Hancock, Mariners Get Sunk by Flock of Blue Jays Big Flies, Own Rudderless Offense
If the Mariners drive this busted up tractor all the way to the postseason, Fernando Alonso himself should bestow their accolade.
Before the All-Star Break, the Mariners could have perhaps been considered a slightly above mediocre team that was underperforming to the level of a slightly below mediocre team. They had scored 392 runs and allowed 376 runs, not to the level of their supposed World Series contention but better than what has since followed.
With the conclusion of Seattle’s 8-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday, the M’s have now been outscored 215-135; with the second fewest runs in the majors ahead of only the Angels and the third most runs allowed behind only the A’s and Rockies. Their -80 run differential since the All-Star break is up there with said Athletics among the worst in the game, and if their .299 Pythagorean winning percentage would be a 48-114 record if it were applied evenly to a full season.
Their actual 16-22 second half record (instead of their Pythagorean 11-27) would be a 68-94 season extrapolated out. Not that such a performance is anywhere close to what they needed, but ever so barely, their overperformance - it could be euphemized to optimal run distribution - has kept them in the hunt for an AL West title. Even at a queasy 64-71, they are four games back of the Astros in the AL West.
If their play against their onetime ALCS rival is any indication, that last lick of resurgent energy could be all but spent. They are long since out of games to punt away, with a butcher’s bill dozens of contests long that shows no signs of letting up before the M’s can have a snowball’s chance of paying it off.
Incredibly, those metaphors were far less tortured than the team’s efforts on Friday night.
Emerson Hancock gave up two homers and five runs as his sweeper took a dip, with an injury scare to boot.
Leo Rivas Walks Off Cubs, Gives M’s Homestand Jolt
It’s the kind of thing that engenders legitimate hope in a team so downtrodden, but it’s the kind of thing fringe Mariners role players have done for decades in ultimately sour-ending seasons.
Regardless of the view from 30,000 feet, it was a magical moment for those celebrating within a three-foot radius of Leo Rivas in the bottom of the 10th on Friday night.
The game had been a back-and-forth affair between the M’s and Cubs, two teams with high expectations going into 2026 but only one of whom had performed up to snuff. At times, Seattle looked like the team they had constructed on paper, with Brendan Donovan and Cal Raleigh both producing runs. At others, the Cubs ambushed mistake pitches from multiple Mariners pitchers, and it had gone to extras before Seattle triumphed 6-5.
Emerson Hancock recovered from early struggles to put together almost six innings.
During the first half of the season, Mariners starting pitching had the sixth best ERA, fifth best StatCast expected ERA (xERA [1]), best fielding independent pitching (FIP [2]) and third best expected FIP (xFIP [3]) of any rotation in baseball.
In the second half, however, Seattle’s starters have had the seventh worst ERA, fourth worst FIP, and ninth worst xFIP. Their xERA ranking of 10th best since the break is small consolation with their struggles spanning all the non-StatCast metrics. They went from a league-best 11.0 starting pitcher FanGraphs WAR (fWAR) pre-break to a second-to-last 0.5 fWAR post-break.
Mariners Strike Back vs. Astros, Remain Barely Breathing in AL Playoff Chase
A cloud of horror hung above the Houston air as the Mariners began their game on Saturday. The team was fresh off a gut-wrenching 10-inning loss where the difference depended on two squibbers that fell away from the Mariners defense before Christian Walker torched an Andrés Muñoz cookie into Galveston.
And yet they came back from the brink on Saturday, with a lockdown start from Emerson Hancock and a lively offense in the unfriendly confines of Daikin Park, winning 10-5 on the heels of what, more than all the others, could be described as “the worst loss of the year”.
“I think we all kind of felt like that was a great ball game last night, and it was more indicative of who we are as a team,” said M’s manager Dan Wilson on Saturday, even in spite of Friday’s loss. “And so, I think in some ways, it felt like, yes, we didn’t get the result that we wanted, but we played the way we wanted.”
The Mariners played the way they wanted to on Saturday, and this time, they got just the result they needed.
The Mariners offense went to task with runners on, scoring 10 runs despite just one homer.
