With nobody willing to sponsor me to travel on the roadtrip, I get to follow the Yankees’ away games from sunny New York. I exchange Yankee Stadium for Ground Central Coffee Company on 45th street where I report on the series against the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletics.

And so to Seattle in my mind…

Game One – It didn’t take long for the Yankees to break out in the first inning. Gleyber Torres hit a single to third and was pushed up to third on a Juan Soto double to centerfield. Aaron Judge hit a very sharp line drive to left which left Randy Arozarena gasping as it passed him. Bryan Woo on the mound was clearly suffering but recovered enough to make the necessary three outs. 2-0.

Bottom of the 1st – Luis Gil didn’t get off to much of a bright start either, hitiing Victor Robles with a pitched ball. Then with one out, Gil walked Cal Raleigh and then dug himself a deeper hole as he walked Arozarena. With bases loaded, Luke Raley hit a soft fly out to Jazz Chisholm jr, which Jazz took in foul territory. Regrettably for Seattle, Robles tried to steal home. Gil threw to Austin Wells and the inning was over.

Yankees expanded their lead in the top of the second. With 2 outs, Alex Verdugo hit a single to leftfield. Torres hit his second single of the game, this time to rightfield. Woo walked Soto, and loaded the bases. A 2-RBI single for Judge followed as Arozarena continued to see the hits fly past him. Austin Wells struck out. 4-0.

Seattle weren’t entirely dead yet and Jorge Polanco hit a homer in the second to at least tighten the score by one.

There was no further scoring until the top of the 4th, when Torres began to develop possibilities with a ground-rule double. Juan Soto followed with his 40th homerun of the season. The Yankees led 6-1 at this point.

In the bottom of the inning, a Justin Turner double came to nothing, and the Mariners saw their chances visibly fade.

Bryan Woo’s moments on the mound eked out when he gave up a homer to Jasson Dominguez who hit one that cleared the centerfield wall.

Austin Voth replaced Woo. 7-1.

In the 6th, things were not going well for Voth. Oswaldo Cabrera hit a single, and then despite Voth making two outs, things were all wrong again. He walked Soto and Judge to load the bases. Another change followed with Jhonathan Diaz on as Seattle removed Diaz.

Austin Wells was the first batter that Diaz faced, and he made a 3-RBI double. The inning ended 10-1.

The Yankees brought in Tim Mayza in the bottom of the 6th, now that danger had elapsed.

In the 7th, the Yankees brought in Jon Berti for Gleyber Torres and Marcus Stroman for Mayza.

Trent Grisham was brought in for Juan Soto in the bottom of the 8th. There was a brief glitch as Luke Raley hit a home run to left centre, but the problem didn’t amount to much in the grand scheme of things. 10-2.

Indeed, the Yankees had a little more in their hand yet. In the 9th, with Leo Rivas replacing Diaz on the hill, Chisholm reached first because of an error by centrefielder Rodriguez. Chisholm headed for second on the same play, and arrived safely. With Chisholm staying at second, Dominguez and Rizzo flied out. But there was life in the Yankees yet and a single from Cabrera scored Jazz. The inning ended with Alex Verdugo grounding out.

The Yankees won 11-2.

Game 2 – Seattle Mariners

In terms of runs scored this was a much quieter game. Nestor Cortes opened the pitching for the Yankees and Bryce Miller was on the mound for Seattle.

First run came in the second and once again, it was the Yankees who drew first blood. With one out, the Mariners issued a walk to Jasson Dominguez. He then stole second and reached third on a throwing error by catcher, Cal Raleigh.

A single by Anthony Rizzo scored Dominguez, and created a lead which the Yankees would hold until the bottom of the eighth. By this time, Tommy Kahnle had replaced Cortes, after a great outing for Nestor, In turn, Clay Holmes replaced Kahnle. It was Holmes who conceded a homer to Justin Turner to tie the game again.

The Yankees then brought on Luke Weaver.

The game then went into extra innings – a predicament that the Yankees have been finding themselves in increasingly in recent days. The difference is that now, they seem to be capable of winning these extra innings outings much better than they were earlier in the season.

The “ghost runner” in this inning was Dominguez and Rizzo led off with a double to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. The Yankees substituted Cabrera for Rizzo in the hope of widening the margin, but nothing came of the opportunity.

The man at second routine is in most instances a strong advantage for the batting team, but today it didn’t quite work out that way for Seattle. Raleigh hit a single which moved Rodriguez up to third, and there looked a real possibility of an 11th inning.

Instead, Arozarena struck out swinging and an excellent throw form Austin Wells picked Rodriguez off base. The Mariners decided to play a final card and switched in pinch-runner Victor Robles for Raleigh. However, Turner struck out swinging, leaving the Yankees with a narrow 10 innings victory, and Ian Hamilton who had pitched the 10th with the win.

Game 3 – Seattle Mariners.

Logan Gilbert started for Seattle. Clarke Schmidt for the Yankees.

This was another low scoring game but this time the Yankees were dead in the water almost from the first moment. In the top of the first, the Yankees were gifted a walk and a fielding error, but could make nothing of it. Seattle had no such problems taking advantage in their half of the inning. Rodriguez hit a single, and then with one out Schmidt walked Arozarena. The bases were loaded when Raley placed a nice bunt to push his teammates up. Turner hit a sac fly which combined with a fielding error by Dominguez to score one and leave the bases still loaded.

Another sacrifice fly (this time safely caught) scored Arozarena . Polanco was the second out with Soto capturing the flyball. Raley was now on 3rd.

J.P. Crawford hit a single on a groundball to leftfield to bring Raley home. 3-0.

A walk to Dylan Moore loaded the bases again, but fortunately for Schmidt, Josh Rojas could make nothing of his chance as he grounded out to Rizzo.

The Yankees made nothing from a lead-off double by Dominguez in the second, and there was a sense that this was not going to be their day.

However, in the third things did turn around albeit briefly. Aaron Judge hit a single which was followed by a Chisholm homer. Chisholm was batting cleaning up in this game. 3-2.

After that the Yankees had lots of little chances, but nothing they could convert into a tieing run. Schmidt who had started so disastrously had settled, but eventually departed in the top of the sixth. Jake Cousins replaced him and continued to struggle and labour before being replaced by Tim Hill, who managed to make Raleigh hit into a double play to tnd the inning.

Troy Taylor followed JT Chargois onto the mound. Chargois had hardly looked rock solid himself, and Taylor carried on with more of the same. He walked Soto, and then a wild pitch moved Soto to second. However, a Chisholm strikeout ended the inning with no scoring.

Trent Thornton (Mariners) and Clay Holmes (Yankees) were the next relievers. Neither gave their opponents much of a chance.

In the 9th, the Mariners brought in Andres Munoz to close the game, and he did just as instructed. He struck out pinch-hitter Austin Wells and then Cabrera and Torres suffered the same fate.

Yankees lose 3-2.

They had beaten Seattle in the series and they knew they were going to the post-season. Baseball is one of those games where not everything can go your way – so all-in-all this was a pretty good time in Seattle, who are no slouches after all.