Yankees 3, Mariners 2: Ellsbury's late hit propels Yanks to series-opening win

Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a single in the top of the 8th inning that also gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead after the Seattle Mariners had tied things up in the bottom of the 7th, and the Bombers would go on to beat the M's by that same score on Tuesday night in Seattle.

Vidal Nuno's final pitching line may have looked good -- he only gave up one run 5 2/3 innings -- but the actually results were much worse; the Mariners hit him around the yard, but he was lucky enough to only have given up the one run.

The Yankees jumped all over Hisashi Iwakuma in the 1st inning, tagging him for two runs on four hits. Derek Jeter singled with one out, moved to second base on a two-out single by Mark Teixeira, then scored on a double down the left field line by Carlos Beltran, putting the Yankees up 1-0.

The double was just Beltran's second hit since coming off of the DL -- he was 1-for-14 -- and the first hit was also an RBI double.

A batter later, Brian McCann reached on an infield single when Brad Miller made a great diving play at shortstop, but couldn't get McCann out at first base in time, letting Beltran score from third base.

Nuno came out in the bottom half of the first inning and quickly gave the Mariners one of their runs back.

Robinson Cano slapped a two-out double into left field, then Conner Gillespie singled to drive in Cano, cutting the Yankees' lead to 2-1.

Nuno worked around some trouble in the 2nd inning when Mike Zunino doubled with one out, then advances to second base on a wild pitch, but Nuno retired the next two hitters to escape the threat. A couple innings later, he also had to strand Kyle Seager at second base.

Nuno, like I said, lasted 5 2/3 innings, giving up one run on four hits, while walking one and striking out two. He got a lot of help fro his defense, with Ellsbury and Ichiro making a couple of great plays in the outfield. Not to mention, the spacious Safeco Field helped keep a couple of balls in the yard.

Dellin Betances took over with two outs in the 6th, and set down the only batter of the inning. He retired Seager to open the 7th, but hit Zunino, and two batters later, after Zunino moved to second base on a wild pitch, Dustin Ackley singled to tie the game at 2-2.

The Yankees did very little damage against Iwakuma in the innings following that. Iwakuma didn't give up more then one in any inning after the 1st. He, somehow, lasted 7 1/3. leaving after giving up an ground-rule double to Jeter with one out in the 8th after Brett Gardner nearly took him deep twice.

Charlie Furbush took over in relief for Iwakuma in the 7th and was greeted by Ellsbury, who singled to center field to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead with Jeter scoring, as well as extending his hitting streak.

Adam Warren worked around a Cano single to get through the 8th inning, then David Robertson struck out the first two batters of the 9th, walked Ackley, but came back to strike out John Buck to end the game.

The Yankees will look to make it two wins in a row on Wednesday night when they send the ace, Masahiro Tanaka, to the mound to take on Chris Young. First pitch is once against set for 10:05 pm ET.

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