Seattle’s offense has depended on the home run for years, and since the start of 2025, around half of all their runs have been scored that way. When Saturday’s game began, the team had a .718 OPS with runners in scoring position since the start of 2025, the seventh-worst in baseball.
Despite their aforementioned bullpen disaster, the team’s performance with runners in scoring position on Friday was commendable, as they went 4-for-12 and scored all seven runs without hitting a home run. That trend continued against the admittedly subpar Astros pitchers on Saturday; the Mariners scored 10 runs while going 7-for-17 with runners on second or third.
Mariners' Bullpen Blows Another Lead as Houston Walks it Off in Extras
The Seattle Mariners came limping into Houston having won only one of their last six games. After digging themselves into a three-run deficit early, Dan Wilson’s squad came storming back in the eighth to send the opening game of a critical series to extra innings.
But despite taking a 7-5 lead in the 10th, the bad luck continued, as Houston orchestrated a back-breaking comeback of its own, further putting the AL West division out of reach as a three-run home run by Christian Walker vaulted the Astros to an 8-7 win.
It wasn’t all bad news, as the final result might suggest. Starter George Kirby pitched better than the box score might indicate, and the M’s offense seemingly woke up from a season-long slumber.
A top-30 prospect also made his debut for the team. Brock Rodden debuted at shortstop and looked like a major leaguer already, sparking questions about why he wasn’t brought up earlier given the recent controversy surrounding Colt Emerson’s secret wrist injury.
Unfortunately, the backend of the bullpen surprisingly fell apart with the bats waking up, blowing a two-run lead in the 10th and showing once again that another bullpen acquisition was needed at the trade deadline in what has become quite the missed opportunity for Jerry Dipoto.
Seattle continues to slip further and further from playoff contention, and its players will need to execute to get this squad back on track with time running out to crawl back into the race.
Mariners' Loss to Dodgers Highlights Trade Deadline Needs
The M’s tried to build on their triumphant win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night but ultimately fell short, losing 4-2 after a late comeback was snuffed out by former Mariner closer Edwin Díaz in his return from injury.
Falling back down to earth, the Mariners played as they have all year. Fielding mistakes and an inability to hit left-handed pitching again plagued a roster talented enough to contend for a World Series. Against the defending champions, the Mariners struggled to match Los Angeles for most of the night.
With the MLB trade deadline less than a week away - unusually set for Aug. 3 - Wednesday’s game showed that Seattle needs to make some moves to go on a playoff run. Roster additions will help, but internal improvement remains just as important.
Struggles Against Lefties Return
The Mariners teed off in the opener of the series against Justin Wrobleski on Tuesday night, plating five runs against the Dodgers left-hander. It was a performance that instilled hope for the M’s that their yearlong struggles against southpaws were perhaps being mended. But they followed that up with a batting dud against southpaw Eric Lauer, who hurled six scoreless innings while only allowing one hit and one walk.
Bullpen Rises to Occasion as Mariners Snap Five-Game Skid, Take Series Finale From Rays
Finally putting an end to their losing ways, the Seattle Mariners’ offense showed up early and the bullpen delivered a brilliant performance in a resounding 8-2 rout of the Tampa Bay Rays, salvaging the series finale to avoid the sweep going into the All-Star break.
The Mariners needed to use seven pitchers to secure the win due to a scary first inning injury to starter Emerson Hancock that resulted in him exiting the contest an inning later. The offense picked the ‘pen up, however, plating seven runs by the fourth inning, and eight runs overall.
It was a rare complete team performance by Seattle, and manager Dan Wilson hopes to get some key players back from injury coming out of the break while building off his team’s lights-out execution as the season marches towards the playoffs.
“Talk about a team effort from top to bottom today,” Wilson said afterward.
Mariners Searching for Answers After 6-1 Loss to Rays Extends Florida Losing Streak to Five Games
Enduring a horrifying road trip to the Sunshine State, the Seattle Mariners continue to frustrate their fan base as they fell flat again in their 6-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday. Poor luck, situational hitting, and an abnormal dud from ace Logan Gilbert made for a lackluster performance at Tropicana Field.
