Aaron Judge, Yankees mash Mariners, but Harrison Bader hurt

SEATTLE — The Yankees are pretty good at going about their business like they’re wearing horse blinders.

They focus on what’s important, the game at hand.

The Yankees tackled that again Monday night by putting a 10-4 pounding on the Mariners while dealing with more adversity.

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Aaron Judge homered twice, Jake Bauers went deep, Domingo German pitched into the seventh inning in his return from a suspension and the Yankees won the opener of a two-city, six-game West Coast trip.

All the while, center fielder Harrison Bader departed in the third inning with right hamstring tightness that occurred while he was beating out an infield single. Also, first baseman Anthony Rizzo didn’t start due to a stiff neck that occurred Sunday in New York when he was barreled into by Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr., on a pickoff attempt.

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The Yankees had the lead for good by the third inning when Judge hit a two-run homer off the left-field foul pole to break a 1-1 tie.

Judge also hit a solo shot in the sixth to make it a 9-4 game, his 17th, and he made the defensive play of the night, too. In the eighth inning, Judge reached over the right-field wall to rob Teoscar Hernandez of a homer that would have made it a 9-6 game.

Bauers hit his third homer of the season to lead off the Yankees fourth, making it a 4-1 ballgame.

The Yankees roughed up Mariners rookie right-hander Bryce Miller (3-2), who was shelled for eight runs over 4 2/3 innings after entering the game with a 1.15 ERA in five starts following a first big-league call-up in early May.

The Yankees finished with 18 hits, a season high. Every Yankees starter hit safely except for third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera, who was 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.

German (3-3) gutted out a four-run, 6 1/3-inning outing and had issues during frequent umpire checks for too much rosin on his hands. When German failed an inspection in his previous start on May 16 in Toronto, he was ejected and then suspended 10 games.

This time, Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake and others were ordered to check on German before he left the dugout for the mound.

NOTABLE

—Cabrera is 2-for-19 in his last seven games, batting .161 in his last 36 and hitting .195 for the season.

— The Yankees have scored 10 runs two games in a row after being held to a combined five in their previous three games.

— Left-hander Carlos Rodon threw a 20-pitch bullpen before the game. This was his second bullpen since he started a throwing program after a cortisone shot wiped out more than a month of back tightness. His fastball hit 93.5 mph and he liked the shape of his sliders. He’ll throw two more bullpens this week, then probably will start facing hitters next week.

— Outfielder Giancarlo Stanton (left hamstring strain) will begin a rehab assignment Tuesday night as the designated hitter for Double-A Somerset.

— Third baseman Josh Donaldson (right hamstring strain) and reliever Tommy Kahnle (right biceps tendinitis) also will play for Somerset on Tuesday. This will be the fourth rehab game in six days for Donaldson and the fifth appearance for Kahnle.

— Catcher Jose Trevino (left hamstring stain) did a full workout before Monday’s game in Seattle and may be off the IL by Tuesday or Wednesday.

LOOKING AHEAD

Tuesday: Yankees at Mariners, 9:40 p.m., EST, YES & MLB Network. LHP Nestor Cortes (4-2, 5.30) vs. RHP Logan Gilbert (3-2, 3.60).

Wednesday: Yankees at Mariners, 9:40 p.m., EST, YES. RHP Clarke Schmidt (2-5, 5.58) vs. RHP George Kirby (5-4, 3.43).

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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.

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