SEATTLE — Less than three hours before first pitch Thursday, a large group of Yankees arrived in the visiting clubhouse that still had a stench of cheap champagne and beer from the night before.
The Yankees had secured the American League’s first playoff berth on Wednesday night, but still had work to be done in trying to clinch the division as well.
That pursuit stalled for a day as the Mariners strong pitching finally won out to avoid a sweep as the Yankees fell 3-2 at T-Mobile Park.
With the Orioles finally winning a game earlier on Thursday, the Yankees lead atop the AL East got cut back to four games with nine games left to play.
Their magic number to clinch the division stayed at six.
The Yankees (89-64) went just 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position against right-hander Logan Gilbert and the Mariner bullpen.
They stranded eight runners on base and their only source of offense was a two-run home run from Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the third inning off Gilbert.
The day looked like it might get even more painful in the seventh inning when Juan Soto had an injury scare after banging his left knee into the wall while making a terrific sliding catch in foul territory.
Soto tossed his glove and stayed on the ground in pain as Aaron Boone, two trainers and a handful of position players came to check on him.
But Soto eventually remained in the game to avoid a doomsday scenario, though the Yankees did lose reliever Jake Cousins an inning earlier as he left the game with right pec tightness.
Jasson Dominguez had a big hand — the left one, specifically — in the Mariners taking a 3-0 lead on Clarke Schmidt in the first inning.
Julio Rodriguez, who was picked off third base in the 10th inning Wednesday after dancing away from the bag to avoid Randy Arozarena’s flying bat, led off with a single before Schmidt issued a one-out walk.
Luke Raley came up next and laid down a bunt that Schmidt tried to make a sliding play on but could not handle cleanly, leading to a single that loaded the bases.
Justin Turner then roped a fly ball to left field that should have been the second out.
Instead, Dominguez dropped it after possibly losing the ball in the sun (Arozarena had trouble picking up a few fly balls in left field later in the game), allowing the Mariners to take a 1-0 lead.
Jorge Polanco followed with a sacrifice fly before JP Crawford poked a single through the left side to make it 3-0.
The fielding gaffe was Dominguez’s second in as many days.
Playing center field on Wednesday, he misjudged a fly ball from Turner as it dropped 10 feet behind him on the warning track for a double.
Dominguez tried to make up for Thursday’s error in the next half inning as he led off the top of the second with a double to the gap.
Two outs later, Anthony Volpe shot a single through the right side, with Raley fielding the ball in right field before Dominguez stepped on third.
But third base coach Luis Rojas waved Dominguez around, and Raley delivered a strong one-hop throw to catcher Cal Raleigh for the third out of the inning.
