NEW YORK (AP) — Another dreadful outing by Domingo Germán made things easy for touted rookie Bryan Woo on a breakthrough night for the Seattle Mariners.
Teoscar Hernández hit one of Seattle's four early homers and the Mariners teed off against a suddenly inept Germán in blowing out the sloppy New York Yankees 10-2 on Thursday to prevent a three-game sweep.
Woo (1-1) breezed into the sixth inning with a no-hit bid to earn his first major league victory. University of Hawaii alumnus Kolten Wong hit his first home run for the Mariners before Ty France and Cal Raleigh also went deep against Germán (4-5).
“We just kind of came in with a different attitude today,” Wong said. “Guys were aggressive, guys were excited to go out there and compete. That was the kind of game that we really needed to kind of jumpstart us back to the winning ways.”
Julio Rodríguez got Seattle started with a one-out single in a four-run first. Hernández had an RBI single, Eugenio Suárez delivered a two-run double and Mike Ford capped the quick outburst with a sacrifice fly.
Batting ninth and hitting .154, Wong led off the second with his first homer since smashing three in one game for Milwaukee last Sept. 22 at Cincinnati.
“It felt great. Obviously, everybody knows I’m putting in the work here. All the guys know, and I don’t want to make excuses man, but yeah, it’s been tough,” Wong said. “It's nice to look up now and see one instead of zero.”
After rounding the bases, he received the silent treatment from teammates when he returned to the dugout.
“I haven't had that since I hit my first homer in the big leagues,” Wong said, laughing. “That was funny, man. It was cool to come in and see that. ... It was a good weight off my shoulders and a good laugh at the same time.”
France added a solo shot later in the inning off Germán — and then things really got ugly for the Yankees.
With the game out of reach, Hawaii native and utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa made his third career appearance as a pitcher for the Yankees.
Kiner-Falefa, a Mid-Pacific Institute alumnus, pitched a perfect ninth for New York, striking out Suárez with a 79 mph fastball, and then hit a two-run homer in the bottom half.
It was the third career pitching appearance (all this season) for Kiner-Falefa, who became the first Yankees player to homer as a pitcher since Lindy McDaniel in September 1972 at Detroit. The next year, the designated hitter was introduced in the American League.
New York committed three errors in an embarrassing third inning as the Mariners, held to three runs in the first two games of the series, scored two more without getting a hit.
“Awful game for us,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It's not fun to go through something like that, especially at home.”
Hernández and Raleigh hit back-to-back solo homers in the fourth to mercifully chase Germán, who gave up a career-high 10 runs — eight earned — and eight hits. He threw 93 pitches in 3 1/3 innings as his ERA soared to 5.10.
It was the second consecutive flop for the right-hander, who had a very respectable 3.49 ERA before giving up seven runs and seven hits in two innings last Friday at Boston.
This dud came against a Seattle team that was ranked 29th in the majors in batting average and 24th in OPS. Germán joined Bob Turley (1955) and Hall of Famer Whitey Ford (1966) as the only Yankees pitchers to give up at least 10 runs and four homers in a game.
“Sometimes it happens. It’s hard to figure out where the issue is, if it’s mechanical, if it’s the release point. Are they adjusting, are they seeing the pitch well?" Germán said through a translator. "You’ve got to keep working.”
Making his fourth major league start, Woo was handed a 4-0 lead before throwing a pitch. With one out in the sixth, Gleyber Torres fisted a clean single to right field for New York's first hit — drawing a sarcastic Bronx cheer from the crowd of 42,440.
“I was kind of disappointed just to see it fall,” Woo said.
Rizzo laced the next pitch off the top of the right-field fence for a single that ended the right-hander's night.
“Credit to Woo, too. That heater's real,” Boone said. “He was tough.”