This was the matchup in the series the Mariners had the lowest percentage of winning (even while still being favored, apparently no one told the oddsmakers at FanGraphs the Mariners are suffering a bit of a limp offensively), but it was still pretty rough to watch. Max Fried outdueled Logan Gilbert, holding the Mariners scoreless over seven innings, while Gilbert was fine—collecting 14 whiffs—but not particularly sharp: he missed a bunch of stuff armside, the splitter didn’t have its usual bite, he hung some sliders, and he over-relied on his cutter, throwing it about 15% of the time.
But the biggest problem for Gilbert, again, was inefficiency; it took him nearly 30 pitches to clear the first inning, and his pitch count would have been even more inflated if not for a few well-timed double plays. He got ahead of leadoff hitter Trent Grisham, only to need seen pitches before putting him away on a flyout on a four-seamer. Two hitters later, he again got ahead of Cody Bellinger 0-2 with two outs, but instead of putting Bellinger away, Gilbert tried a pair of splitters and a fastball, none of which he could land, missing armside each time and running the count full before throwing Bellinger a cutter on the plate which Bellinger bopped into right field for a single. Gilbert then fell behind Ben Rice 2-0, resulting in a pretty terrible hung slider that luckily was only a double down the right field line, fielded…not particularly well by Victor Robles, allowing Bellinger to score. Giancarlo Stanton then ambushed the first pitch he saw for a parachute single that dropped in front of Robles, scoring Rice, who was in motion with two outs and giving the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
Unfortunately, that would be all the Yankees needed, even if they went on to add more later, as the Mariners bats were quiet once again. Max Fried carved through the Mariners lineup, no-hitting them the first time through the order with four strikeouts, a lone walk to Julio Rodríguez the only thing between him and a perfect game until Josh Naylor collected his first hit of the season, a line-drive single into center.
Gilbert’s pitch mix tonight was…curious. He led with the fastball and splitter, getting three of his six strikeouts on the splitter, but threw his cutter the third-most of any of his pitches (15%), a pitch he said during spring training Scott Servais once told him was best at about an 8% usage. He got one strikeout on the pitch, getting Ryan McMahon chasing after one up to end the second.
“Cutter feels great. I really like where it’s at,” said Gilbert postgame.
He also dug out his changeup, a pitch he hasn’t thrown significantly since 2022. He got one strikeout on the pitch, a called strike the Yankees challenged and lost. Gilbert threw his changeup intermittently this spring, toying with working it back into his arsenal; apparently, this time both the cutter and the changeup survived the trip north.
“The good [changeups] were good. Bad ones were bad. It’s just kind of the nature of it,” said Gilbert postgame.
Gilbert did get some help defensively in the third, despite some shaky defensive play in the first: Leo Rivas turned a slick double play after a leadoff base hit to Grisham, making a quick turn to get Judge at first, and Cal Raleigh wiped away a two-out walk (no Logan! Bad Logan!) with an absolute seed to pick off Bellinger trying to steal:
There was also this really nifty play by Cole Young in the fifth:
Thanks to some defensive help and some make-it-work pitching, Gilbert was able to keep the Yankees quiet until the sixth, when Trent Grisham realized the cutter isn’t actually a good pitch and ambushed the first pitch he saw for a ground-rule double. Gilbert was able to strike out Judge on a splitter, but Bellinger tattooed a fastball at the top of the zone for a single; Grisham didn’t score then, but did score when Bellinger, who seemed committed to being a pest on the bases that night, stole second and Cal overthrew the base. Things unraveled after that for Gilbert, as he walked Rice, putting runners at the corners with one out for Stanton, who shot a double into the gap on a splitter that did not split to make it 4-0.
Cole Wilcox was charged with cleaning up the damage but couldn’t get Jazz Chisholm Jr. despite having him in a 1-2 count, leaving a slider too much on the plate for an RBI single; Chisholm then stole second, wiping out the double play opportunity. Wilcox did button things down after that, but the damage was done.
The only good part of this game is Wilcox got a second inning to try to make his case to stick around once Carlos Vargas is healthy, and he pitched a dominant seventh, striking out McMahon looking on a sweeper and striking out Grisham swinging after a slider, and then got by Aaron Judge with a little help from his friend, who conveniently is also named Cole:
This hot potato came off the bat at 107 directly at Cole W’s dome and, no. No, thank you. I would simply climb under the mound and pull it around myself like a weighted blanket and refuse to leave. But Cole Y was right there to help his buddy out. Hooray for teamwork.
Wilcox came back for the eighth and got his first out but then surrendered a single to Rice, who kind of stuck his bat out at a sweeper and sliced it oppo, so Casey Legumina got a chance to argue why he should get the final bullpen rose and retired his two hitters, and then worked a clean ninth inning. Ever since Casey told the story about his Opening Day suit I have been unfortunately very attached to him so this was a particularly nice little reward at the end of a tough game.
Fried finally came out of the game in the eighth, but by that point, the damage was done, and the Mariners hitters didn’t do anything against the low-leverage Yankees relievers who came in to replace him (although Cole Young did have a single, because again, even though this game was un-fun, the disappointment was offset by lots of little Kate Treats). The Mariners will try to win their first series tomorrow, with George Kirby on the mound against Cam Schlittler, whose name I have looked up three times and am still not sure I spelled correctly.