By Lauren Smith

The News Tribune

SEATTLE — The anticipated showdown between two renowned Japanese starting pitchers didn’t play out as hoped — at least not for the Seattle Mariners.

While Yankees veteran Masahiro Tanaka coolly worked through seven shutout innings Tuesday night at T-Mobile Park, striking out seven batters on the way to a 7-0 win, his younger counterpart had more trouble. Nine days after tossing the first complete-game shutout of his career, Mariners rookie Yusei Kikuchi struggled to tame New York’s hot-hitting lineup.

Despite working on eight days rest, Kikuchi allowed a pair of homers — a two-run smash by center from Aaron Judge in the first inning, and three-run shot to right by Gary Sanchez in the fourth — on fastballs left over the plate.

He allowed five runs on eight hits in four complete innings, walked three and struck out one on 95 pitches, as he logged his ninth loss of the season, and his ERA climbed to 5.36, which ranks third-worst among starters in baseball.

“Yusei (was) not as sharp certainly as we saw him last time out,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “The command of his pitches, and we talk about it all the time, I sound like a broken record, but it really is what it’s all about with him. I think the stuff is pretty consistent, fastball-wise, but it’s got to be located.

“And the secondary stuff. The last time he pitched against the Yankees he had a really good curveball. He didn’t have that tonight. So, the fastball-slider combo, not really enough to keep them off-balance.”

Servais said Kikuchi finding repeatability in his pitches moving forward is a key. Kikuchi has at times — like the complete game against Toronto, or the career-high 10 strikeouts he recorded in Cleveland in May — has flashed the prowess of a quality starter, but stringing together consistent outings has been a challenge.

“My stuff felt really good,” Kikuchi said of Tuesday’s start. “The first two runs early kind of hurt, and I think I just tried to be a little too fine, trying to hit the edges, and I got into bad counts after that. … I know they’re a really good lineup, so I have to get better at relaxing and going out there and just throwing.”

“I don’t want to read too much into it,” Servais said. “He’s coming off a real good outing last time. This is a really good hitting ball club. … He’ll get the ball again next time out in five days and go from there.”

The two homers allowed decided the game early, and brought his season total of homers allowed to 33, which is tied with Houston’s Justin Verlander for second-most in the majors. Only former Mariners starter Mike Leake, who is now with the Diamondbacks, has allowed more, giving up 34.

In his rookie season, Kikuchi has fared far worse in that category than other Japanese pitchers who have transitioned to the majors. With a handful of starts remaining, he’s allowed eight more homers than any of his fellow countrymen did in their first seasons in the majors.

The next closest, Daisuke Matsuzaka, who spent most of his career with Boston, allowed 25 in 2007. Most, including current starters Yu Darvish (14 in 2012) and Tanaka (15 in 2014), kept opponent homers somewhere in the teens.

“I figured he would give up a few home runs,” Servais said. “I said that in spring training. A lot of the Japanese pitchers, when they come over here, their fastballs tend to be pretty true. Guys hit true fastballs in this league. … It takes them a little while to adjust to the style of pitching, the style of hitting and the power that different lineups have.”

Servais has said throughout the season the Mariners expected the growing pains, and it’s also been important to stick with the season-long plan of keeping his innings in check as he adjusts to a five-day pitching cycle, regardless of what the numbers say from outing to outing.

“Yeah, probably, knowing that there would be some breaks, some downtime (this is what we expected),” Servais said. “There were going to be some really good outings, and there were going to be some where he really struggled. … I think it lines up pretty much with what we thought would happen.

“It all depends on how much he learns from it going forward. We knew this was going to be an educational year for him. Can he grow upon that and continue to get better? That’s the key.”

Servais said Kikuchi will be available at maximum effort in his handful of starts down the stretch, though the Mariners don’t expect to overexert him. He’s only passed 100 pitches in one outing this season — when he allowed one run on three hits on 106 pitches the first time he faced the Yankees in May — and Seattle doesn’t plan to extend him more than that.

Having made a short one-inning start in April, and being skipped in the rotation cycle one each in June and August, Kikuchi should be available to make his scheduled starts during the final month of the season.

“Unless there’s something that says we need to take him off, if something looks funky or he’s just running out of gas,” Servais said. “But, I don’t see it. I feel really good about where he’s at physically, and again we want him to really finish on a positive note.

“And it doesn’t always have to be tied to the numbers and what statistically it looks like. It’s more like the routine, staying consistent with mechanics. It’s been a year of learning and I really want him to walk out of this thing thinking, ‘OK here’s what I did the last five, six weeks, it was really good, let’s build on that.’ We’ll take that into the offseason and on to 2020.”