SEATTLE — The Yankees will not have a chance to secure a playoff spot until Wednesday night, which they hope is the first of two clinchers this month.
Tuesday night felt like a pregame to the party.
Facing a tough test in right-hander Bryan Woo, the Yankees went to town and knocked him out of the game by the fifth inning on the way to an 11-2 win over the Mariners in front of 31,668 at T-Mobile Park.
Fueled by a big night from the top of their order — Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge combined to go 7-for-10 with three walks, six RBIs and seven runs scored — the Yankees (88-63) won for the eighth time in their last 11 games and trimmed their magic number to one to clinch a playoff spot.
With a win on Wednesday, they can become the first team in the American League to wrap up a playoff berth.
“We’d definitely be excited [to clinch], especially after the season we had last year, missing out on the postseason,” Judge said. “That’s what we came into this season to do: get into the postseason and give ourselves an opportunity to go out there and win a World Series. That’ll be step 1, but we got to get there first.”
With the Orioles losing earlier on Tuesday night, the Yankees also extended their lead atop the AL East to four games — the largest it has been since June 6 (when it was a season-high 4 ½) — with 11 games to play.
The Yankees inched closer to their first goal of getting into the dance by putting together an offensive outburst that cooled off the Mariners (77-74), who had won eight of 11 coming into the series while fighting for their playoff lives.
It also helped take some of the pressure off Luis Gil, who struggled with his command but made it through five innings of one-run ball before Marcus Stroman — in his first relief appearance of the season after being bounced from the rotation — threw the final three innings, allowing a solo home run and recording the save.
With one swing in the fourth inning, Soto (2-for-2, two walks) reached three different milestones: he crushed his 40th home run of the season and the 200th of his career, doing so in the 30th and final current MLB park he had yet to go deep in.
He said homering in the 30th park — which he stated as a goal in spring training — was the one he thought of the most as he rounded the bases.
“It’s a great feeling for me,” Soto said. “So many different ballparks, so many different dimensions. I just want to get all of them checked [off]. What a best way to go into free agency with homers in all 30 ballparks, checking my list.”
Torres had a strong night on both sides of the ball, going 3-for-4 with a double and turning in three sharp defensive plays at second base.
And Judge cleaned up the traffic in front of him, going 2-for-4 with a walk and four RBIs to give him 136 on the season.
Jasson Dominguez also went deep for the first time this season, putting the Yankees up 7-1 in the fifth inning and knocking Woo out of the game, while Austin Wells added a three-run double in the sixth to blow it open.
Meanwhile, the Mariners — specifically Victor Robles — played a huge hand in helping Gil escape some early trouble.
Staked to a 2-0 lead, Gil hit Robles on the hand with his first pitch of the night and then issued a pair of 3-1 walks to load the bases with one out.
He got Luke Raley to pop up for the second out but then fell behind 3-0 to Justin Turner and clearly had little feel for the strike zone when he walked to the back of the mound to pick up the rosin bag.
Robles had a big lead off third, but suddenly broke for home as Gil was tossing the rosin bag back down on the ground.
Realizing just quickly enough that Robles had taken off, Gil fired a throw home in time for Wells to slap the tag down and somehow end the inning without allowing a run.
“[A] 3-0 count, that felt like a big break, little bit of a gift for us there,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Helped get Luis off the ropes and he was able to settle in and do enough to give us a strong five.”
From there, the Yankees continued to pile on, including Soto taking Woo deep for a two-run shot in the fourth inning to make it 6-1.
With Soto reaching the 40-homer milestone, he and Aaron Judge became just the third set of Yankees teammates to both hit 40 home runs in the same season — the first since Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle in 1961. Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig previously did it in three different seasons.
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