Seattle Mariners see bats come alive for 8-4 win over New York Yankees

The stands were already emptying out at the new Yankee Stadium by the time David Aardsma began working the ninth. And for good reason, given the scoreboard, though things got a little nervy after the first two hitters notched singles in the ninth and Hideki Matsui ran the count full before popping out on Aardsma's 22nd pitch of the inning. But he muddled through. There were a few keys to tonight's game for me, one of the biggest being Franklin Gutierrez launching that second inning homer off C.C. Sabathia. The New York Yankees ace never seemed to quite recover and spent much of the night off-balance. Another key moment was that walk drawn by Russell Branyan off Sabathia in the sixth inning. He had already struck out seven consecutive times, was down 0-2 in the count, but somehow managed to take four balls and draw the walk that forced Sabathia from the game. That walk had to be important to Branyan's psyche. At a minimum, not striking out eight times in a row had to hel...