Giancarlo Stanton walks off Yankees with homer to cap amazing comeback | Rapid reaction

Yankees rally from five runs down to pull out 7-5 win over Mariners on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.

NEW YORK — A three-round heavyweight fight is playing out this week at Yankee Stadium … one that nobody saw coming just a couple months ago.

It’s no surprise seeing that the Yankees again are playing like championship contenders after falling one win short of getting to the World Series last year.

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The Mariners challenging the mighty Houston Astros in the American League West is a shocker, and the tremendous start they’ve had is more impressive when considering they took off after Robinson Cano, their best player, was lost in mid-May to an 80-game PED suspension.

So far, the Yankees are showing the Mariners that their best-in-baseball record is legit.

Wednesday night’s tussle was a doozy.

A night after the Yankees flexed their muscles by homering four times in a series-opening win, they topped it with some very impressive counterpunching.

This time, the Yankees fell behind five runs, then staged an amazing rally that was capped by a 453-foot, two-run, walk-off homer in the ninth by Giancarlo Stanton.

Somehow, the Yankees pulled out the win 7-5 to make it two in a row over the Mariners.

Down 5-0 after 4 1/2 innings, the Yankees tied the game 5-5 in the eighth on a two-run homer by Gary Sanchez and won it in the ninth when Didi Gregorius singled with two outs and Stanton followed with a homer to left-center off righty Ryan Cook on a 0-2, 85-mph slider that split the plate knee high.

“I don’t know how hard (Stanton) hit it, but that ball was scolded,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Giancarlo hits it and starts celebrating at home plate knowing. He’s a different animal.”

The homer was the 18th of the season and second in two nights for Stanton.

Earlier, Sanchez tied it with a huge homer.

Sanchez has been in a terrible slump this season, but he’s been swinging the bat a lot better over the last week. On Wednesday, he was 2 for 3 with second-inning single and his second homer in four games and 14th for the season.

The Yankees scored two in the fifth and one in the sixth to pull to within 5-3, then pulled even in the eighth when Gleyber Torres worked a leadoff walk off Alex Colome and Sanchez followed with a game-tying homer to left-center on a very hittable 1-0, 91-mph cutter that was over the plate chest-high.

“We never put our head down,” Sanchez said. “You have to maintain the focus.”

The Yankees, now 49-22 after 71 games, will go for a three-game sweep of the Mariners on Wednesday afternoon with Luis Severino opposing James Paxton in a battle of aces.

The Yankees made it two straight with their 23rd comeback win, six of them walk-offs.

The Yanks fell into a big hole with rookie Jonathan Loaisiga struggling in his second big-league start and reliever Chasen Shreve coming up small.

After throwing five shutout innings and winning his debut last week, Loaisiga gave up three runs on six hits and two walks over 3 2/3 innings.

Loaisiga was pulled in the fourth with two on, two out and the Yankees only trailing 1-0, but Shreve came on and allowed two-run hit to Dee Gordon in a lefty-on-lefty confrontation.

With Shreve still in, the Mariners tacked up two more in the fifth to run their lead to 5-0 with ace Felix Hernandez working on a shutout.

Hernandez, however, gave up two runs in the fifth, his final inning, then the Yankees continuing rallying against the Seattle bullpen.

“We wear the pitchers down, man,” Stanton said. “It doesn’t matter the score until the game’s over. Just wear ’em down, wear ’em down. We’ve always got a chance. We had some outs left. It showed tonight.”

NOTABLE

— Stanton and Sanchez were hit by pitches two batters apart in the sixth inning by Mariners reliever Juan Nicasio, then the Yankees retaliated in the eighth when Jonathan Holder drilled Mike Zunino with two outs and nobody on. 

— Holder worked 2 1/3 shutout innings to run his streak of not allowing an earned run to 24 1/3 innings over 21 outings.

— This was the sixth career walk-off homer and fourth walk-off homer for Stanton.

— The Yanks improved to 28-11 at home, 23-6 since April 21.

LOOKING AHEAD

Thursday: Seattle Mariners at Yankees, 1:05 p.m., YES. LHP James Paxton (6-1, 3.44) vs. RHP Luis Severino (10-2, 2.09.

Friday: Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays, 7:10 p.m., WPIX. TBA vs. LHP CC Sabathia (4-2, 3.30).

Saturday: Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays, 4:10 p.m., FOX Sports 1 TBA vs. RHP Sonny Gray (5-4, 4.89).

Sunday: Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays, 1:05 p.m., YES. TBA vs. RHP Domingo German (2-4, 4.77).

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.