NEW YORK – New York had won the first two games of the series and had ace CC Sabathia starting the finale while Seattle was countering with a guy who had the flu, Jason Vargas.

The way this season has gone, all that meant was that Mariners had the Yankees right where they wanted them.

Ignore them all you want, dismiss them as a mediocre team, but the one thing the Mariners have shown is the tenacity to keep playing as if they’re contenders – something they showed again in their 8-4 victory over the Yankees on Thursday.

That left them 3-3 on a trip that has taken them through Los Angeles and New York, and tonight will find them in Boston for the start of a three-game series.

It may also have served as a reminder to any other contending team.

“We don’t give up,” infielder Jose Lopez said. “We keep coming.”

Against the team with the second-best record in the American League, the Mariners scored in the first inning and scored in the ninth – and in between made life miserable for Sabathia and the New York bullpen.

When it was over, they had 12 hits, including three more from Franklin Gutierrez and two apiece from Ichiro Suzuki and Ryan Langerhans. The Mariners hit a pair of home runs, including Russell Branyan’s 20th of the season.

And when a flu-weakened Vargas could go no more than four innings, the Seattle bullpen continued its season-long production as Miguel Batista, Mark Lowe and David Aardsma worked the last five innings – without allowing a run.

“We believe we can win, and if we get a lead to the bullpen, we have confidence they’ll hold it,” manager Don Wakamatsu said.

After waiting out a 36-minute rain delay in which not a drop of rain fell, the Mariners went ahead when Ichiro doubled, stole third and scored on a slow roller from Lopez that produced his 47th RBI.

Vargas, who’d spent most of the previous night in projectile-vomit mode – think “The Exorcist” in a New York hotel room – actually pitched fairly well, never letting the Yankees tie the game, let alone pull ahead.

“I hadn’t thrown up since like 3:30 a.m.,” he said. “I felt pretty good, all things considered.”

The best prescription seemed to be Seattle’s offense, which pestered Sabathia all game and never let him have an easy inning. Gutierrez led off the second inning with his eighth home run, Kenji Johjima and Langerhans singled to set up Chris Woodward’s sacrifice fly, which produce a 3-0 lead.

That’s what kept Vargas on the mound for as long as he lasted – whenever he allowed a run, the Mariners gave him a few more in return.

After New York closed to 3-2, Seattle got an RBI single from Woodward and a two-run double from Ichiro to pull away to a 6-2 lead.

When the Yankees scored twice in the fourth, Wakamatsu had seen enough.

“I wasn’t going to let him give us all he had and give up a couple more runs,” he said. “Vargas didn’t want to come out, when a lot of guys might not have pitched at all.”

Batista and Lowe each worked two scoreless innings.

“I usually pitch the seventh or eighth innings,” Lowe said. “Tonight, I got ’em both.”

The hit that broke the game open came in the top of the ninth inning, and was set up by a little dugout humor. Branyan had, until the sixth inning, struck out in eight consecutive at-bats before drawing a walk.

After that walk, as Branyan walked past Wakamatsu, the manager teased him at the expense of his bench coach, Ty Van Burkleo.

“Ty wanted to bench you tonight, but I believe in you,” Wakamatsu deadpanned.

It broke Branyan up, and two innings later, he did the same with the game. Against reliever Alfredo Aceves, Branyan hit a first-pitch home run to center field that banged off the restaurant windows well beyond the fence.

“Majestic,” Wakamatsu said.

Asked about that run of strikeouts, Branyan shrugged.

“There’s not always a lot of difference between a swing and a miss and a home run,” he said. “I fouled off the pitches I should have hit in those at-bats. I’ve been through it before.

“It says a lot about Don that he’d keep playing me after a four-strikeout game. It means a lot to me.”

Wakamatsu insists the Mariners’ injury problems of the past few weeks have brought the team closer together, and that players such as Branyan have been the glue that’s kept the team in one piece.

“This is a tight-knit group, and it’s a team that knows when there are injuries, there are opportunities, too,” he said.

Not just opportunities to play that might not have been there, but opportunities for players to make big contributions. Gutierrez surely has, hitting four home runs in his past 12 games while batting .415.

Overall, that’s pulled his season average to .285.

“We talked about this in spring training, and we knew a lot of good clubs wouldn’t take us seriously, not after losing 101 games last year,” Lowe said. “We thought it might work to our advantage. I don’t really care what teams think about us, as long as we win.

“We take two of three in Boston, this will be one heck of a trip.”

larry.larue@thenewstribune.com

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