As the wins keep piling up for the New York Yankees, so do the hits and RBIs for Luke Voit.
Voit helped the Yankees start their four-game series quickly against the Seattle Mariners with a home run off Felix Hernandez four pitches into Monday’s game.
On Tuesday, Voit and the Yankees attempt to keep rolling when they host the Mariners for the second of a four-game series at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees are 14-5 in their past 19 games after Voit hit one of three homers off Hernandez in New York’s 7-3 win. Voit joined Gary Sanchez as the second player to reach double-digit homers for a lineup that is missing — among others — Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks.
Voit heads in Tuesday with 10 homers and a team-leading 29 RBIs to go along with a .260 batting average and an .893 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. In 13 games dating back to April 22, he has six homers and 14 RBIs.
“It’s really impressive, and it’s consistent with what we’ve seen,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters Sunday. “I think he’s proving that he’s a frontline hitter in this game. He’s been an impact player for us.”
By serving up homers to Voit, Thairo Estrada and Brett Gardner, the Mariners lost for the seventh time in eight games. They began the season at 13-2 but are 6-16 since then even though they lead the majors with 70 homers after Domingo Santana and Dee Gordon went deep Monday.
Seattle’s latest loss occurred on a night when it struck out 11 times, went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight.
“We had three at-bats with the bases loaded, we just didn’t get the big hit,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said.
New York’s Masahiro Tanaka will pitch Tuesday on five days’ rest, attempting to continue his dominance over Seattle. He is 7-0 with a 2.02 ERA in eight career starts against Seattle and has lasted at least seven innings in seven of those starts.
Tanaka is among four active pitchers with an ERA of 2.50 or less and a 7-0 record or better against one opponent. The others are Edinson Volquez (7-0, 1.47 vs. Miami), Jon Lester (8-0, 1.49 vs. Philadelphia) and Clayton Kershaw (8-0, 1.98 ERA vs. the Mets).
Tanaka’s ERA against the Mariners is his lowest against any American League team, and he has held Seattle hitters to a .199 average (42-for-211). He also owns a 12.80 strikeout-to-walk ratio (64 strikeouts, five walks) vs. Seattle, the fourth highest against any opponent by any pitcher with at least 50 strikeouts since 1913.
However, the right-hander is coming off matching his shortest outing of the season. In a 3-2 loss at Arizona on Wednesday, he allowed three runs in four innings to drop his second straight start.
Seattle’s Marco Gonzales will attempt to join Tampa Bay’s Tyler Glasnow and the Yankees’ Domingo German as the only six-game winners in the majors. He won his first five decisions before getting shelled for six runs (three earned) in 1 2/3 innings during an 11-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday.
Tuesday will be the left-hander’s second career start against the Yankees. He took the loss on June 19, 2018, in New York when he allowed six runs on eight hits (three home runs) in 6 1/3 innings.