Mariners Split First Two against Rockies, Reach Edge of Elimination
When the M’s looked at their schedule in the early months of 2026, the antepenultimate series of the season - a three-game set against the Colorado Rockies - surely did not stand out as particularly important.
The 2025 Rockies, who were the second-to-last regular season series for the M’s, had been mere speed bumps for Cal Raleigh to reach the six decade mark and for the team to clinch its spot as AL West champs. The fact that their opponents were then the Rockies meant nothing, because the story of that team at that point was what they could do, rather than what could be done to them.
And as it turned out, it is not. Despite the fact that the two teams will be separated by somewhere on the order of 15 to 20 wins at the end of the year, neither one will be going anywhere in October. The Rockies, as expected, have been one of the worst teams in the sport, long competing for the NL West cellar with the near-equally hapless Giants until the bottom fell out in September with a 1-11 run going into their series with Seattle.
Over the first two games of their series, the teams have split a game apiece, looking very much evenly matched as they battled - perhaps flailed is a better term - against each other in picturesque Coors Field. Seattle won 5-4 on Friday while Colorado prevailed 5-3 on Saturday, nearly even tallies for teams that, by this point of the year, were nearly even in ability.
Perhaps the Mariners could have won both had their defense been merely average; perhaps the Rockies could have won both had their pitching been merely average. Both teams ensured that their performance in this series wouldn’t meaningfully impact their chances long before they actually faced off; the only difference is that the Mariners didn’t expect it to happen to them.
Seahawks Injury Report: Tory Horton to Make 2026 Debut vs. Cardinals, Zach Charbonnet on the Mend
Coach Mike Macdonald remained coy as usual on the status of two noteworthy starters following Friday’s walkthrough practice, but the Seattle Seahawks will at least have their full receiving arsenal on tap for backup quarterback Drew Lock in Arizona.
Per Macdonald, the Seahawks will finally welcome second-year wideout Tory Horton back to the lineup for the first time in nearly a calendar year, marking his first game action since a shin injury cost him the final eight regular season games as well as the entire Super Bowl run as a rookie. A hamstring injury suffered during training camp ended up knocking him out of preseason action and he didn’t dress for the team’s 13-10 win over the Patriots in their season opener last week.
“Tory’s back. Had a great week at practice, excited to see him play. He’s worked hard,” Macdonald said.
It’s been a long haul back for Horton, who confirmed in the early stages of training camp that he played through the injury for several weeks before landing on injured reserve, undergoing surgery after the Super Bowl and having a rod inserted into his leg. Requiring several months of healing, he didn’t participate in Seattle’s on-field offseason activities, but he avoided starting the new season on the PUP list and gradually ramped up his practice work before his latest setback occurred in mid-August.
Seattle Soccer Update: Reign Fall to Angel City, Sounders Lose Rothrock to Hamstring Injury
Seattle’s top-flight soccer teams suffered blows in the middle of the week, as the Seattle Reign lost a key playoff matchup to Angel City 3-1 on Wednesday night while Sounders leading scorer Paul Rothrock was ruled out for the next eight to 10 weeks with a hamstring injury on Tuesday. The Reign (11-9-4) cling to the final NWSL playoff spot with six games to play while the 14th-place Sounders (7-9-7) look to claw back into the MLS Western Conference playoff race with an international break to come.
ECS beat reporter Qasim Ali breaks down what it all means before both teams play critical matches in Denver this weekend.
Sam Darnold ‘Killing It’ in Rehab, Confirmed Out for Seahawks at Cardinals in Week 2
From a long-term prognosis standpoint, Sam Darnold appears to be on a trajectory to return in the not-so-distant future for the Seattle Seahawks. But that future won’t be as early as this upcoming weekend.
Rather than dance around the possibility of Darnold potentially being available to play in Arizona against the Cardinals on Sunday, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald confirmed the Pro Bowl quarterback would sit out this week, yielding the controls to the offense to backup Drew Lock. Fortunately, injured reserve isn’t on the table at the moment, and the organization will revisit his status next week.
