New York Yankees at Seattle Mariners prediction, pick for 5/31

Yankees, after drubbing Mariners twice, seek series sweep

Just imagine what the New York Yankees would be doing with Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo and Josh Donaldson -- and others -- in the lineup.

Even without those stalwarts, the Yankees scored in double digits for the third consecutive game on Tuesday, defeating the host Seattle Mariners 10-2. Aaron Judge homered for the third straight contest.

The Yankees will try to sweep the three-game series Wednesday night when they send Clarke Schmidt (2-5, 5.58 ERA) to the mound against Seattle's George Kirby (5-4, 3.43) in a matchup of young right-handers.

New York is riding a four-game winning streak.

"Everybody's chipping in right now, and everybody's passing the baton, and good things are happening when you're not afraid to pass it to the next guy," said the Yankees' Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who went 4-for-5 with four RBIs on Tuesday.

Rizzo missed his second consecutive game with a neck injury suffered Sunday against the visiting San Diego Padres, while Stanton and Donaldson have begun rehabilitation assignments after being sidelined with hamstring issues.

The Yankees' revolving door to the injured list continued spinning as outfielder Harrison Bader (hamstring strain) was placed on the 10-day IL after being injured while legging out an infield single Monday and catcher Jose Trevino was activated. New York also recalled infielder/outfielder Franchy Cordero from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

On Tuesday, Anthony Volpe and Greg Allen also homered for the Yankees, who have 20 runs on 30 hits in the first two games of the series against one of baseball's best pitching staffs.

"Our starting pitching has been so solid all year long, allows us to be competitive every night, and the last couple nights it's gotten away from us," Mariners manager Scott Servais said.

Volpe, a rookie, snapped a 2-for-22 slump with his three-run homer in the third inning that doubled New York's advantage to 6-0.

"That was a big blow in the game and kind of let us really breathe a little bit there," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "That was a big swing, big at-bat. Obviously been grinding a little bit lately, so really good to see him get that swing off."

As for Judge?

He went deep to left-center field leading off the seventh against Mariners reliever Darren McCaughan, who was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma earlier in the day. It was Judge's third homer in the series and his American League-leading 18th of the season.

Kirby, who will face New York for the first time, would've seemed the perfect candidate to keep the Yankees in the yard -- until his last outing Friday against Pittsburgh. Kirby had a streak of eight consecutive quality starts snapped as he gave up seven runs on nine hits in 4 2/3 innings. Four of those hits were homers, one more than he had allowed all season.

Schmidt, like Kirby a former first-round pick, has pitched better of late. He allowed just one run on five hits in his most recent start, a 3-1 defeat to visiting Baltimore last Thursday. Schmidt has allowed two or fewer earned runs in four of his past five starts, though he has pitched six innings only once this season.

This will be the first career outing for both pitchers against their opponent.