Big-Time Bryan Woo Bounce-Back Outing Gives Mariners Series Win vs. Atlanta

It might have seemed that the Atlanta Braves were the worst possible team for a struggling Bryan Woo to face. Woo, whose arsenal depends almost entirely on two zippy fastballs thrown over the plate, was set to face an aggressive squad that feasted on fastballs. That ability to jump on the heater has been the lynchpin of Atlanta’s stellar opening salvo of the 2026 campaign, and Woo had to stare them down as the M’s tried to be the very first team to hand the Braves a series defeat.

On the other side of the ball, the Mariners needed to produce more with the stick, having logged quite a few uncompetitive innings on offense in both previous games in the series, with a pair of well-timed homers providing just enough runs on Monday but not on Tuesday. The hitting took a bit of an improvement overall on Wednesday, and though the sequencing didn’t do them many favors, the runs they scraped across were enough for a 3-1 victory.

There were banner days for several involved. For Julio Rodríguez, who came about 20 feet from denting the newly-unveiled Randy Johnson plaque with a mammoth homer; for Cole Young, who put together a three-hit outing; and for Josh Naylor, who showed up with the glove, the bat, and the well-renowned mind to find stolen bases.

But it all started with the guy on the mound, who gave his team an excellent chance to win the game.

Bryan Woo effectively countered Atlanta’s hot hitters and put a pair of bad starts behind him.

If there was any pitcher who badly needed a quality start on Wednesday afternoon, it was Woo. Facing two aggressive teams in his previous two starts, he had found his fastball ambushed and his earned runs totals exploding on the backs of home runs and hard hit balls aplenty.