The Yankees won the first game of their series in Seattle

The Yankees edged the Seattle Mariners 5–4 at T-Mobile Field to open the series on Monday night for their second win in a row. Aroldis Chapman got the save giving him a total of 36, which if five more than anyone else in the American League.

J.A. Happ, whose record improved to 11–8, only allowed three runs and two hits while striking out seven in 5.0 innings. This is an improvement as he had previously allowed at least four runs in three of his last four starts. He kept the team in the game, which is better than he had done in many previous starts.

The veteran Happ has a very high 5.57 ERA for the season, which is much higher than the 2.69 ERA he had in 11 starts with the Yankees last season, but the Yankees are somehow 17–9 in games he has started this season. This mostly has to do with a lot of run support from the team’s powerful offense.

“To get through there with two hits, I feel good about it,” Happ said. “I feel like I was eliminating hard contact. I felt good with my fastball, I felt like it had some life tonight. I was trying to stay aggressive. I definitely got to take the positives getting through there with two hits.

Mike Ford, who is a New Jersey native who went un-drafted out of Princeton, hit his seventh home run of the season in the 2nd inning. it was a two-run homer that went just inside the foul pole in right. The ball landed in the 2nd row next to the 326 sign.

In Ford’s last eight games, he is 10–20 (.500) with six runs scored, four homers and six RBI. This hot streak has raised his batting average from a very low .156 to a much more respectable .227. He also has .324 on-base percentage, which proves that he knows how to draw a walk and get on base.

Ford is on the roster now because of the injury to Luke Voit and he is doing an admirable job filing in and they would not have won Monday’s game without his offensive production.

“It has been great,” Happ said referring to Ford’s recent success. “To come up and not do what he wanted right away but stick with it and trust himself and put some great at bats together and give us big hits and big home runs, it is fun to see him enjoy that.”

This is now the first time in Ford’s MLB career that he has homered in back-to-back games.

Previously in the second inning, Gleyber Torres hit a 438 foot homer to center. Torres joined Babe Ruth (15), Joe DiMaggio (14) and Mickey Mantle (13) as the only Yankees players to ever hit 13+ HR in a single August. Torres now has a very impressive 33 homers and 77 RBI as a 22-year-old, and in his last seven games he is 10–27 (.370) with four homers and four RBI.

The Yankees would bat around in the second inning as Torres led off the inning and then made the final out. Austin Romine, who was the catcher on Monday night, hit a single to left to score Mike Tauchman for the second run and then Ford’s homer came right after Romine’s single.

Aaron Judge had essentially a swinging bunt between the pitcher and third baseman to advance DJ LeMahieu to third with two outs in the 2nd inning.

In the second inning, the Yankees scored their four runs off of Mariners relief pitcher Tommy Milone (5.08 ERA this season), who come in to the game in relief of the opener Matt Wisler.

Dylan Moore hit a 3-run homer for his seventh homer of the year to center field to make the score 4–3 Yankees in the 2nd inning. Homers have really hurt Happ for most of the season as that was his 32nd homer allowed in 2019.

With that home run Happ was tied with Matt Boyd for the third most homers in Major League Baseball this season. This is not a category you want to be top three on and is a major reason he has struggled to much this season.

Ford hit his second homer of the game in the top of the 4th as he combined to drive in three of the team’s five runs. He really got all of this one as it was hit to about the 13th row in right field for a 399 foot homer. He had a confidence builder on Sunday hitting a homer against the elite Clayton Kershaw and he continued his hot hitting in Seattle.

The Yankees had nine hits overall in this game and were 2–4 with runners in scoring position against the Mariners, who are 56–76 this season.

Happ walked the first two batters he faced in the 4th. That’s not how any pitcher wants to begin an inning. He was able to pitch well after those walks since he escaped the 4th without allowing a run.

In Happ’s previous start this season against the Mariners he had a stellar performance. On May 9, he pitched five innings, only allowed one hit, did not allow a run and tallied seven strikeouts.

Aroldis Chapman pitched a perfect 9th inning and struck out the final batter on a 102 mph fastball. He has been really dominating recently as he has not allowed a run in any of his last 10 games (10 innings) lowering his ERA from 2.81 to 2.26. He has 18 strikeouts, only three hits and three walks allowed in that span

Since 2012, the Yankees are now 19–5 at Safeco Field / T-Mobile Park. That’s the best record by any team at any opposing stadium in that span. The stadium officially became known as T-Mobile Park on January 1 of this year.

The Yankees have hit a remarkable 64 home runs so far in August. They are the first time to hit more than 60 home runs in MLB history in a calendar month.