SEATTLE — After talking about their October dreams on Wednesday night, the Yankees faced a potential nightmare scenario on Thursday afternoon.
Their postseason hopes flashed before their eyes as Juan Soto chased down a fly ball in right-field foul territory and slid into the wall to make a terrific catch, but stayed down on the ground in pain.
He threw the ball back into the infield, then tossed his glove and tended to his left knee that he had slammed into the concrete below the padding.
Aaron Boone, two trainers and a handful of concerned teammates jogged out to right field to check on Soto, who eventually got to his feet and remained in the game.
For now, the Yankees and Soto appear to have avoided anything more serious than a bruise and some swelling in his knee, which is a win on a day they lost to the Mariners, 3-2, to miss out on a sweep at T-Mobile Park.
“[I was] really worried,” Soto said after getting treatment for nearly an hour postgame. “When I threw the ball in, it was a lot of pain in my kneecap. But with the time, it started going down, feeling better. Definitely I was a little scared right there.”
Soto was set to undergo precautionary X-rays to make sure he did not do any damage to his knee.
He said how he wakes up on Friday in Oakland and how the swelling is will determine whether or not he is in the Yankees lineup against the A’s.
“Your heart definitely skips a couple beats and I’m sure all the Yankees fans across the world were feeling the same,” said Clarke Schmidt, who allowed three runs (one earned) in five innings and was in the training room when the play happened.
The loss, combined with the Orioles finally winning a game earlier on Thursday, trimmed the Yankees lead atop the AL East back to four games with nine games left to play.
Their magic number to clinch the division remained six.
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.
But if that didn’t take a toll, the Mariners strong pitching did as the Yankees (89-64) went just 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position against right-hander Logan Gilbert and the Seattle 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.
Those problems, a day after becoming the first team in the American League to clinch a playoff berth, would have paled in comparison to losing Soto for any amount of time with the postseason just two weeks away.
The play had shades of Aaron Judge running into the unpadded part of the right-field wall at Dodger Stadium last year and injuring his toe, which derailed the Yankees season.
But Boone said he thought Soto sliding how he did might have saved him.
“My biggest fear was that he twisted something,” Boone said. “I think sliding like that probably preserved him a little bit, banged his knee pretty good.”
Soto has dealt with injury scares to his hand and foot this season, but was playing in his 149th game on Thursday in the Yankees’ 153rd game of the year.
He has a huge payday awaiting in free agency this offseason, and much of the Yankees postseason hopes rest on his shoulders, but that did not stop him from trying to make a play in a one-run game.
“I feel like it’s just adrenaline of the game,” Soto said. “You mentioned free agency, this and that — when I go in those lines, I forget about everything. I literally just focus on the game. We’re trying to win the game to help the team to do the best.”
The Mariners took a 3-0 lead off Schmidt in the first inning after Jasson Dominguez dropped a fly ball in left field, having trouble picking it up in the sun — his second defensive miscue in as many days.
Then, after doubling to lead off the second inning, Dominguez was thrown out trying to score from second on Anthony Volpe’s line-drive single to right fielder Luke Raley.
“It’s a bang-bang play on a perfectly executed throw by Raley,” Boone said. “It’s the second inning, so you can’t just sit on your hands there. You gotta play the game. So no issue [with the send].”