SEATTLE — The screen mounted on the wall outside the visitors clubhouse at T-Mobile Park displayed the expensive postgame spread awaiting the New York Yankees: assorted sushi, sashimi salad, udon noodles, pork gyoza, garlic short ribs and white rice — all from Japonessa, one of the highest-rated restaurants in the downtown area.

The Yankees could say they earned the feast by beating the Seattle Mariners 5-3 on Wednesday. It helped them finish their season-opening trip 5-1 before an off day Thursday and Friday’s home opener at Yankee Stadium.

“Good way to start the year,” first baseman Ben Rice said. “Happy to take that momentum back home.”

Here are four takeaways from the three-game set in Seattle:

Cam Schlittler best since Luis Severino?

Cam Schlittler dominated again, this time throwing 6 1/3 scoreless innings versus the Mariners on Wednesday. He struck out seven, walked none and gave up two hits — a leadoff double and a second-inning single. He retired the last 15 hitters he faced, and considering his poise and trio of high-octane fastballs, he might be the best pitcher the Yankees have developed since Luis Severino a decade ago.

“Exciting to see how dominant his stuff is, and just filling up the strike zone,” manager Aaron Boone said.

“Clearly,” Rice said, “he’s very difficult to hit.”

Cam. Cool. Collected. @MLBPS_US x #RepBX pic.twitter.com/fnM1aCZnUj

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 1, 2026

Schlittler’s fastball topped out at 98.2 mph, and out of 18 swings against it, the Mariners whiffed an incredible 11 times (61 percent). He threw just 79 pitches as he’s still building his pitch count after a late start in spring training. It came after Schlittler’s scoreless 5 1/3-inning performance in his first start of the year, and when it was over Wednesday, he calmly walked off the mound, getting surprisingly loud cheers from the rival crowd.

Schlittler said he leaned heavily first on his four-seamer, then, as the game progressed, he worked in his two-seamer/sinker and his cutter.

“Felt pretty strong with the game plan that I had, just attacking those guys with those three pitches,” he said.

The Yankees have had success turning unheralded pitchers into major contributors under pitching coach Matt Blake, and the pitching department, under director Sam Briend, developed Luis Gil, who won the American League Rookie of the Year in 2024. But Gil has taken a couple of steps back since then, starting this season in the minors as he works to re-establish his once-ferocious fastball. Will Warren and Clarke Schmidt have also been recent success stories for the Yankees.

But Schlittler has picked up where he left off after an impressive showing last year, including eight scoreless innings versus the Boston Red Sox in the AL Wild Card Series.

Severino was a dynamo when the Yankees first called him up in 2015, and he had stretches when the club imagined him leading the front of its rotation for the rest of his career. But injuries and ineffectiveness, particularly in 2023, drove him out of New York.

Schlittler, the Yankees’ seventh-round pick in 2022, looks like he has a chance to be the club’s next homegrown star. Not even the Yankees saw it coming.

“To the level he’s done it this early,” Boone said, “I don’t know we could have predicted that.”

Picking up Aaron Judge

Two of Aaron Judge’s three hits have been home runs, and both came at key points in two victories. But he’s struggled. Over 24 at-bats, he’s hitting .125 (3-for-24) with 11 strikeouts and just one walk.

An argument could be made that he’s had a bit of bad luck: Seven of the balls he’s put into play have been hit harder than 95 mph.

“Just early in the season,” Boone said. “A small stretch. Even for him, when it’s not clicking at a level that we’re accustomed to seeing all the time, he still had a major impact on two wins offensively, coupled with all the other things he brings to the table on defense and just in here in the dugout.”

Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt celebrate a series-clinching win over the Mariners. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)

Fortunately for the Yankees, Rice and Giancarlo Stanton have stepped up in his place. Rice went 2-for-3 with an RBI double down the first-base line in the first inning Wednesday, and then he hammered a solo shot in the ninth inning to right-center field. He’s reached base in all five games he’s played, and he’s hitting .412 (7-for-17).

“He looks dialed in to me,” Boone said.

Stanton, who was given the day off Wednesday, has multiple hits in all five games he’s played, and he’s hitting .500 (10-for-20) with a home run.

Cody Bellinger has also been solid (.286), and Paul Goldschmidt hit an encouraging three-run shot in the sixth inning Wednesday. It came off righty George Kirby’s 96.5 mph fastball. Goldschmidt struggled versus righties and high velocity last season.

ABS success

By late Wednesday, the Yankees had the most successful Automated Ball-Strike system challenges at 13, and the third-best conversion percentage at 81.3, behind the Baltimore Orioles (85.7 percent, 12-for-14) and the Kansas City Royals (83.3, 5-for-6). Their hitters have been responsible for eight balls flipped into strikes.

Why have they been so good?

“Opportunity,” Boone said. “Our guys being, I think, good at it. I think we’ve kind of established that we want to be aggressive with it. Smartly, but aggressive. That’s how it played out a little bit in spring training. Again, not that that’s everything. Guys, and especially veteran guys, are probably sampling it a little more than anything. Again, hopefully it’s something we exploit in our favor and do a good job with. I think we will. But it is early.”

Carlos Rodón update

The Yankees believe the right hamstring tightness starting pitcher Carlos Rodón felt Tuesday is “minor,” Boone said. But Rodón will travel to see team trainers in New York before Friday’s home opener. Boone said the Yankees hadn’t scheduled any tests for Rodón’s hamstring, and he could start a rehab assignment soon. The left-hander has been on the injured list in Tampa rehabbing from offseason elbow surgery.