This is what Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik envisioned the past off-season when he acquired Cliff Lee from the Phillies in the three-team deal that also involved the Blue Jays and Roy Halladay. Lee would team with Felix Hernandez for a lefty-righty, 1-2 punch in the rotation that would thrust Seattle back into contention in the American League West.

It hasn’t exactly turned out that way, although the Mariners’ fall into last place has been due mostly to an anemic offense. Seattle bats have come alive the past two nights against Yankees pitching. The Mariners had 12 hits the previous night and followed that with a four-homer game in a 7-0 rout, the first complete-game shutout against the Yankees in the new Yankee Stadium.

Javier Vazquez gave up solo shots to Milton Bradley and Michael Saunders and yielded a run in the third after hitting Russ Branyan with a pitch with two out. Bradley beat out a hit to third base, and Jose Lopez singled to drive in Branyan.

Vazquez worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth with a strikeout of Ryan Langerhans, a late replacement for ailing center fielder Franklin Gutierrez, and had three perfect innings. It was a decent if unspectacular performance from Javy, what is known as a quality start (three runs, six innings), but not a start that could match Hernandez, who is merely 6-5 despite a 3.03 ERA because of lousy run support.

The Seattle righthander was so dominant that Yankees fans cheered when Ramiro Pena, a ninth-inning substitute for Derek Jeter, worked out a walk to become their first base runner after 12 consecutive outs. The Yankees had not lost back-to-back complete games to opposing pitchers in 10 years, by Toronto’s Chris Carpenter and Kelvim Escobar.

“That’s as good as we have seen from a pitcher all year,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “He was throwing his sinker 93 miles an hour with a great changeup and curve.”

The killer blows came after Vazquez left the game. Damaso Marte gave up a two-run home run to Branyan after Chone Figgins had singled in a nine-pitch at-bat with one out and stole second. Branyan was sitting on Marte’s slider. He let a 2-1 fastball go over the heart of the plate for strike two, but Marte came back with a slider on 2-2, and the ball ended up in the Yankees’ bullpen beyond the fence in right-center.

Saunders hit another homer in the eighth off Chad Gaudin, although second baseman Robinson Cano had a hand in extending the inning. On a foul pop down the right field line by Rob Johnson, Cano called off first baseman Mark Teixeira and reached for the ball, but it tipped off his glove. Official scorer Howie Karpin ruled no play rather than charging Cano with an error.

No play or not, Johnson remained at the plate and eventually walked and scored on Saunders’ blast to right. It was a terrific game all around for Saunders, who made an excellent, leaping catch on the dead run in left field in the first inning to rob Cano of a potential, run-scoring extra-base hit.

“That was about the end of our chances,” Girardi noted.

It was a tough defensive night for second basemen. Figgins lost two fly balls in the moon, I guess, one of which was one of the two hits the Yankees got off Hernandez, a double in the fifth by Colin Curtis. Francisco Cervelli followed with a fly to shallow right-center that Figgins didn’t see, either, but right fielder Ichiro Suzuki did and caught it.

A lot of balls hit by the Yankees are landing in fielders’ gloves. Teixeira has an 11-game hitting streak but with only 12 hits in 44 at-bats (.273). Cano is eight for his last 33 (.242). Francisco Cervelli is 0-for-13 and 1-for-17. Kevin Russo is 4-for-31 (.129). Jorge Posada is batting .195 in 24 games since coming off the disabled list. Alex Rodriguez is hitless in his past 18 at-bats at Yankee Stadium, dropping his season average at home from .351 to .295.

Who would have thought the Mariners would put the Yankees in a funk? Maybe only Jack Zduriencik.