SEATTLE — The Yankees looked like a dead team walking after Aroldis Chapman blew another game Sunday in the first game of their doubleheader against the Mets.
It left the Yankees at .500 and staring at a tough road trip heading into the All-Star break.
With Wednesday’s 5-4 win over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park, the Yankees have since won three straight for the first time in three weeks.
But they didn’t use Chapman to close the game, instead going to Chad Green in the ninth for the save.
After Jonathan Loaisiga threw a scoreless eighth, Green was summoned in the ninth — on a night Aaron Boone said before the game Chapman was available.
“I just felt like in my gut that’s what the game called for right there,’’ Boone said of his decision to go with Green, whom he thought he would stay away from after the right-hander threw a combined 37 pitches in Sunday’s doubleheader.
“Green’s throwing the ball incredibly well and in a one-run game there, with [Chapman] coming off [24] pitches [Tuesday] night, make sure it’s a situation we feel really good about.”
They clearly don’t feel really good about Chapman, though Boone said they intend to get him back into a closer’s role.
The manager added, “There’s no question in my mind” Chapman will return to the dominant form he showed earlier in the season.
Green whiffed two of the three batters he faced in picking up his third save of the year.
“Those last three outs are different,’’ Green said of closing games. “It doesn’t matter who’s up or what you’ve done in the past, it’s just different.”
For the Yankees to get to a save situation took some work.
Scheduled starter Domingo German didn’t end up starting because of an emergency root canal, but he was one of five pitchers used to hold off the Mariners.
For a second straight night, the Yankees teed off on a Seattle starter in the opening inning.
On Wednesday, it was lefty All-Star Yusei Kikuchi.
After scoring three runs in the first inning on Tuesday, the Yankees did the same Wednesday, as Luke Voit had a two-out RBI single and Gleyber Torres followed with a two-run single.
The Yankees could have had another run when Gio Urshela belted a shot to the gap in left-center, but it bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double, keeping Torres at third.
Nick Nelson, making the start in place of German, was a mess in the bottom of the inning.
He hit the second batter he faced, Mitch Haniger, and walked Kyle Seager and Jake Fraley.
A wild pitch on the walk to Fraley scored Haniger to make it 3-1.
A walk to Tom Murphy ended Nelson’s night after just two-thirds of an inning.
With the bases loaded, Luis Cessa came in and got Shed Long Jr. to ground to short to keep it a two-run game.
“The game was on the line,’’ Cessa said.
Tim Locastro led off the second with a grounder through the left side of the infield that the left fielder turned into a double — his first of two on the night.
Judge then blasted a one-out homer to increase the lead to 5-1.
Cessa cruised and allowed just one hit over 3 ¹/₃ shutout innings.
“He was awesome,’’ Boone said.
German threw a scoreless fifth before the Mariners got back in the game in the sixth.
Haniger opened the bottom of the sixth with a chopper that a charging Urshela misplayed for an error.
With two on and two out, German gave up a three-run homer to bring the Mariners within a run.
But German bounced back and retired the side in order in the seventh and Loaisiga and Green finished it, as Boone called on Green rather than Chapman, who had blown leads in three straight appearances before the Yankees brought him into Tuesday’s lopsided win, when he walked the bases loaded with less-than-usual velocity.
“[Chapman’s] still our closer,’’ Judge said. “He’s still the guy I want in any big situation to close out a game.”