“We don’t anticipate putting him on I.R. or anything like that,” Macdonald told reporters. “We’ll just kinda re-evaluate every day and re-evaluate next week. We’ll go from there, but he won’t play this week.”
Knocked out just six plays into Seattle’s season opener, Darnold’s right knee rammed into the turf when New England defensive end Dre’Mont Jones brought him down from behind for a drive-ending third down sack. He hobbled off the field and after trying to shake off the discomfort, he spent a brief moment in the injury tent before limping alongside trainers into the locker room, ruled out late in the second quarter due to a hip injury with Lock playing the remainder of the game.
Kraken Set Their Leadership Group, Tab Jordan Eberle as Captain With Four Alternates
It’s just about hockey season. And that means announcing captains and alternates. The Seattle Kraken are heading into the 2026-27 season with a familiar face leading the way and two defensemen officially taking on larger leadership roles with a few returning faces.
The Kraken announced Wednesday that Jordan Eberle will serve as team captain for a third consecutive season, while defensemen Vince Dunn and Brandon Montour have been named alternate captains. They join returning alternate captains Matty Beniers and Adam Larsson to form Seattle's leadership group.
Eberle's continued presence at the top of the group provides the Kraken with a steady veteran voice as the franchise enters another important season. The 36-year-old has worn the captain's “C” since the 2024-25 season and has become one of the team's most recognizable leaders both on and off the ice. He led the squad in goals last season with 26.
But perhaps the most interesting part of this year's announcement is the decision to give Dunn and Montour the “A.” Neither selection comes as a major surprise when looking at how both defensemen have grown into leadership roles in Seattle.
Mariners Cement Losing Season, Drop Another Game to Angels
When Cole Young rolled one over weakly to second for a game-ending double play on Tuesday, a grim reality that had been all but assured for weeks became official: the 2026 Mariners are a losing team.
Seattle’s 2-1 loss to the Angels dropped the team to a 70-82 record with 10 games left to play. The playoff picture, which became even uglier as the Astros and Rangers both won, is now hardly worth thinking about.
Tuesday’s step into the abyss, like all 81 before them, had a little bit of symbolism. Dan Wilson, surrounded by smoke that he will step down when this year is done, took out one of the team’s top prospects in favor of their half-measure rental.
As any individual game goes, however, Tuesday’s was unremarkable. Logan Gilbert pitched well but got saddled with a loss because the offense died down aside from one run. The team squandered its chances with runners in scoring position. From the 10-foot view, it isn’t meaningfully different from the other losses; in the story of how the M’s went from one to 82, it is only valuable as a milestone.
The 10,000-foot view shows us that this was part of an inexorable pattern. The M’s would often chalk up such games to bad luck, but now there is no ignoring even for Wilson: it wasn’t bad luck.
“We were just waiting for it to turn around, and it never quite did,” Gilbert said. “It’s on us. At the end of the day, that’s the reality of it. We need to be accountable and know that we have to execute better. Things have to change. We have to have those conversations and figure it out.”
Storm’s Malonga, France Lose World Cup Final vs. USA
Seattle Storm forward Dominique Malonga scored a team-high 21 points for France in a 97-79 loss to the USA in the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup final on Sunday, Sept. 13, in Berlin.
The World Cup came down to the clear-cut top-2 teams, but France was still overall outclassed by Team USA. However, as they had many times during the nine-day tournament, Malonga and former Storm star Gabby Williams carried France.
Malonga finished with 21 points (8 of 12 FG), six rebounds and one steal in the loss. Williams totaled 20 points, three rebounds, seven assists and three steals.
Lawrence Butler Walks Mariners Off, Engulfs Last M’s Playoff Hopes
For years, the Mariners have relied on an ability to churn out relievers for pennies on the dollar, filling out a bullpen with just enough arms that are viable in a given year for the team to manage the innings required of a strong starting staff.
But the lack of relatively surefire options made the M’s weak to the impacts of a serious amount of injuries. The team lost Matt Brash, Cooper Criswell, and Carlos Vargas for extended periods of time, and the strain hence put on Eduard Bazardo and Jose Ferrer has turned what started as great seasons for both of them into second half catastrophes. The buck has thus fallen to lesser arms who have only inconsistently held up the bullpen’s standards, and with Sunday’s 8-7 loss, the final fruits of this were borne out in full.
The final deciding blow may have been Lawrence Butler’s walk-off two-run homer, but the fulcrum point of the game was the seventh inning. Had Carlos Vargas, who had already pitched a frame, managed to get one of the first two batters out, the A’s wouldn’t have approached Seattle’s tally. Had Gabe Speier, whose effectiveness as a reliever had been closer to his then-4.22 fielding independent pitching (FIP) and 4.36 expected FIP (xFIP) than his then-2.61 ERA, put out the fire with runners on, the A’s would have been down by three when the ninth began. And had Seranthony Domínguez either let Shea Langeliers’ grounder go to second or made a clean grab on the ball, a one-run lead would have continued apace.
“They’re all tough,” said Mariners manager Dan Wilson after the media pre-empted his usual “tough one” stock phrase.
This late in the season, and with more smoke than ever that this will be Wilson’s last as the M’s skipper, that phrase has ascended from being a verbal display of a manager going through the motions and become something of a meme, in both the Dawkinsian and Millennial senses of the word.
It’s tough because it’s a loss. It’s tough because of how avoidable this loss was. It’s tough because it is the final reminder that the Mariners did not do enough, whether in terms of the owners or the front office or the players themselves, to avenge their fallen selves from a year prior. And it’s tough because that word might be the only one given by the other 29 teams to Seattle’s self-sabotage.
Tough.
Bizarre Opening Week for Seahawks, NFC West Concludes With Rams as Only Team in Loss Column
Weird things tend to happen in bunches during the opening week of a new NFL season, and for the Seattle Seahawks and the rest of the NFC West, that certainly proved to be the case as three of the four teams within the division grabbed victories.
Moments after lowering their second-ever Super Bowl title banner at Lumen Field, the Seahawks watched star quarterback Sam Darnold hobble into the locker room after just six offensive plays, and they failed to score a single point in the first half as they fell behind 10-0 in the third quarter against the Patriots. Under such circumstances, most teams would have folded, but that wasn’t the case for coach Mike Macdonald’s championship-tested squad.
Led by Drew Lock under center and an opportunistic defense that picked up where it left off winning a Lombardi Trophy as the No. 1 scoring unit in the league last season, Seattle stormed back with 13 unanswered points. Playing with calm and poise running new coordinator Brian Fleury’s offense, Lock threw for 187 yards and completed 72% of his passes with a 45-yard touchdown pass to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and no turnovers, while rookie runnng back Jadarian Price rushed for 52 yards on just 10 carries to lead the rushing attack.
Defensively, the trio of Nehemiah Pritchett, Julian Love, and Josh Jobe picked off MVP runner up Drake Maye three times in the fourth quarter, with Jobe’s icing the game inside 30 seconds left to play in the end zone as the Seahawks celebrated their comeback victory in front of a boisterous sellout crowd.
Reign Down Bay FC in Third Straight Home Win, Revamp Team-Improvement Techniques
SEATTLE, Wash. — The Seattle Reign are taking ownership of everything they can right now.
After spiraling out of the playoff picture in the spring, the Reign (11-8-4) are firmly in control of the eighth and final postseason spot thanks to three straight close wins at home. The latest victory came on Saturday as Brittany Ratcliffe scored on a stoppage-time breakaway to secure a 2-0 win over ailing Bay FC.
The three-game stretch marked the first time since 2023 that the Reign managed three straight shutout wins, with Sofia Huerta scoring off a Nerilia "Coco" Mondesir-drawn penalty in the 51st. Reserve keeper Cassie Miller earned the clean sheet as usual starter Claudia Dickey recovers from getting stitches to her forehead after the last win over San Diego on Sept. 6.
