> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Geno Suárez, Mariners Cruise to 6-2 Win, Sweep Hapless Rockies - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/geno-suarez-mariners-cruise-to-6-2-win-sweep-hapless-rockies/ - Published: 2025-09-26T04:56:02.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T05:58:02.000Z - Author: Callaghan Bluechel - Tags: News, Mariners, Emerson Hancock, Eugenio Suarez, Josh Naylor, Cole Young, Cal Raleigh [Embed from Getty Images](http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2237448669?ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) SEATTLE, Wash. — For the first time since 2019, a late September Mariners game carried little significance. But unlike 2019, it was for a good reason: Seattle had already clinched the playoffs, the division, and, because of a Tigers win earlier in the day Thursday, a first-round bye. The only thing left was whether they would get the first seed or the second seed. Being this late in the season with nothing to chase has only happened *once* in Seattle baseball, in 1997\. Even in 2001, the M’s were chasing the 116-win record long after they had the division in their palm. On Thursday, however, they finally had some rest. The initial lineup looked a lot like it had in the past few weeks, but after Seattle roared out to an early lead, men like Leo Rivas, Cole Young, and Luke Raley started trickling onto the field. Although the less meaningful game ended with the team cruising to a 6-2 win, there were still notable takeaways to be had across the diamond as the M’s begin to wrap up the regular season. ### Emerson Hancock Eases Through Four With the first-round bye cinched up and Bryan Woo out for one start due to his recent pectoral inflammation, Emerson Hancock got the start on Thursday night. On the outside edge of the starting rotation, Hancock had filled in 15 times for Bryce Miller and Logan Evans. As a starter, however, he had struggled mightily, going 3-5 with a 5.47 ERA, striking out 53 while walking 30 and giving up 15 home runs in 77 ⅓ innings. With a 1.77 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 1.75 home runs given up per nine innings and Hancock having issues getting out of the rut, the beleaguered starter spent some time in Triple-A with the Rainiers before being called up in late August to fill out a long relief role in the bullpen. That had so far been a better fit for Hancock, who put up a 2.08 ERA, struck out four, walked one, and yielded no home runs in 8 ⅔ innings in six bullpen appearances coming into Thursday. While out of the ‘pen, he took advantage of higher velocity to stay ahead of hitters, but he also grew comfortable enough to find better location as he saw more relief action. It was the comfortability that helped him through the first four innings of Thursday’s game. It may have been against the Rockies, shutting out an opponent as a starter for just the second time in 2025\. Hancock relied heavily on his sinker and sweeper for almost all his work, and it was the sweeper that dazzled the Rockies—who whiffed on every swing against the pitch—with a supercharged horizontal break (on average 18 inches, *five* more than his season average!) and delivered him five of his seven total strikeouts. He yielded no walks and no runs while only giving up two hits and got through his four innings on 51 pitches. Time will tell whether he will end up back in a starting role in years to come, but his more than solid Thursday performance is a hopeful indicator should he need to fight some fires in the playoffs. ### Geno Gets it Going Just like on Wednesday, the Mariners pretty much immediately took the Rockies’ pitching to task. Now, beating up on Colorado isn’t exactly the most impressive thing for a big league offense to do—the visitors came into the game having already given up 1001 runs, by *far* the worst in MLB—but it was still good to see the Mariners do what they were supposed to do. With one on and one out in the bottom of the second, Rockies starter Bradley Blalock foolishly left a slider over the plate and at the knees to Eugenio Suárez, who reached down and crushed the ball off the facing of the upper deck in left field. It was his 49th home run of the 2025 season, tying a career-high from 2019 with the Reds, and it gave the Mariners a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Three more runs came in the fourth inning, as Seattle put together a hit-by-pitch, a bunt, a single (by Suárez!), an RBI fielder’s choice, a single, a walk, and another single. And who to knock in the final run? You guessed it, Suárez, who cracked a single to score Josh Naylor in the bottom of the fifth. The main takeaway from all of this is that Suárez is on something of a hot streak. Over his last eight games including Thursday, Seattle’s third baseman has slashed .400/.438/.967 with four home runs and three doubles, and Seattle would be treated to some truly beautiful sights if he were to keep this up in October. ### Prospect Watch: Cole Young Ranked as Seattle’s second best prospect going into 2025, Cole Young has had a promising season, albeit with some mixed results. Although he started off cold, he put together a solid stretch from late June through the middle of August, slashing .265/.385/.412 between June 27 and Aug. 15\. But he fell quickly back down, his line from Aug. 16 forward only .047/.160/.116, and he hadn’t played in a game since Sept. 14. With Seattle’s big early lead and the general fact that the result wasn’t going to affect much, Dan Wilson opted to get his young man some more reps, and so Young came on for Jorge Polanco in the fifth inning. On defense, Young more than held his own, although he wasn’t asked to do anything extraordinary. Still, he got good jumps on the ball whenever he did need to make a play, something that has been an intermittent issue at times for the rookie second baseman. His three plate appearances, on the other hand, were a little more instructive. Despite his intermittent struggles in 2025, he has quietly racked up an incredible walk rate, working a free pass 10.9 percent of the time coming into Thursday. However, he has had issues getting good contact—with plenty of balls rolled over to the right side—or getting contact at all, especially on fastballs out over the plate. Thursday offered perfect examples of all three tendencies. Young, in order: grounded out to second, worked a 10-pitch walk, and struck out on a middle-middle fastball. His walk was the result of some good hitting, as he fouled off four straight full count pitches from Rockies reliever Luis Peralta before taking a fastball away, but it was dampened by the fact that plenty of those pitches were heaters out over the plate he should have been able to drive. His later strikeout compounded worries about his contact, but all in all, no one will complain about a walk. ### Number 61 Will Wait The outcome may not have been in doubt for long or had much effect in any case, but most of those in the building were keeping close tabs on the game regardless. That was for one reason: Cal Raleigh.Seattle’s MVP candidate had shone brightly on Wednesday, striking his 60th home run, and the eyes of the world were looking to see if his 61st was on its way as an encore. The closest Raleigh came was in the bottom of the first, as he walloped a ball 110.1 miles an hour off the bat to deep right center. He got just a hair under it, however, as it flew a little too high and barely not far enough, falling into Mickey Moniak’s glove a few feet from the wall. Although he got a walk—an intentional one with men on second and third—Raleigh didn’t get a base knock on Thursday, and so any cherry on top of his one-of-a-kind season will have to come during Seattle’s final series of the regular season, a weekend trio of games against the Los Angeles Dodgers.