The Yankees made an improbable comeback on Thursday night against the Mariners.
After Mariners starter Bryan Woo took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, the Yankees erased a five-run deficit in the final two innings before walking off Seattle, 6-5, in the 10th.
The turning point came in the ninth with the Yankees down 5-3 and going up against All-Star closer Andrés Muñoz. Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger singled to pass the baton to Ben Rice with two outs. With Grisham on second base, it was clear from the broadcast that the Yankees outfielder had a tip on Muñoz's pitches, specifically the slider.
Grisham could be seen making a circular wave motion before Muñoz threw a slider, and didn't wave when a fastball was coming. And a Yankees source told The Athletic's Chris Kirschner and Brendan Kuty that they had indeed picked up on Muñoz's slider.
Rice fell behind 0-2 but took four straight balls — two from sliders — to load the bases. With Bellinger on second base, the former NL MVP did the same motion to give Austin Wells a heads-up on Muñoz. What eventually followed was Wells hitting a 3-2 fastball for a two-run single to tie the game.
An example of the Yankees catching Andres Munóz tipping. Watch Cody Bellinger at second base at the bottom of the frame. A Yankees source said the club had a tip on Munóz, and Cal Raleigh said it was obvious.
Story w/ @ChrisKirschner
READ: https://t.co/RNs2A90bhfpic.twitter.com/xgYQFH8WZO
— Brendan Kuty 🧟♂️ (@BrendanKutyNJ) July 11, 2025
With the score tied in the bottom of the 10th, the Yankees loaded the bases with one out and Aaron Judge delivered a walk-off sac fly — with the assist of Anthony Volpe's slide — to complete the comeback and sweep the three-game series from the Mariners.
“He was tipping it every time at second base,” Raleigh said via The Athletic after the game. “Obviously, they weren’t making it very discreet, I guess is the word. It’s part of the game. It’s our job. We should have known about that going into the series. That made it really hard there at the end.”
As Raleigh said, there's nothing illegal about the practice, but he put the onus on himself and the team for not figuring out Muñoz's tip sooner.
The 2025 MLB home run leader said he figured out Muñoz was tipping his pitches when he saw Grisham and Bellinger motioning to the batter, and tried to let his closer know, but admitted he didn't want to distract him. He said that the team will need to figure out how to combat that moving forward.
Entering Thursday's game, although Muñoz had five blown saves, his ERA was a minuscule 1.06, which included 8.1 consecutive scoreless innings over nine appearances. That's why he was named to his second career All-Star game this year.
The Yankees and Mariners won't meet again in the regular season, so if New York sees Muñoz again, it'll be in the postseason. Perhaps then, the Mariners would have figured out a way to hide Muñoz's slider…or the Yankees would be more discreet than they were on Thursday.
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