Bronx Bombers Too Much For Seattle, M’s Suffer 7-3 Loss And Series Sweep

Story from Associated Press:

SEATTLE — Aaron Judge hit the 101st homer of his career, Gary Sanchez, DJ LeMahieu and Mike Ford also went deep, and the New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners 7-3 on Wednesday to complete a three-game sweep.

After opening their West Coast swing by being swept in Oakland, the Yankees rebounded to win five of six and continued to bash home runs.

Sanchez hit a towering two-run homer in the first off Seattle starter Justus Sheffield, a ball that barely stayed fair and nearly bounced out of the stadium. Ford snapped a 2-2 tie with his sixth home run in the past 14 games, and Judge, who hit his milestone 100th homer a day earlier, broke the game open with a two-run shot off reliever Matt Wisler as part of New York’s four-run fifth inning.

LeMahieu added his 23rd of the season in the ninth. The Yankees have hit 70 home runs in August and raised their season total to 250, already eighth-most in major league history.

James Paxton (11-6) had a shaky outing facing his former team for the first time. The big left-hander allowed only one hit on Kyle Seager’s two-run homer in the fourth inning that just eluded the reach of Judge at the fence in right field. Despite giving up just the one hit, Paxton was done after only five innings due to control problems. Paxton issued a season-high five walks, four in the fourth inning alone. He’d allowed six walks over 24 1/3 innings in his previous four starts combined.

Paxton threw 86 pitches, 45 for strikes. Paxton spent his first six seasons with the Mariners, including throwing a no-hitter last year, before being traded to New York in the offseason.

Seattle had just one hit until Tom Murphy doubled in the ninth.

Sheffield (0-1) was just as much in the spotlight as the centerpiece of what Seattle got in return in the Paxton trade. Sheffield showed flashes in his second career start, like striking out Judge looking in the first inning on a sharp slider at the knees. But he missed his spots on the pitches to Sanchez and Ford and paid for it, giving up the long ball.

Sheffield allowed six hits and struck out five.

UP NEXT

Mariners: RHP Felix Hernandez (1-4, 6.09 ERA) makes his second start since returning from the injured list on Thursday at Texas. Hernandez pitched into the sixth inning in his first start off the injured list last weekend.

Game highlights: