Yanks fall to M's, 7-1

      On the day when we are celebrating the 69th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, the Yankees faced the Mariners on a beautiful night in the Bronx. Luis Severino, 0-1, Took the mound and again came up short in his first home outing of the season. Similar to his first outing, Severino could not get any run-support whatsoever. Again, the Yankees left a small village(24) on the base paths. The Bronx Bombers opposed Nathan Karns, who, despite allowing nine baserunners, managed to work his way out of danger, only allowing a first inning solo homerun to Brett Gardner.  The Yankees starting staff and their offense continue to pose a myriad of concerns, as they fall below .500 for the first time since April 6th.
     Severino looked sharp early on, only allowing two hits in the first three innings. It was in the top of the fourth when Robinson Cano drove in the first run of the game, singling Seth Smith in, after he doubled with one out in the inning. If it hadn't been for Didi Gregorious' sparkling double-play, this inning could have got really out of hand. In the top of the fifth, after allowing a hit to Adam Lind, Severino gave up a two run shot to the Mariners' backstop, Chris Ianetta. In the following inning, after giving up another hit to Cano, Lind drove him in and ended Severino's evening. Kirby Yates would come and get the remaining outs of the 6th inning, but, the damage had already been done. In the seventh inning, Tyler Olson allowed a sacrifice fly to Franklin Gutierrez, scoring Marte and pushing the Mariners up by four, 5-1. Olson again found himself in trouble in the eighth inning, allowing a double to Nelson Cruz, who scored on a single by tonight's Yankee nemesis, Chris Ianetta. He would give up another run in the ninth, allowing Aoki to score on a Franklin Gutierrez double.
     Nathan Karns, as previously referenced, pitched his way in and out of trouble. Yet, the only blemish on the scoreboard for the entire Mariners staff was a first inning solo homerun given up to Brett Gardner. Karns, along with Tony Zych, Videl Nuno, Joel Peralta and Mike Montgomery, gave up 13 total baserunners, six hits and seven walks, but just the one earned run.  Like I said before, pretty hard to win a game when you leave TWENTY-FOUR runners on base.
     Let's hope our boys can put together some hits with runners in scoring position tomorrow, and the second game of the series, beginning at 1:05 PM.