Miller had four saves on the night, as the 31-year-old coming off a torn hamstring is now 2-2-0 in four starts this season with 22 saves to show for her efforts.
But ownership for the Reign goes beyond just winning games.
The team had to evaluate its entire approach to how it talked about self-improvement — a key for a young squad in which GM Lesle Gallimore is hoping develops greatly in the next few seasons. After all, she kept the roster largely the same after last year’s fifth-place finish.
Head coach Laura Harvey said after Saturday's win, she and her staff made wholesale changes to how they handle team film meetings after the World Cup break, a period in which Seattle was out of the playoff picture and struggling to look dangerous.
"We're looking at ways in which we can be a bit more interactive… I just didn't feel like the way that we have operated and had our process previously was really, like, sinking in," Harvey said.
WATCH: Sounders Settle for Fourth Straight Draw, Arriola Strikes Late
The Seattle Sounders moved to 7-9-7 to remain 13th in the MLS Western Conference after drawing with the LA Galaxy 1-1 on the road on Saturday night. Paul Arriola scored almost immediately after coming on in the 81st minute to tie it up, replacing star striker Dejan Joveljic after the Sporting Kansas City transfer left with cramps.
By the end of the night, both teams put up over two expected goals each as Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said he had to be stern with his veterans for missing chances after Seattle trailed 1-0 at halftime. With the result, the Sounders sit two points out of a playoff spot with 11 games to go, needing to turn nights like these into wins — Saturday marked Seattle’s fourth straight one-point result.
Emerald City Spectrum reporter Qasim Ali breaks down the action and where the Sounders sit on the table at this crossroads in the season.
Chauncey Wiggins' Georgia Case Stayed, Gonzaga's Roster Remains in Eligibility Limbo
On back-to-back days in early August, the Gonzaga Bulldogs received commitments from two 5-in-5 players, Dayton transfer Javon Bennett and Florida State transfer Chauncey Wiggins.
However, a couple of weeks after Bennett committed to the Zags, the Tenth Circuit granted the NCAA’s stay request in an Ohio case that included Bennett, deeming him ineligible to return to college basketball. The same has now happened to Wiggins, who is part of a Georgia lawsuit that recently had its preliminary injunction stayed by the state’s Court of Appeals, also making Wiggins temporarily ineligible.
With the personnel losses GU has endured this offseason, Wiggins and Bennett are expected to play pivotal roles on the roster as the Bulldogs’ starting small forward and backup point guard, respectively. But a long eligibility waiting game for these two and other Gonzaga commits lingers, as a definitive resolution for older players in college basketball has still not been identified.
Storm’s Katie Lou Samuelson Out Final 4 Games After Knee Surgery
Receiving their second dose of bad news in as many days, the Seattle Storm will be without forward Katie Lou Samuelson for the final four games of the WNBA season after she underwent arthroscopic surgery on her left knee, the team announced on Friday, Sept. 11.
Samuelson, who missed the entire 2025 season with a torn ACL, has sporadically missed time at various points throughout the 2026 season. She has still managed to play in 32 games (one start) and has averaged 4.4 points, 2.1 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 0.8 steals in 15.3 minutes per game.
The two major injuries appear unrelated, as Samuelson tore her right ACL last season. It’s unclear exactly when Samuelson suffered the current injury, but either she or the Storm decided to have her get surgery during the FIBA break instead of at the end of the WNBA season.
Washington State Likely Without Tony Freeman for Road Test at Kansas State
The Washington State Cougars will have to earn their first win of the Kirby Moore era without their top receiver in Tony Freeman when they battle the Kansas State Wildcats in Manhattan this weekend.
Freeman suffered a knee injury during Washington State's Apple Cup loss to Washington last Sunday, leaving the Cougars without one of their most important players on offense and special teams.