Gilbert allowed nine hits and two walks, but in his defense, he exited the game having only given up two runs to that point. He did leave runners on first and second as reliever Gabe Spier proceeded to give up a three-run blast on the first pitch he threw. That promptly put the game well out of reach for a Mariners team that has been struggling offensively as of late.
Continuing a season-long trend, Seattle had no issues with reaching base. They put 10 batters on, but their issues arose getting them home once again. The Mariners went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position (RISP) Saturday, bringing their five-game road trip total to a shocking 2-for-38 (.053).
Once a division favorite, the Mariners now sit two games back in the AL West at 47-49. No matter the outcome of the series finale on Sunday, they will enter the All-Star break below .500, an astonishing outcome considering their expectations heading into the year.
Mariners Shove Second Straight Shutout of Blue Jays, Win Second Straight Series
How quickly things can turn around, how fleeting streaks of play can be.
That is both a consolation and a warning for the Mariners, who finished off a 5-1 homestand on Sunday with a 4-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. Just a week prior, they were reeling from one of the worst losses of the season, out of first with a losing record. They are now in first place by a game and a half and three games above .500.
It’s a good start, but the team still needs to build upon it with as many series wins as possible over the rest of the season. No team is as good as they look when they win nor as bad as they look when they lose, but every time the M’s look like the best versions of themselves, they inspire a little bit more confidence in others and in their own hearts.
Emerson Hancock had one of his best starts of the season, shoving seven scoreless.
With the piggyback permanently on hold, Emerson Hancock had the runway for a full start on Sunday. Going into his outing, however there were questions as to whether he could deal as well as he had earlier in the season.
Despite a career-best 3.47 ERA, 3.77 FIP, and 1.048 WHIP this year, Hancock’s last four starts had seen him give up 13 earned runs in 20 innings, an average of five frames per start. He had struggled to locate his sweeper during these outings, a fact that left him vulnerable to teams willing to ambush the fastball. These teams additionally benefited from some luck that his opponents hadn’t seen as much during his first couple months of work.
“We Can’t Get Satisfied With One Win”: Mariners Fall Below .500, Below First Place with Cuyahoga Collapse
Mariners manager Dan Wilson didn’t appear to treat Sunday’s game like a must-win contest. This was despite the fact that the team’s AL West lead had all but evaporated and that the game directly determined a tiebreaker between the M’s and Cleveland Guardians, one that could in turn be the difference between the Mariners getting a first round bye or not. The guidelines of long-term player management were all but catechisms for Wilson even as his team’s 4-1 lead fell into the dust.
“Our guys, they want the ball, and we'll give them the ball when we can, and when they want it, and some guys are available for one-pluses and some aren't, and we make adjustments as we go,” Wilson said after his team’s 6-5 loss. “And that's just where we're at right now.”
There was no willingness on Wilson’s part to stretch anyone beyond their usual usage. No reliever up-downs would be allowed and no starter could surpass 100 pitches; in short, there would be no second wind for his team. By the time such second winds are allowed in September, it may be too late, just as it was in 2024 (and before Wilson’s tenure, in 2023, too). Such is the peril and just dessert of treating the first five months of the season like extended Spring Training.
They fell out of first place, under .500, dropped the series and the season series, and yet again let an opening win go unfulfilled in the final two games as they took their foot off the gas.
The Mariners, injury-conscious given the circumstances, committed to reliance on Michael Rucker and Josh Simpson.
Starter Emerson Hancock worked into the sixth inning, but with 98 pitches and a heap of armside misses to Cooper Ingle with two outs, Wilson went to the bullpen and called upon Eduard Bazardo. It took a bit for him to settle in, as he gave up a double, but his punchout of Patrick Bailey sealed the deal for that frame.
A series of left-handers made for the Mariners to go to Gabe Speier in the seventh, and though he worked around a pair of two-out hits to punch in another clean frame, his usage marked the last quality arm before closer Andrés Muñoz. Jose A. Ferrer had pitched in both previous games, and with his 39 season appearances, perhaps the two-on, one-off guideline was the best one to treat like a catechism
Four Runs Still Out of Reach as Mariners Fall 4-3 to Guardians
The Seattle Mariners continue to eye franchise history - for the wrong reasons - as they tied the team record with 13 games in a row while scoring three or fewer runs in a 4-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday. Holding onto a half-game lead in the middling American League West, the Mariners need to decide if they want to build on last year's success or drift sheepishly back into mediocrity.
