SEATTLE — The Yankees were pouring in on late into their 11-5 win over the Mariners on Monday night at T-Mobile Park.
The highest-scoring offense in the majors was having a ball piling up double-digit runs again. Trent Grisham hit two more homers, Austin Wells went deep with two on and Anthony Volpe added some icing with a two-run shot in in the ninth.
Then in an instant the mood changed to numbness when the Yankees scored their final run.
Up five, the Yankees was still batting in the ninth when Aaron Judge hit a flyball to right field, Oswaldo Cabrera tagged up from third base and took off for the plate.
The throw home by Leody Tavaras was up the line and arrived as Cabrera was reaching home.
Cabrera tried to score standing up, then he wiggled to his left to avoid catcher Cal Raleigh’s tag and twisted his left ankle. He slowed up, but his momentum took him beyond the plate, and as he dropped to the ground, he reached back with his left hand to touch the plate.
Plate umpire Nate Tomlinson gave the safe sign by holding out his hands, but Cabrera was badly hurt.
Laying on his belly, he pounded his right hand on the ground three times with agony on his face.
This looked like a bad fracture.
Yankees trainer Tim Lentych rushed to his aid.
Cabrera didn’t get up.
Five minutes later, Cabrera was still down with manager Aaron Boone, Judge and four other Yankees players standing at home plate.
“He was in pain,” Boone said. “That’s what he kept saying a lot.”
An ambulance pulled on the field, Cabrera was put on a stretcher. He lifted into the back of the emergency vehicle, then driven to the closest hospital, Harborview Medical Center, with Lentych accompanying him.
“That’s terrible, especially how much Cabrera means to this team,” Judge said.
After 11 minutes, play started up again and the Yankees finished off the win with Ian Hamilton pitching a 1-2-3 ninth, but no one felt like celebrating.
They were hurting for Cabrera, who might be the most beloved player in the clubhouse because he’s so friendly, energetic and constantly smiling.
“He’s as good as it gets,” Boone said. “He’s the best of people you’re going to come across.”
Cabrera, who was hitting .243 with one homer and 11 RBI in 34 games, started 30 of the Yankees’ first 41 games at third base with Oswald Peraza.
On Tuesday, DJ LeMahieu will call off the disabled list after after missing the Yankees’ first 41 games with a left calf strain that occurred on his second spring training at-bat.
The plan had been to play LeMahieu often at second base as a fill-in for injured starter Jazz Chisholm, but he now probably will get starts at third, too.
Nobody was looking ahead after this win though.
Cabrera was everyone’s mind.
“The way he does everything,” Grisham said, “the way he shows up with a smile, the way he leaves it all out there, the way that he cares for other people ... it pours out of him.
“If you watch him play baseball, you get a taste of it.”
Before the injury, the Yankees trailed 2-1 before scoring six fifth-inning runs on Mariners starter Emerson Hancock.
Grisham led off the inning with his second solo homer to tie the game, Paul Goldschmidt’s single put the Yankees on top 3-2, Cody Bellinger followed with a hit that made it 4-2 and Austin Wells capped the outburst two batters later with a three-run homer to make it a 7-2 ballgame.
Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt allowed two solo homers in the first three innings, but turned in a solid six-inning, three-run out to pick up his first win.
The Mariners made some late noise after falling behind 8-2 when they scored a run in the seventh, then two in the eighth on Raleigh’s homer off left-hander Tim Hill.
The Yankees finally put the Mariners away scoring three more in the ninth, the last one ruining everyone’s night.
“It definitely leaves a sour taste in your mouth,” Schmidt said. “It was a great win, but we’re feeling for Cabby for sure.
“You see stuff like that and you really don’t take the game for granted. It’s the game of the game. There are two outs. It’s really an insignificant moment in the game in the grand scheme of things, and just like that something like that can happen where it seems like he’s going to be out for a significant amount of time.
“You blink your eyes and the game can be taken away from you.”
NOTABLE
-- Judge raised his MLB-best average to a ridiculous .414 by going 2-for-3 with two walks and a sacrifice fly.
-- The Yankees’ four homers gives them a MLB-high 74 in 41 games.
LOOKING AHEAD
Tuesday: Yankees at Mariners, 9:40 p.m., EST, YES & MLB Network. LHP Max Fried (6-0, 1.05) vs. RHP Bryan Woo (4-1, 3.25).
Wednesday: Yankees at Mariners, 4:10 p.m., EST, YES & MLB Network. RHP Will Warren (2-2, 4.75) vs. RHP Luis Castillo (3-3 3.95).
Thursday: Off day.
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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.