Kikuchi stumbles, Tanaka deals in first faceoff

SEATTLE -- For Yusei Kikuchi, a long-awaited matchup with Masahiro Tanaka didn’t last long. Nor did the positive buzz from Kikuchi's first shutout nine days earlier.

Kikuchi returned to his first-season struggles with the Mariners as the Yankees jumped on him for a pair of early home runs and rolled to a 7-0 victory Tuesday night at T-Mobile Park. The 28-year-old rookie lasted just four innings, allowing eight hits and five runs, as he fell to 5-9 with a 5.36 ERA.

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In the wake of his two-hit shutout of the Blue Jays in his previous outing, it was a double dose of disappointment for Kikuchi. In a game being televised live back in his homeland of Japan, Kikuchi gave up a two-run blast to Aaron Judge in the first and a three-run shot by Brett Gardner in the third, while Tanaka breezed through seven scoreless innings on just three hits.

“I’m not directly facing Mr. Tanaka on the other side, I’m facing the Yankees,” Kikuchi said through translator Justin Novak. “I know they’re a really good lineup, so I have to get better at relaxing and going out there and just throwing.”

The long ball has been an issue for Kikuchi. His 33 home runs allowed is tied with Justin Verlander for the second-most in the Majors, behind only the 34 of former teammate Mike Leake. But Leake has pitched 158 1/3 innings for the Mariners and D-backs and Verlander is at 184 innings for the Astros, while Kikuchi is at 139 1/3 innings in 27 starts.

Judge’s homer was a monstrous 462-footer off the batter’s eye in center field off a first-pitch, 92-mph fastball right down the pipe. Gardner drove an elevated 2-0 fastball over the right-field fence two innings later.

“My stuff felt really good,” Kikuchi said. “The first two runs early kind of hurt and I think I just tried to be a little too fine, trying to hit the edges, and I got into bad counts after that.”

Kikuchi walked three and needed 95 pitches just to get through the four frames as the patient Yankees worked deep into counts, a far different story than his 96-pitch gem against the aggressive young Blue Jays in is previous start.

“Yusei wasn’t as sharp certainly as we saw him last time out,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “The command of his pitches -- and I sound like a broken record -- but that really is what it’s all about with him. The stuff is pretty consistent, fastball-wise, but it has to be located.”

While the Mariners are counting on Kikuchi continuing to progress this first season in the Majors, Servais minimized the idea that this was a significant setback.

“I don’t want to read too much into it,” he said. “Coming off a really good outing last time, this is a really good hitting ballclub. There’s a reason they hit a lot of home runs and are scoring the runs and the record they have. I don’t want to get too caught up in it. He’ll get the ball again in five days and go from there.”

Meanwhile, Seattle didn’t manage a hit off Tanaka until Kyle Seager’s leadoff double in the fifth as the 30-year-old right-hander improved to 10-7 with a 4.47 ERA, as well as 8-0 in his career vs. Seattle.

“He doesn’t throw many fastballs for strikes,” said Servais. “That’s what he doesn’t do. With young hitters and an aggressive team like we are, you get into those fastball counts and he has the ability to take a little off and go to the slider or split-finger. He’s got a ton of experience and he knows how to pitch.”

Seager continued his hot August as he’s batting .338 (26-for-77) with eight doubles, eight homers and 23 RBIs in 22 games this month.

The Mariners are 1-5 against the Yankees this season -- the lone win coming in a strong outing by Kikuchi in New York back in May -- and 5-20 against the Bombers in Seattle since 2012.