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Yankees pound Mariners, win third straight

May 24, 2008 - 3:26 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- Joe Girardi had to watch this one from Brian Cashman's box at Yankee Stadium. But his lineup made the viewing easy, enjoyable and stress-free on Friday night.

Shelley Duncan and Robinson Cano each drove in three runs as the New York Yankees coasted to a 13-2 rout of the struggling Seattle Mariners in the opener of a three-game series.

Andy Pettitte (4-5) snapped a four-game losing streak, which had equaled his career high and was his longest since May 2003. He pitched six innings, allowing two runs and eight hits en route to his first victory since April 20.

Pettitte also was aided by an extremely productive offense, which had scored 17 runs for him in his previous five outings. The Yankees had double figures in runs and hits by the end of the fifth inning and scored nine off Erik Bedard (3-3).

"When you score that many runs, especially against a pitcher like Erik, I would hope the guys are feeling good about themselves," Pettitte said. "They definitely looked good at the plate tonight."

A bulk of the damage was done in an eight-run fifth, when New York sent 13 men to the plate and had eight hits off the combination of Bedard, Sean Green and R.A. Dickey.

"It gives us the confidence that we can do it," Duncan said. "That big inning we had, that's what this team needs and will win us a lot of games. That gives us a feeling of what we're capable of."

Every player in the lineup had a hit except Derek Jeter, who batted leadoff. Jeter did start the fifth by getting hit by a pitch and, despite getting caught in a rundown, he managed to guide Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez into scoring position, setting up the rest of the inning.

New York won its third in a row and put together its most productive inning of the season without Girardi, who was serving a one-game suspension for his inappropriate actions during a confrontation with plate umpire Chris Guccione in the ninth inning of Thursday's 2-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Bench coach Rob Thomson managed and saw his team take the lead for good when Duncan lined a three-run home run over the left-field wall. The Yankees added two more in the fourth before turning the contest into a blowout.

"It feels like old times," Thomson said. "It feels like we're starting to come around, starting to put good at-bats together."

It was the third time that Thomson filled in for Girardi. He managed a pair of losses to Tampa Bay last month when Girardi was sick but was still able to communicate with him in between innings.

Girardi was not allowed to do so Friday but there was no need to.

Hideki Matsui began things with a two-run single and Jason Giambi chased Bedard with a base hit. The Yankees then had five two-out base hits and a walk off Green before Dickey gave up Rodriguez's RBI single.

In the 29-minute inning, Cano had an run-scoring single while Chad Moeller and Abreu also had two-run base hits.

The big inning also improved the Yankees to 7-9 when facing a lefthanded starter. They have won their last three against southpaws after losing the previous five.

"It's definitely huge," Matsui said through an interpreter. "It's very important for us to win against a pitcher like Bedard. But today was a good game overall."

The Mariners made their second visit of the season to Yankee Stadium and looked even worse than the first time when they were outscored, 19-4, earlier this month. They fell to 1-11 in their last 12 road games and have been outscored, 43-15, in the last three contests.

"We've had so many meetings - individual, staff and team," Seattle manager John McLaren said. "We have to fight through. We're here to help and encourage them. None of us are happy. We're in a funk and only we can get ourselves out of it. We've had a lot of meetings, and they don't seem to be helping."

Seattle's starters had also been pounded in Detroit, allowing 20 earned runs in a combined 9 1/3 innings. Bedard, who had been 3-1 with a 1.58 ERA in his previous six outings against the Yankees, allowed a career-worst nine runs and a season-worst eight hits in just 4 1/3 innings.

"We're still having the same problems, especially a lot of pitching problems," McLaren said. "We've been seeing a lot of really big, crooked numbers in there this last week. Bedard looked like he had really good stuff, then he allowed the three-run home run to Duncan, and it was all downhill from there"

If that was not frustrating enough, McLaren saw New York score all of its runs from his office as well. He was ejected by plate umpire Mike DiMuro for arguing a close called strike three call on Ichiro Suzuki that ended the top of the second.

Seattle was up 1-0 at the time on Yuniesky Betancourt's RBI single but things quickly went downhill when Duncan lined an 0-1 pitch to left field.

The Mariners made it a one-run game on Adrian Beltre's RBI double in the third, but Pettitte retired 10 of the final 12 hitters he faced.