Today is July 25 and a year and one year ago, Freddy Garcia was pitching for the White Sox and results did not go well. He pitched in Oakland, could not get past the second inning of a 10-2 loss.

Garcia faced 13 hitters and was gone after walking current Mariner Jack Cust. Garcia has had one such start that lasted that short and that was last month against the Red Sox.

On the injury front, Rafael Soriano is slated to pitch in Triple-A again. He pitched yesterday and gave up a home run while facing Columbus.

Eric Chavez is closer and could be activated tomorrow if the Yankees evaluate him to be feeling better.

And finally Alex Rodriguez is two weeks removed from knee surgery but no timetable is set for him to start baseball activities.

Those players are missing facing a team that surprised by being .500 but is playing like a team headed for a third 100-loss season since 2008.

The Mariners take a 15-game losing streak into this one and during that time, they have .226 and that is with a respectable .284 showing over the last six games. Also they haven’t been able to pitch, posting a 5.97 ERA during this club-record streak.

The streak broke the mark set by the 1992 team and that is hard to believe that a team with Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr, Omar Vizquel, Tino Martinez and Jay Buhner could ever be that bad.

It is just not the 15 in a row that is part of the downward trend. That streak happened just as they were at .500 (43-43) but is part of four wins during the last 23 games, which makes you wonder if this is a trap game.

"It’s a weird feeling because you’ve got to believe they’re going to play extremely hard," manager Joe Girardi said. "So I would throw out that they lost 15 in a row."

This happens to be the first time the Yankees are facing someone with a 15-game losing streak was Sept. 8, 1926. The Red Sox snapped a 17-game skid when rookie Hal Wiltse pitched a complete game and struck out Lou Gehrig three times.

As for the mood of the Mariners, obviously they are frustrated with all the losing, but it can’t turn up in their play.

"I think they’re handling it as best as they can," Eric Wedge said to a gathering of approximately 30 media members inside his office. "Anytime you go through a tough stretch of this magnitude, it wears on everybody."

On the human interest side of things, today is the start of the third annual HOPE Week, which is a community outreach project started by the Yankees two years ago. The Yankees won all five games during the week in 2009 and won three of five last year.

Jon Lane has the full description of today’s event while Jerome Preisler and Joe Auriemma are on the scene.

You can follow Jerome and Joe on Twitter at @YankeesInk and @JoeAuriemmaYES, respectively, for all the details and some pictures as well.

It also puts into perspective of going 0-for-4 and lengthy losing streaks.

"Baseball is extremely important to all of us," Girardi said. "To me, one of the most important things we can do is give people hope,".

Girardi then went on to why he believes that, stemming from when his mother was given six months to live and then lived for six more years.