"Sabathia was more deliberate than usual against the Seattle Mariners on Thursday night. He took more time to get signs, took longer to throw pitches and had problems plowing past hitters. Sabathia looked uncomfortable, a pitcher who kept trying to be his effective self and kept failing.

Without a precise and powerful Sabathia, the surging Yankees looked like just another ordinary team, losing to the Mariners, 8-4, at Yankee Stadium. Since Sabathia wobbled into the sixth inning as a surprisingly wayward pitcher, the Yankees saw their seven-game winning streak disintegrate.

Watching Sabathia was like waiting for a traffic light to turn from red to green. He tugged on the sleeve of his jersey, adjusted his belt and dug at the dirt around the pitching rubber. For someone who is as dominant as Sabathia, he often looked as if he were trying to run out a 24-second clock.

"He just showed that he's human," Manager Joe Girardi said. "On certain nights, he's not going to have his best stuff."

Sabathia's fastball was humming at around 95 miles an hour, but most of his pitches soared high in the strike zone so it did not matter. Because Sabathia was trying to figure out how to keep the ball down in the zone, he looked out of sync. He never really figured it out.

Eventually, Sabathia stopped stalling and pitched. And, eventually, the Mariners did enough damage against him to end their 10-game losing streak in the Bronx. Sabathia gave up 6 runs and 10 hits in five and two-thirds innings. Of the 29 Mariners that Sabathia faced, 13 reached base.

"Everything was up," Sabathia said. "When that happens in a big-league game, you're going to get hit around a bit."

When Sabathia left with the bases loaded in the sixth"