NEW YORK -- The Mariners arrived at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday presumably with the upper hand. They had their ace on the mound, were facing an unproven rookie on the other side and didn’t have the daunting task of pitching to Aaron Judge.

For a team that has hovered around .500 for most of the year, it looked like a realistic opportunity to climb back even after a tough loss on Tuesday to begin a road trip that’s quietly critical despite it being only late June.

Instead, Seattle (35-37) tumbled even farther after a 4-2 defeat that secured a series loss and was another of the more sour variety.

“When you're not going out and doing your job, it's pretty frustrating, especially against teams that you should be competing against and putting up better efforts against,” first baseman Ty France said. “Our pitching staff has dominated all year, and it's kind of time for the offense to take a step forward.”

Luis Castillo again labored -- albeit not as significantly as his last time out -- and pitched behind more often than usual, which led to two critical mistake pitches in hitter’s counts that the Yankees smashed for homers. Seattle’s workhorse threw 103 pitches but lasted just five innings thanks to only 66 strikes and four walks. “La Piedra” also lacked his trademark swing-and-miss stuff, with only three strikeouts and none until his 11th batter.

That said, Castillo only gave up three runs, which has typically not been enough of a barometer for Yankees’ success. But Seattle’s bullpen surrendered another via a solo homer from Anthony Volpe off Gabe Speier in the seventh.

By that point, on a night when the Mariners’ bats manufactured just two hits (both singles) against Yanks starter Jhony Brito before Dylan Moore ripped a pinch-hit solo homer with two outs in the eighth inning, the game was seemingly out of reach despite Seattle adding another run in the ninth. Brito entered play with a 5.58 ERA and a .839 opponents’ OPS.

"You have got to fight from the first inning on,” manager Scott Servais said. “We are better than that; we know we are. It's a collective group coming together saying we're going to fight and compete. We are not doing that."

Have they gotten out of the approach that has recently shown promising signs?

“It's just kind of spotty right now,” France said. “You'll see good at-bats here and there, some hits here and there, but it's just one of those things where we're not doing it all at once. It's kind of hard to win baseball games that way.”

It was on this very day one year ago that the Mariners emphatically turned their season around, one that in so many ways has mirrored this up-and-down 2023 but also feels much different.

At 29-39, with just 5.8% FanGraphs odds to reach the postseason, and with things looking as bleak as could be, the Mariners began a stretch on June 21, 2022, in which they went 22-3 and thrust themselves back into the second AL Wild Card spot.

That one-month run also featured a 14-game win streak that was tied for MLB’s longest of the year, and it inspired the front office to splash at the Trade Deadline and acquire Castillo, who helped propel them to the postseason.

One year later, despite a better record, the uphill climb looks steeper -- especially with a far deeper field of playoff-caliber teams in the American League.

This road trip, which began with their two best pitchers, George Kirby and Castillo, seemed like an promising opportunity. The Yankees entered the series with a .192 batting average and .250 on-base percentage in June, by far MLB-worsts in that stretch. And they were just 4-8 since Judge suffered a right great toe sprain.

“We're on the road; you've got to hit,” Servais said. “And you need to put pressure on their pitching, and we have not done that.”

Instead, Seattle will look to avoid a sweep, then head to Baltimore where the Orioles await, holding the top AL Wild Card spot.

“Every game is important, but when you're playing against teams of this caliber, [given] how close we are to them, we should put a little more emphasis on these,” France said. “Not saying that we need to put more pressure on ourselves, but we need to hold ourselves more accountable and treat these games as if they're playoff games.”