Even the most optimistic Seattle fans know the phrase “Same old Mariners.” It encompasses the feelings of a downtrodden fanbase that has only made the playoffs six times in their 50 years of existence. Despite having the greatest season in team history last year by reaching Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, most fans are already ready to chalk it up as a fluke given their team’s struggles this year.
The roster is not devoid of talent; quite the opposite actually. FanGraphs Playoff Odds still gives the M’s an 80.3% chance of making the postseason. The lineup still needs to wake up though, as this roster has shown that it cannot sleepwalk its way to winning the division.
The trade deadline is approaching. Changes need to be made. What can this SoDo squad do to get back on track?
Mariners’ Tuesday Bombshells: Rotating Piggyback, Pereda Sent Down, Arozarena to IL
Tuesday ended in a solid 3-1 win for the Mariners at home against the Orioles, but a flurry of roster moves and decisions may have been even more hectic for the team than that night’s action. The team called Cal Raleigh back up to the MLB roster, announced a first-of-its-kind rotating piggyback, and had to call up a guy who had taken four total plate appearances above High-A ball in his entire career thanks to a seemingly bizarre lack of preparation on Randy Arozarena’s injury status.
Mariners general manager Justin Hollander, speaking with media Tuesday afternoon, noted the inordinate severity of the injury situation as compared to other bugs he had dealt with in his tenure with the team; he noted that Luke Raley and Josh Naylor were both dealing with issues and that Matt Brash, Carlos Vargas, and Cooper Criswell would be out until around the trade deadline. Brendan Donovan is set to start running work in the week, but these persistent injuries are not a good sign. This is especially true of Raley’s lower back tightness, given that similar injuries ended up shattering his 2025 season well after he was officially healed.
The mechanistic plan to have each of Seattle’s six starting pitchers rotate the piggyback amongst themselves is many things, but to use a judgmentally neutral term, it is unprecedented. It is also seemingly contradictory that the same organization that came up with a plan as intricate as a rotating piggyback also waited until a gameday to MRI Arozarena despite having a rest day to do so; had they done the simple thing of scheduling an earlier MRI, they would have been able to call Connor Joe back up as is clearly their long-term plan.
But what’s done is done, as bizarre as the events were. What should be made of these decisions, and what do they mean for the near future of the Mariners’ season?
Cole Young Walks Mets Off; Mariners Win Seventh Straight
A baseball club in Seattle is showing that when it rains, it pours. Through May 24, the team went 7-12 in one-run games and lost four out of five extra-innings contests. Since then, the M’s have won three of each, with all the luck falling their way even in games where they leave quite a lot on the table.
All three of those have been walk-off wins, each from the bat of a different Mariner. Monday’s hero in the end was Cole Young, but unlike the others, there was a notable uniqueness to his hit. During the game, 22 players had plate appearances on Monday night. Four had hit home runs, but other than Young, no hitter had found a patch of green grass or evaded the waiting glove of an opponent.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson smirked as he described his team’s “flair for the dramatic” after the game, the team’s second straight 3-2 10-inning victory. That was certainly an understatement, though the drama started with dueling lineup card moves between the managers.
Seattle tried to play coy with the lineup against the Mets opener, but the visitors got the hurling they sought.
For the first time all year, the Mariners faced a team going with the fabled “opener” strategy, with listed starter Austin Warren being a bullpen arm tasked with beginning the game. That setup has its issues, but so had Manaea; the once-blockbuster signing entered the game with a 5.56 ERA entirely as a relief arm.
M’s Move Within Striking Distance of Division Lead with Win over A’s
Tuesday night was the first time the 2026 Mariners followed up a win of six or more run differential with a win of three or more run differential. Those benchmarks are largely meaningless in and of themselves, but they showed that the team finally managed to string together two largely complete victories, Tuesday’s a solid 4-1 win.
