SEATTLE — The Yankees now know what the Giants must have felt like throughout the first series of the season.
After their pitching staff shut down the Giants for three straight games to start the year — and largely did the same with the Mariners on Monday — the Yankees got a taste of their own medicine.
On a chilly night at T-Mobile Park, their bats were held in check and their bullpen finally cracked in the bottom of the ninth, when Cal Raleigh delivered a walk-off single against Paul Blackburn to lift the Mariners to a 2-1 win and hand the Yankees their first loss.
After Ryan Weathers gave up one run across 4 ¹/₃ innings in his Yankees debut, the bullpen turned in 3 ²/₃ scoreless innings — making it 14 ²/₃ to start the season — before the Mariners got to Blackburn in his second inning of work.
Leo Rivas led off the bottom of the ninth with a single past the dive of Ben Rice, and one out later, Brendan Donovan singled to put runners on the corners.
Raleigh, who began the night on the bench after starting the year 2-for-15 with 10 strikeouts, then came through in the clutch, hooking a single down the right field line to end it.
The Yankees had another aggressive night with the automated ball-strike system, going 5-for-5 on challenges, matching the number of hits they tallied against a dominant Luis Castillo and the Mariners bullpen.
Weathers, who struck out seven, was solid in his Yankees debut, retiring seven straight into the fifth inning, when the first two batters reached on singles and then moved to second and third on a groundout.
Fernando Cruz then replaced Weathers and bailed him out, getting pinch hitter Dominic Canzone and Julio Rodríguez to whiff badly at splitters, keeping it a 1-0 game.
The Yankees could barely muster anything against Castillo for six innings — a bloop and a dribbler accounted for their only two hits — but then took advantage once he finally exited the game. Ben Rice led off the seventh inning by roping a single against lefty Jose A. Ferrer before Giancarlo Stanton reached on an error.
One out later, with runners on the corners, Amed Rosario pinch hit for Ryan McMahon — to which the Mariners responded by bringing in righty Eduard Bazardo. But Rosario got the job done anyway, lifting a sacrifice fly to center to tie the game 1-1.
The Mariners threatened to take the lead right back in the bottom of the seventh, when Brent Headrick put runners on the corners with one out. But the lefty got Raleigh to strike out before Camilo Doval entered to get Rodríguez to ground out to end the threat.
Weathers began his night inauspiciously, throwing three straight balls to Brendan Donovan before walking him on a full count, then going down 3-1 to the next batter. But he battled back to strike out lefty killer Rob Refsnyder (on a 97 mph heater), get Rodríguez to line out (loudly) to center field and then strike out Josh Naylor (on a sweeper) to end the frame.
In the second inning, though, Weathers could not escape unscathed. Randy Arozarena led off with a ground single up the middle before Mitch Garver worked a 10-pitch walk. Weathers retired the next two batters before Cole Young flared a broken-bat single into right field for the 1-0 lead — the first time the Yankees trailed this season after leading or being tied for the first 28 innings.
The Yankees finally picked up their first hit of the game in the fourth inning, in fortuitous fashion, but it was quickly erased. Stanton, who extended an at-bat by successfully challenging a called third strike, blooped the next pitch down the left field line. None of the Mariners appeared to see it, and the ball fell in, but Stanton tried to make a double out of it and was thrown out.
The second Yankees hit didn’t last much longer. With two outs in the fifth inning, José Caballero hit a dribbler in front of the plate that he legged out for a single, but then with Trent Grisham at the plate, he was picked off first by Castillo for the third out.