SEATTLE — Yankees relievers better get used to working without Rafael Soriano.
With Soriano, who was inconsistent when not on the disabled list, gone for who knows how long, more is being asked of Boone Logan and Luis Ayala so that Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson can comb their hair with right arms in July.
Last night at Safeco Field, manager Joe Girardi asked Logan and Ayala to hold a one-run lead against the Mariners and then watched the pair melt in the sixth and turn an advantage into a deficit on the way to a 4-3 loss that was witnessed by 33,715.
The loss which opened a nine-game, three-city West Coast trip, wasn’t all on Logan and Ayala. A.J. Burnett was handed a 3-0 lead against rookie stud Michael Pineda and turned a 3-2 advantage over to Logan after five innings in which he gave up four hits and walked five.
But because Girardi was only looking for the team of Logan and Ayala to get him three outs, it was depressing they couldn’t do that without giving up two runs.
“It’s been what it’s been the last two weeks,” Girardi said of his bullpen due to Soriano’s arm trouble that kept him out before going on the DL. “Guys will be expected to do a little more and that’s the bottom line.”
Three runs against Pineda, a 6-foot-7, 260-pound right-hander in five innings should have been enough for the Yankees’ eighth win in 11 games because the Mariners are the worst hitting team in the AL.
Mark Teixeira homered in the first, Pineda wild-pitched a run home in the fifth when Alex Rodriguez delivered an RBI single. It would have been four runs had Franklin Gutierrez not got his glove above the center field wall to rob Nick Swisher of a homer in the fourth.
“I thought it was five rows deep when I hit it,” said Swisher, who extended his slump to 0-for-16 and then ended it with a single in the sixth. “I was thinking at least a double and then Michael Jordan came over and robbed me.”
And let’s not ignore pinch-runner Eduardo Nunez getting picked off second for the final out of the eighth inning after stealing second to get into scoring position.
“It was my normal lead and I got picked off,” said Nunez, who was running for Jorge Posada. “When I slid (the arm) stuck. I feel bad, it’s a big play in the game, two outs and a runner on second base. It happens in the game and tomorrow is a new day.”
As for Burnett, he was all over the place in the first two innings when he walked four but didn’t give up a run.
“I was 3-1, 3-2 on a lot of hitters but at the same time I was able to get out of it,” said Burnett, who required 97 pitches to register 15 outs. “It was a grind.”
So was the sixth when Logan gave up a leadoff single to lefty-swinging Adam Kennedy and Ayala loaded the bases with a single and a walk before getting two ground outs that produced two runs.