With a lead in hand for nearly the whole contest, the M’s did well to keep the powerful Athletics lineup off the board and away from any sort of comeback; not once after the first did the hosts have the tying run at the plate. But most of all, the team finally showed life against a side of the mound they have been vexed by for a grueling stretch of time.
The Mariners Jump-started their offense against a debutant Sacramento southpaw.
It’s no secret that the Mariners have been horrendous batsmen against left-handers, coming into the game with a .190/.277/.315 slash line against southpaws going into Tuesday’s game. The A’s sought to exploit this fact with quite the bold move: calling up lefty pitching prospect Gage Jump from Triple-A in order to be able to face the M’s on their weaker side.
Arozarena, Mariners Gut Out Series Win vs. White Sox
It would be quite an understatement to say a Wednesday win was badly needed after the gut-punch the Mariners had suffered on Tuesday.
Luckily for Seattle (with luck indeed on the team’s side more often than not), the M’s gutted out the afternoon rubber match, defying even a no-outs, bases loaded miss to put up five runs and win the game 5-4. It was their first one-run win since May 4 and 24th win on the whole year, though they still sit three games under despite heroics from Randy Arozarena and Jhonny Pereda.
Emerson Hancock pitched an uneasy five innings but avoided extra damage.
Wednesday’s game gave Mariners starter Emerson Hancock the chance for revenge on the only team to yet put up a crooked number on him in 2026. Results were mixed innings-wise, but the hurler kept the White Sox to far less runs than the five he had given up in Chicago.
The strangeness of the sport was on display in the second and third innings for the Mariners starter. Despite a whistle-clean first inning, Hancock lost his control in the second, unable to figure out the release point on his fastball. One heater after another flew high and away to the lefty Colson Montgomery for a leadoff five-pitch walk, followed by four straight up and in to Chase Meidroth. He tried to get his feel back with a sweeper to Jarred Kelenic, only for it to bounce out of Jhonny Pereda’s reach and advance the runners - but the wild pitch scarcely mattered since Kelenic walked anyway.
Jacks Full of Threes: Raley Clubs Seven RBIs, M’s Bash White Sox 12-8
Things go a lot more easily for a baseball team when they hit three home runs to score three or more men each. Good offense over nine innings can more than smooth out a bad inning on the other side, though the Mariners’ 12-8 win on Friday night against the White Sox took a while to get to the coasting stage.
In a sense, it wasn’t nearly as close as the score said; most of the high-end relievers were able to rest as Chicago scored three runs in the final two innings to turn a giant lead into a respectable one.
But in another sense (it was a one-run game until the seventh), the game was closer than its final score. M’s starter Emerson Hancock slipped quite a bit in the third inning and gave up five runs on the night, but recovered enough to go six innings and preserve the bullpen. Seattle’s first chance with the bases loaded didn’t produce anything else, but they broke the gates later on.
The big hero of the night was the still-mashing Luke Raley, who upped his season line to .258/.314/.567 with eight homers and 23 RBIs.
Luke Raley began the barrage with the first grand slam of his career.
The Mariners gave White Sox starter Sean Burke a couple of easy innings on Friday, falling in seven pitches in the first and 11 in the fourth. But crucially, they also put tons of traffic on the bags in the second and third, and though the second was underwhelming, things came together in the following frame.
Bumpy Stretch For Rotation Blocking Mariners’ Breakthrough
One of the clear strengths of the Seattle Mariners at the beginning of the 2026 season was their starting rotation. Last season, they ranked fourth in Major League Baseball in innings pitched as a starting rotation and 11th in FIP (which is ERA but factoring out fielding luck).
Bryan Woo and Luis Castillo eclipsed 180 innings pitched. Two of their starters had an ERA better than 3.50. Three of them exceeded 160 strikeouts. Four of their starters made at least 23 starts last season. Eight different players needed to make at least two starts. For context, the World Series champion Dodgers had 14 different players make multiple starts. The American League champion Blue Jays needed 11 such starters.
They had one of the strongest, most reliable rotations in baseball last year. With the same cast of characters coming into 2026, the consensus was the Mariners would be able to lean on their starting pitchers to another postseason run. However, over the last few weeks, the starting pitching has not been the strength, but the weakness of this Mariners club.
