Yankees close gap on Sox

NEW YORK (AP) — Masahiro Tanaka finally flourished under the sun, Starlin Castro had four hits and the New York Yankees took advantage of a record five errors by the Seattle Mariners in the first inning on the way to a 10-1 victory Sunday.

Mariners shortstop Jean Segura committed three early miscues — two on one play. Third baseman Kyle Seager and left fielder Ben Gamel also botched balls as the Yankees scored six runs, one earned, in the first inning against starter Andrew Albers (2-1).

That made it an unusually easy afternoon for Tanaka (1010), who entered 0-6 with an 11.81 ERA in seven starts during the day this season. He struck out 10 and walked one in his 100th major league start. The right-hander has won both outings since a brief stint on the disabled list due to shoulder inflammation, pitching seven innings each time.

New York took two of three in the series and moved within 2½ games of first-place Boston in the AL East after Baltimore completed a three-game sweep at Fenway Park with a 2-1 victory.

Tanaka, who gave up one run and six hits, improved to 60 in seven career starts against the Mariners. He is 9-4 with a 3.24 ERA in 17 games at night this season.

Seattle's five errors were the most in an inning in club history. The previous major league team to make five errors in one inning was the 1977 Chicago Cubs, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The Mariners played clean defense the rest of the day but still matched the season high for errors by a big league team in one game this year. Boston made five errors Friday against Baltimore, and Milwaukee did it July 7 at Yankee Stadium.