it. They were able to get to him there in the fifth (with) a couple of balls that caught some plate.”
Rodriguez scorched a laser-beam solo home run into the T-Mobile ‘Pen in the first inning that pushed the Mariners ahead, 1-0. Offerings to Seattle’s star outfielder are rarely better, a middle-middle sweeper clocked at 84 mph from Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt that J-Rod blistered 433 feet — a home run in all 30 MLB parks, per Baseball Savant.
Grisham and Jorge Polanco traded solo blasts in the third inning before New York’s fifth-inning stampede.
Seattle added a run in the seventh inning when Randy Arozarena doubled and Dylan Moore blooped an RBI single in front of Judge. Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh demolished a two-run homer in the eighth and Yankees shortstop matched it with a two-run blast of his own in the ninth.
Monday’s opener took a horrifying turn in the final frame when New York’s Oswaldo Cabrera suffered a severe ankle injury scoring from third base on Judge’s sacrifice fly. The Yankees third baseman avoided Raleigh’s tag near home but twisted his leg in an attempt at the plate, collapsing in obvious pain.
Medics applied an air cast before an ambulance transported Cabrera from home plate to nearby Harborview Medical Center. A crowd of 27,895 voiced their well-wishes with a standing ovation.
“Obviously, a very somber moment there towards the end of the ballgame,” Wilson said. “I just wish Oswaldo Cabrera all the luck with that injury. One of those moments that makes you stop. I wish him well.”
New York’s Schmidt posted six solid frames, allowing three hits and three earned runs with two walks and six strikeouts.
Hancock went five innings, permitting eight hits and seven earned runs with four walks and five strikeouts. He allowed three home runs.
“Losing sucks,” Hancock said. “It’s part of it. For me, I feel like I didn’t do my job. But you also have to be able to bounce back and wake up the next day.
“I’ll go back and watch video, see where we could’ve done things better. Maybe I could’ve executed better, but you’ve just got to keep fighting. You’ve got to keep grinding.”
New York’s 29-10 record at T-Mobile Park since July 2010 marks the third-best record by any team at any stadium in that span, trailing Tampa Bay’s 24-7 record at LoanDepot Park (Miami) and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 28-9 record at Citi Field (NYM).
SHORT HOPS
— OF Randy Arozarena’s career-high 34-game on-base streak is the second-longest active streak in the major leagues, trailing Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber (46 G). It’s the sixth-longest streak in a single season by a Cuban-born player in MLB history: the all-time record (36 G) is held by Houston’s Yordan Alvarez (2023) and Minnesota’s Tony Oliva (1970).
— Hey now! Broadcaster Dave Sims returned to Seattle for the first time since becoming the Yankees play-by-play radio announcer ahead of the 2025 season. Sims spent 18 years (2007-24) with the Mariners and called some of the franchise’s most-iconic moments, from Felix Hernandez’s perfect game in Aug. 2012 to Cal Raleigh’s postseason drought-ending home run in Sept. 2022.
– The Mariners have nine players ranked in MLB Pipeline’s latest Top 100 Prospects list, the most in MLB.
TRIPLE-A TACOMA TIDBITS
— INF Cole Young was named the Pacific Coast League’s (PCL) Player of the Week for May 6-11, batting .455 (10-for-22) with six runs and four extra-base hits across six games. Young, Seattle’s No. 3 prospect per MLB.com, is slashing .236/.349/.368 with two home runs and 11 RBI in 38 games (144 AB) in Triple-A this season.
— The Rainiers (15-24) won their first six-game series of the season last week, grabbing four from the Sacramento River Cats at Cheney Stadium. Tacoma plated a season-high 12 runs in Sunday’s series finale, a 12-7 win.
— Seattle’s George Kirby made his second rehab start for Triple-A Tacoma in Saturday’s 7-5 loss to Sacramento, permitting four hits and three earned runs with two walks and five strikeouts across three frames. The former All-Star has yet to appear with the Mariners this season (right shoulder inflammation) and will make at least one more rehab appearance with the Rainiers before activation.
— Harry Ford’s 21-game on-base streak (since April 9) paces the PCL.
ON DECK
Want a pitcher’s duel? Tuesday night’s middle game provides the best pitching matchup of the series when Seattle’s Bryan Woo duels New York southpaw Max Fried. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m.
Fried is 6-0 with a 1.05 ERA and has allowed two or fewer earned runs in all eight of his starts this season. The Yankees are 8-0 when Fried takes the mound.
In Woo’s last 12 starts at T-Mobile Park dating back to 2024, the right-hander is 8-1 (2.27 ERA) with 67 strikeouts to just nine walks.
This story was originally published May 12, 2025 at 9:47 PM with the headline "Yankees blast 4 HRs to hand Mariners fourth straight loss at T-Mobile Park, 11-5."
