SEATTLE — The Yankees got back to winning on Monday, snapping their season-high five-game losing streak with a 9-4 win over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
But it came with a cost, as Matt Carpenter suffered a fractured left foot in the first inning.
Against Seattle, they had enough to overcome Carpenter’s loss, as Josh Donaldson had four hits — including a two-run single in the first and a solo homer in the third — and Aaron Judge crushed his 44th homer of the season.
Jameson Taillon continued his pattern of being good every other start, as he gave up three runs in seven innings.
It came after the team was swept in St. Louis, with their new top-of-the-rotation pitcher, Frankie Montas, getting hit hard on Sunday. And the Yankees’ lead in the AL East had dropped into single digits for the first time since June 15.
Aaron Boone had seen enough that he felt the need to speak to his team prior to Monday’s game.
“It was more the dust settling from the trade deadline,’’ Boone said of his team, which has been mediocre since the middle of June.
The manager said his message was: “This is our group now and we have everything we need in that room. We’ll get guys off the IL to get through this to be able to realize our goal of being a champion.”
DJ LeMahieu opened the game with a single to center and moved to third on Judge’s ground-rule double down the right-field line.
After Carpenter struck out — and then left the game — Donaldson hit a sharp single to left to score LeMahieu and Judge to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
Taillon gave a run back in the bottom of the inning when he allowed a two-out homer to Mitch Haniger.
Donaldson’s productive night continued in the third when he blasted a long solo homer to left off Logan Gilbert with two out. It was Donaldson’s 11th home run of the season and gave him eight RBIs in his last six games.
Gleyber Torres followed with a single off the wall in right before Andrew Benintendi doubled to right.
Torres was waved home and should have been thrown out easily at the plate, but shortstop J.P. Crawford bounced the throw home and Cal Raleigh couldn’t come up with it.
Benintendi was given an RBI and moved to third on the error by Crawford, as the Yankees increased their lead to 4-1.
Taillon loaded the bases in the fourth.
Haniger singled with one out and moved to second on a wild pitch before Taillon issued two-out walks to Eugenio Suarez and Carlos Santana.
After a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake, Taillon got ahead of Crawford 0-2, but then got to a full count.
After five straight foul balls, Crawford finally walked on the 11th pitch of the at-bat to force in a run and make it 4-2.
Raleigh then nearly hit a grand slam, but it went just foul and Taillon got him to ground out to end the 34-pitch, three-walk inning.
Donaldson doubled to lead off the fifth, improving to 5-for-5 against Gilbert overall.
A Torres fly ball to the wall went just over Sam Haggerty for a double, but Donaldson couldn’t score.
Benintendi’s opposite field double to left drove in both and he scored on a sacrifice fly by Kiner-Falefa to give the Yankees a 7-2 lead.
Taillon allowed a two-out homer to Raleigh in the seventh.