Highs, Lows, and Other Notes from Mariners’ Three Losses to Royals
If there is to be a moment when the 2026 Seattle Mariners finally put early woes behind them, it will not be for quite some time. The team got swept for the third time in the season, this go around by a Kansas City Royals team that had been 12-19 with a -22 run differential. The first two games were thin margins, winnable for the Mariners, but they weren’t at all able to salvage the third game as hitting and defense broke down once more, a Groundhog Day-like occurrence even as April has turned to May and numbers are piling up in the wins and losses column.
As befits a set of bad losses, the M’s went right up to the edge of victory multiple times, but ultimately let it slip through their fingers. Let’s go over the highs and lows of the series, from mistakes that would be bad in grade school T-ball to a pitching performance worthy of Randy Johnson.
Very High: Emerson Hancock struck out 14 in a seven-inning masterpiece on the night the M’s retired the Big Unit’s number.
Things in this sport can change on a dime, but for now, Emerson Hancock has vanquished all doubts of him being an MLB-worthy starter. He precisely used his four-seamer, sweeper, cutter, and even sinker to fold one Royals hitter after another like his opponents were cheap lawn chairs. By the time he exited the stage at the end of the seventh, 103 pitches to his name and his team nursing a one-run lead, a near-sellout crowd in T-Mobile Park gave him the a roaring ovation.
Mariners Should Learn Two Lessons from Monday Loss to Athletics - But Will They?
The old adage goes as follows: you win a third of your games, you lose a third of your games, and it’s the third in the middle that counts. So it goes for baseball teams and aspiring politicians alike.
Monday’s game was squarely one of those middle games, but the reasons the Mariners lost 6-4 can be sorted into two camps: roster construction and roster usage. The M’s went 1-12 with runners in scoring position, but this is something the team basically just has to weather for the rest of the year when it shows up.
But as for the use case of Casey Legumina and when to take out the left-handed member of a platoon? The M’s and manager Dan Wilson got a couple pieces of useful information on Monday night.
That information, however, only goes so far as the Mariners will take it. But first, a little on the initial five and a half frames.
Randy Arozarena’s Mammoth Fifth Inning Homer Reverses Hitting Woes, M’s Beat Stros 9-6
The look on Andrés Muñoz’ face told it all as Leo Rivas stepped on third to complete the final out: exhaustion and catharsis.
It was a feeling that reverberated around Mariners country as the team won its first game and nearly a week, put more than two runs on the board for the first time in a few days, and had a solid defensive showing after scores of innings full of botched glovework.
The Astros’ struggling pitching and the Mariners’ struggling offense both showed early on Friday.
Ichiro’s statue unveiling outside T-Mobile Park on Friday night encountered an unusual mishap: the bat cracked and bent at the handle as the tarp was taken off to unveil it.
It was the proverbial picture that said a thousand words about the Mariners offense. Over the first 13 games, the Mariners had failed to score before extras in four of them. The whole batting crew had looked about as lost as three Roman legions in the Teutoberg Forest.
Hancock Stuns in First 2026 Outing, Mariners Thump Guardians 8-0
It all seemed to come together on Sunday afternoon. Unlike the first or third game of the series, where the Mariners kept it close but fell in the end thanks to some bullpen mismanagement, defensive miscues, and lethargic hitting - and unlike the second game, where two timely homers brought them to victory - there wasn’t a single moment of the fourth game between Seattle and the Cleveland Guardians where it seemed the pressure was on for the home crew.
Hitters up and down the lineup did their duty, the defense looked good, and that whole tone was set when a once-touted prospect whose bad luck had eaten his star finally seemed to turn a corner.
Hancock impresses in first 2026 start, tossing six no-hit innings and setting a career high in strikeouts.
Mariners starter Emerson Hancock came into 2026 with one more chance to become a major league starter. The former first-round draft pick has pitched to a 4.81 ERA, 5.23 fielding independent pitching (FIP), 1.359 walks and hits per innings pitched (WHIP), and a 2.06 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He had particularly struggled with control even more than walks as such, with errant pitches forcing him to groove a strike or two and get punished in bad situations.
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