SEATTLE – What happens when a gas-throwing stud faces an aging team that took a six-hour flight from Tampa and is forbidden to dip into the amphetamine jar?
A pitcher making his first major league start comes within four outs of throwing a no-hitter.
“You don’t want to say that,” Derek Jeter said of fatigue being the reason the Yankees got one hit off Brandon Morrow. “You don’t want to take away anything that he did.”
Until Wilson Betemit’s two-out double to right in the eighth, Morrow didn’t allow the sleepy Yankees a hit.
Because Morrow had exceeded his 90-pitch limit, it’s not known if he would have gone to the mound in the ninth, if the no-hitter was still in play.
Nevertheless, Morrow’s major league debut as a starter was more than enough to deliver the latest nail in the Yankees’ pinstriped coffin as the dregs of the AL hung a 3-1 loss on the Yankees in front of 39,5187 at Safeco Field.
“His stuff was electric tonight,” manager Joe Girardi said of the Mariners’ first-round pick (fifth overall) in the 2006 draft whose fastball was consistently clocked between 95 and 97 mph to go with a knee-locking curveball and change-up. “We tried to be patient but we were 0-1 all night.”
Combined with the wild card-leading Red Sox winning, the Yankees’ tragic number dropped to 14 with 21 games re maining. They trail the Red Sox by 8½ games.
“We saw that Boston won and that makes it a lot tougher,” Johnny Damon said. “The number of games doesn’t count us out yet. We are still wearing the Yankees’ uniform and that commands respect.”
Andy Pettitte (13-12) gave up three runs and seven hits in seven innings. In his past eight starts, Pettitte is 1-5 with a 6.57 ERA.
Morrow – who gave up the hit, a run, walked three and fanned eight – retired the first 10 before Jeter drew a walk in the fourth.
Hideki Matsui walked with one out in the eighth, and after Robinson Cano’s deep fly to center, Girardi sent Betemit to hit for Jose Molina. At 1-2, Morrow came with a curveball that caught too much of the dish.
“Right down the middle,” the switch-hitting Betemit said of the pitch he ripped over right fielder Ichiro Suzuki’s head.
The double scored Matsui, and when Jeter opened the ninth with a single off J.J. Putz, the Yankees had a chance. But Bobby Abreu flied out, Alex Rodriguez grounded out and Jason Giambi fouled out.
“With the scoreboards staring you in the face, it’s hard not to see,” Morrow said of knowing he hadn’t allowed a hit.
The same could have been said of the Yankees, who saw the Red Sox score plastered to the left-field board all night and couldn’t do a thing about it.
Mariners 3 Yankees 1