Seattle, WA (Sports Network) - Jose Lopez's grand slam in the eighth inning backed a strong start from Felix Hernandez as the Seattle Mariners took a 4-1 win over the New York Yankees in the third of a four-game set.
Hernandez (7-5) went the distance for the fourth time this season as he was charged with 10 hits and a run with two walks and nine strikeouts for the Mariners, who had dropped five straight and eight of nine.
"There was no chance they were going to take me out of that game," Hernandez said. "The first three innings they were having good at-bats against me. They went foul, foul, foul, foul and were taking a lot of pitches and my pitch count was up. After that I settled down and it was strike one, strike one. That was the adjustment...get ahead of the hitters."
Justin Smoak, who Seattle acquired in the trade on Friday that saw Cliff Lee head to Texas, went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his Mariners debut.
Nick Swisher's home run accounted for the offense for the Yankees, who had a seven-game winning streak stopped. Joba Chamberlain (1-4) was tagged with the loss for blowing the lead in the eighth.
Javier Vazquez carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and was charged with just three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts over seven innings.
Trailing, 1-0, Jack Wilson singled off of Chamberlain to start the eighth, but was forced out at second when Ichiro Suzuki followed with a grounder back to the mound. Chone Figgins then singled and an intentional walk to Russell Branyan loaded the bases for Lopez, who roped a 2-0 pitch over the wall in left.
"It comes down to command," Chamberlain said. "The stuff is there. There wasn't a lot of wiggle room tonight. They hit one ball hard when it comes down to it. Figgins hit his ball kind of hard, but that Lopez home run was a big one."
Curtis Granderson led off the ninth with a double off Hernandez. Colin Curtis then looked at strike three, but pinch-hitter Derek Jeter chopped a high grounder that he beat out for a single to put runners at the corners. Pinch- hitter Jorge Posada, though, stared at strike three and the same happened to Brett Gardner as the Mariners locked down the win.
The Yankees got on the board in the third on Swisher's two-out, home run, his 15th of the season.
After a two-out walk to Branyan in the first, Vazquez was lights out as he retired the next 15 batters before Suzuki hit a sharp liner back to the mound and went off of Vazquez. It was ruled an infield single, Seattle's first hit of the night, but Figgins flied out to end the inning.
New York got a leadoff single from Granderson in the seventh, but he was stranded there as Hernandez set the next three batters down in order.
The Mariners finally threatened in the seventh, but came away empty. With one out, Lopez singled and Franklin Gutierrez followed with a base hit. After Smoak struck out, Michael Saunders walked to load the bases. Vazquez, though, got Milton Bradley to hit a weak liner back to short for the third out of the inning.
Hernandez has 11 complete games in his career. He pitched his third straight complete game against the Yankees and is the first pitcher to do that since Jaime Navarro (1990-91)...Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 12 games...New York's Mark Teixeira went 2-for-4 and has now reached base safely in 31 straight games...Each team has won three times in the season series...CC Sabathia works the mound for New York on Sunday and will be opposed by Ryan Rowland-Smith.