For six innings, it looked like the Seattle Mariners might never get another hit.
CC Sabathia Gives Up One Hit, Mariners Lose 17th Straight
It still looks like the Mariners might never win again.
Tuesday night in rain-soaked Yankee Stadium, CC Sabathia took a perfect game into the seventh inning and the Yankees beat the Mariners 4-1, with Seattle losing their 17th straight game.
Sabathia’s dominance was most pronounced in the fourth and fifth innings, when he struck out all six Mariners he faced. He ran his strikeout streak to seven -- one short of tying the American League record -- before torrential rains halted play. After a 30-minute delay, Sabathia returned to the mound and retired the next two Mariners to keep his bid for a perfect game alive.
Meanwhile, the Yankees had taken a 3-0 lead against Seattle starter Doug Fister. In the fourth, Curtis Granderson sliced his 28th home run over the left-field fence. In the fifth, the Yankees added two more runs on Eric Chavez's RBI single and Derek Jeter's run-scoring ground-out.
With one out in the top of the seventh, Brendan Ryan laced a single into left-center field to break up Sabathia's no-hitter. Sabathia did strike out Dustin Ackley and Miguel Olivo for his 13th and 14th strikeouts, setting a new career high.
Following another rain delay -- this one only 14 minutes -- Sabathia took the mound in the top of the eighth and walked three Mariners in a row. That knocked him out of the game and brought David Robertson in. The Mariners did score a run on Chone Figgins' fielder's-choice grounder, but Robertson killed the rally by striking out Ichiro Suzuki.
In the bottom of the eighth, Mark Teixeira matched Granderson with his 28th homer, pushing the Yankees' lead back to three runs. And in the top of the ninth, Mariano Rivera set the Mariners down in order to earn his 26th save of the season.
Wednesday afternoon, Seattle's Felix Hernandez will try to pitch the Mariners to their first victory since the 5th of July.
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