While the Yankees continue to look for Robinson Cano’s replacement, Cano showed the Yankees on Saturday why he’s pretty much irreplaceable.

The second baseman, who has been mostly dreadful this season, had his first multi-homer game since he left the Bronx after the 2013 season. Fittingly, it came in the Bronx in the Mariners’ 4-3 victory.

“Today he looked exactly like we remember,” Brett Gardner said. “He was driving the ball all over the place.”

Cano homered off Michael Pineda in the first inning and again in the sixth, providing all the offense the Mariners would need.

The Yankees provided some ninth-inning drama which came up short.

Mark Teixeira led off the inning with a double and Chase Headley reached when a third strike got by catcher Mike Zunino for a wild pitch to put runners on the corners with one out. Garrett Jones’ slow grounder to short scored Teixeira, but Didi Gregorius grounded to Cano at second to end it.

Pineda had little difficulty with the rest of Seattle’s lineup, but Cano did enough damage on his own.
“He crushed two balls and basically beat us by himself,” Gardner said.

Coming into the game with just six home runs this season, Cano took Pineda deep in the first, a blast to center that landed not far from Monument Park for a 2-0 lead.

After Brian McCann hit his 15th homer of the season in the fourth, a two-run shot that tied the game, Cano struck again.

His second two-run homer of the day gave the Mariners a 4-2 lead in the sixth.

And this time, the Yankees couldn’t recover.

They threatened in the bottom of the sixth, as Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner led off with singles.
But Alex Rodriguez, whose seventh-inning homer gave the Yankees the lead in their win on Friday, struck out. Teixeira reached on a fielder’s choice before Iwakuma was removed prior to McCann’s at-bat.
McCann, though, lined out to right-center to end the threat.

The Yankees had won four of their previous five games and Pineda was coming off three excellent starts in a row. But those fortunes changed Saturday, mostly due to Cano.

“There are no hard feelings,” Cano said of his departure from the Yankees. “Not at all. I’m happy where I’m at.”

Yankees fans clearly aren’t, booing him every time he comes to the plate.

Still, Cano didn’t do it entirely alone.

Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma retired 11 of the first 12 batters he faced before Teixeira singled to right with two outs in the fourth to set up McCann’s homer.

“It was just one of those days when we didn’t get the big hit,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “One hitter hurt us pretty bad.”

That hitter had 79 homers at Yankee Stadium while with the Yankees, and that number was more of a focus by his former team than his current struggles.

“We know he’s a really good player,” Girardi said of Cano. “We consider him dangerous and that’s the way we treat him.”

Pineda missed his location with a pair of fastballs that landed in the seats.

They were mistakes the Yankees know they couldn’t make against their old teammate.

“You see what he’s capable of doing,” Gardner said. “He’s capable of leaving anywhere, foul pole to foul pole.”

And he wasn’t buying the fact Cano had dropped off that much this season.

“He’s too good of a hitter,” Gardner said. “I wish I could swing like him… If I could teach my kids to hit like somebody, it would be Robbie Cano.”