Exiting in the opening quarter, Freeman’s absence was noticeable on special teams as much as offense. Washington State struggled with punt returns, including having a dropped punt. Safety Jaylen Thomas took over as the Cougars' punt returner after Freeman exited the game and likely will continue in that role in Week 2.
Mariners Finally Take Singular Series from Rangers in 2026
At least the Mariners can play spoiler.
That is hardly where anyone on the team wanted them to end up when the season began. But the autopsy of the year - where three guys the Szymborski Projection System (ZiPS) had putting up a combined 15.2 FanGraphs wins above replacement (fWAR) only accrued 4.9 fWAR with 15 contests left in the season - is already written in the oft-surprised and oft-sullen faces of those in T-Mobile Park’s home dugout.
Going into their series against the Texas Rangers, the M’s had already squandered their last chance to jump back into the fray with a somewhat robust series loss to the Athletics over their previous four games. Things had already been dire for Seattle since at least the end of July if not earlier, but that set of games was the moment that the players on the team fully realized they had to stare down the music.
Perhaps there was a new attitude that arose a few hours, give or take, after rookie Lazaro Montes sent a Cal Quantrill meat and cheese sub to Saturn on Tuesday. If the M’s can’t make the playoffs for themselves, perhaps they can use one of their last remaining series against a contender to ruin someone else’s day.
Kade Anderson and Logan Gilbert went 13 combined innings with four runs allowed total.
Both the least experienced and most experienced starting pitchers did what the team needed of them on Wednesday and Thursday. That in and of itself was a departure from the muddy record of M’s hurlers since the All-Star Break, when the staff has suffered one of the worst stretches in recent memory up and down its roster. Before Anderson’s first career win on Wednesday, Seattle starters had logged a 4.99 ERA and 5.04 FIP in the second half, and the youngest had struggled with a 5.40 ERA and 5.63 FIP in his first three starts.
Storm Center Ezi Magbegor Suffers Torn ACL at FIBA World Cup
Seattle Storm center Ezi Magbegor tore her ACL during Australia’s quarterfinal qualifying game against Italy in the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup on Wednesday, the Storm announced. She will miss the rest of the WNBA season.
Magbegor played just four minutes in Australia’s 82-80 victory before suffering the injury. It’s the third time this calendar year that Magbegor has suffered an injury that has forced her off the court.
Sam Darnold Exits Seahawks Opener, Ruled Out With Hip Injury
Bringing a worst case scenario to life for the Seattle Seahawks as they begin their Super Bowl title defense, Sam Darnold exited the field after just one series in Wednesday’s season opener against the New England Patriots with a hip injury.
Replacing Darnold just one drive into the opener, Drew Lock took over at the 7:29 mark after the Seahawks’ defense forced a punt on their opening series.
After his first pass went for 13 yards to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Darnold uncorked an ugly incompletion and then found himself under duress on the ensuing third down. He managed to escape the initial blitzer with his eyes still scanning downfield, but as he tried to move to his left, he was dragged down by veteran defensive end Dre’Mont Jones for a drive-ending sack.
Mercado's Self-Bet Results in Extension; Diallo Slowly Ramps Up
TUKWILA, Wash. — Ami Diallo, the Seattle Reign's newest forward who joined the team just last Thursday after signing on Aug. 18, was asked who she liked to watch in the NWSL before she entered the league herself. She thought for a moment and named Brazilian legend Marta. Then, quietly, as is her way, she named Maddie Mercado — her new teammate on the Reign enjoying a breakout season in 2026.
Mercado, whose notoriety is far from that of the great Marta, was on loan this time last season with the Carolina Ascent to get more minutes. The 24-year-old from Notre Dame was struggling to get on the pitch, but scored four goals in just six games for the Ascent, leading Seattle GM Lesle Gallimore to recall her ahead of the NWSL Playoffs. In 2026, a 25-year-old Mercado is up to eight goals to lead the team and has made herself irreplaceable as she tracks toward being the first Reign player to score 10 or more goals since the legendary Megan Rapinoe in 2017 (franchise record 12 goals).
