The Yankees and Rasner sweep the Mariners off

The Yankees managed to overcome the Mariners and the season debut performance by Darell Rasner outclassed anything that they had. The right-hander had been bought in as a replacement for the injured Phil Hughes, and managed a very strong showing by pitching an incredible six strong innings to help the Yankees thump the Mariners and win an 8-2 victory.

Until the last moment, Darrell Rasner was not sure that he would be playing for the Yankees so soon and one could make out that he was nervous as he took the mound at the first innings. And his nerves may well be the reason that Adrian Beltre managed a two run homer in that very innings. But after that the right-hander shone to his very best and socked it to the Mariners by giving up only three hits in the reminder of the 6 innings, which by the way also included four strikeouts as well.

It is really pleasing to see a young pitcher overcome his nerves and come into all of his own, as it happened here. Rasner threw about 76 pitches with about 49 strikes in total, for this season debut. Rasner's pitching coupled with the Yankees offense managed to steer the team to an easy victory over the Mariners. The Mariners made it possible for the Yankees to score 14 hits of which 6 were scored with six runs in the third innings.

Rasner for his turn made sure that the Mariners were kept on the edge and were not given much of a chance to score anything much after that. As a result of the top edge play by the Yankees and especially by Rasner, the Mariners did not even have a chance.