Robinson Cano doubled and drove in two runs, Roenis Elias struck out 10 in seven impressive innings and the Seattle Mariners beat the Yankees 4-2 Thursday night.
Michael Saunders had three hits, including an RBI double, to help the Mariners win for the fifth time in six games following an eight-game skid. Seattle won both games in a rain-shortened series that marked Cano's return to New York after signing a $240 million, 10-year contract with the Mariners during the offseason.
The All-Star second baseman was booed again and finished the series 2 for 9 with three RBIs.
Seattle has won four straight at Yankee Stadium dating to last season.
Hiroki Kuroda (2-3) gave up four runs — three earned — and seven hits in six innings, lowering his ERA slightly to 5.14. It was a marked improvement over his previous outing Friday night, when the 39-year-old right-hander was hammered in a 13-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.
Elias (2-2) gave up a leadoff homer to Jacoby Ellsbury but not much else in the rookie's first appearance against the Yankees. Yoervis Media worked a perfect eighth, and Fernando Rodney got three outs for his sixth save.
Ellsbury, who sat out Tuesday with a sore left hand, sent Elias' fourth pitch to right field for his first home run with the Yankees. It was New York's first leadoff shot since Derek Jeter connected at the Chicago White Sox on Aug. 21, 2012.
Elias struck out the next three batters and settled in from there. Featuring a sharp breaking ball, he induced two double-play grounders and struck out the side in the fifth.
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The left-hander from Cuba threw 73 of his 110 pitches for strikes, starting 21 of his 28 batters with a strike. He allowed six hits and two runs — one earned — while walking two.
Cano hit an RBI double in the first and a run-scoring groundout in the third after Jeter made an error at shortstop on Brad Miller's leadoff grounder.
Miller dumped a two-out RBI single in front of hesitant left fielder Brett Gardner in the fourth. Saunders followed with a ground-rule double that made it 4-1.
New York cut it to 4-2 in the sixth on Brian McCann's run-scoring single with two outs after Cano was charged with an error. Elias retired Yangervis Solarte with two on to end the inning.
The Yankees did not get another baserunner until a two-out single by pinch-hitter Ichiro Suzuki in the ninth.