But it's quite apparent that no one, even the Reign in their decision to recall her, believed in Mercado more than she believed in herself.
She put a trigger in her last contract through 2026 that would activate a player option in 2027 if she hit a minutes-played threshold this year. With eight games to play this season, Mercado already hit the threshold to push her deal through the 2027 season.
"This year I kind of had it in my mind that I wanted to earn that," Mercado said of the clause after training on Tuesday. "This year really is the first year where people have seen, I think, what I'm really capable of on the field."
Indeed, Mercado had put up just 587 regular-season minutes in her first two seasons combined after being drafted in 2024, scoring one goal in 19 regular-season appearances. As she pushed her appearances for 2026 up to 22 and her minutes to 1,805, Mercado scored her latest goal on Sunday in a 1-0 win over the San Diego Wave in which she leaped over a defender to head in what would be the game-winning score. It was her seventh game in the last 10 with a goal contribution, as Mercado has manned the right wing consistently with Mia Fishel operating at striker.
Reign Overcome Slow Second Half to Beat Short-Handed Wave
SEATTLE, Wash. — The Seattle Reign are growing up.
With the chance to sweep a San Diego Wave side that has been at or near the top of the standings all season, the Reign found themselves up 1-0 and up a player in the second half.
The talented Wave (12-8-3, 5th in NWSL), who Reign head coach Laura Harvey called "the most enjoyable (NWSL team) to watch" postgame, controlled nearly the entire second half, as stars like Ludmila and Kenza Dali helped San Diego outshoot Seattle 9-1 in the back 45 alone. Seattle had looked like the more organized team early, and capitalized as Maddie Dahlien delivered a perfect ball to breakout leading scorer Maddie Mercado in the area for a powerful header in the 29th to snatch the lead.
But the young Reign (10-8-4, 8th in NWSL), thanks in part to some late defensive changes, kept San Diego out of goal — protecting a lead Harvey knew would’ve been even more fickle earlier in the season with meltdowns and near-meltdowns against Gotham and Bay FC in mind.
"There's been moments this year, a lot of it in the first half of the season, where maybe we'd have crumbled in those moments, but we didn't," Harvey said.
Indeed, Seattle constantly got players behind the action to thwart transition chances while keeper Claudia Dickey managed six saves in the win. At the end of the game, Dickey collided with Ludmila, leaving the USWNT keeper needing stitches postgame at a local hospital. But after a lengthy stoppage to tend to Dickey, who was replaced by Cassie Miller for the final 10 minutes, Harvey reengineered her press.
San Diego didn't manage another shot on frame to close the game.
"We just couldn't get pressure on the ball and protect what we needed to protect," Harvey said of the second half before she made changes. "We decided to get our wingers to press… we should've done that earlier."
Still, Harvey knows her team needs points however it can get them. Sunday was about survival — ask Dickey and her battle scars.
“Really happy with the results. Huge three points, you know, to take six points off that team is massive,” Harvey said.
WATCH: Sounders Settle for Scoreless Draw with Red Bulls, Pick Up First Clean Sheet Since April
Emerald City Spectrum reporter Qasim Ali breaks down a 0-0 draw between the 7-9-6 Seattle Sounders (13th in Western Conference) and Red Bull New York (7-10-6) on Saturday night.
The Sounders won the expected-goals battle 2.1-1.0 and took 20 shots, but six key saves from RBNY keeper Ethan Horvath and close-range misses by Paul Rothrock and Sebastian Gomez kept the Rave Green scoreless. Defender Kalani Kossa-Rienzi was the latest in a constant stream of Sounders players to get injured, as the wingback sprained his right ankle in the first half and was confirmed to be in a boot postgame. On a positive note, the Sounders tabbed their first clean sheet since April, as keeper Andrew Thomas had four saves while Cristian Roldan, Alex Roldan and others played sound defensive games.
The Sounders will take on the team one spot ahead of them in the LA Galaxy next week, with 12 games left before the MLS Cup Playoffs.
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