Hindsight is 20/26: Re-Grading the Mariners’ Offseason Moves
The MLB regular season is heading into a sprint to the finish. There are roughly four weeks left until the playoff picture is set. The Seattle Mariners still have a chance to be in the dance, though those hopes are fading with each loss, including a series-opening defeat at the hands of the lowly Athletics on Thursday.
The Mariners certainly made moves over the offseason to try and capitalize on their trip to the ALCS last year. But fans definitely felt like they could’ve done even more, and the results on the field only have provided more evidence for that argument.
Let’s revisit some of the biggest moves the Mariners made last offseason and see how things played out. Certainly, the benefit of hindsight makes this a little unfair. Some moves that aren’t exactly looking like “A-plus” moves now felt like it back then, in the moment.
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.
George Kirby Gem Powers Mariners Series Win vs. Phillies
It’s hard to describe how badly George Kirby needed the start he got on Tuesday night. On the other hand, it’s rather easy to describe how badly the Mariners need every win they can get this month and for the rest of the 2026 season.
One win got the M’s to a 64-69 record. Matching their 90-win total from 2025 would require an impossible 26-3 run for the rest of the year, but luckily for the team, they don’t need that. In an embarrassing showing for the sport of baseball itself, 81 wins (17-12 over the rest of the year) would probably get them a division crown; a true heater of, say, 20-9 over the rest of the season would be an easy division clincher.
The other way to look at things is that, even in a year where going .500 probably wins them the division, the Mariners - who had World Series aspirations before the season began - need to put together at least a light heater just to make the playoffs.
The only way ahead is forward, however, and they got one notch closer on Tuesday with their 4-1 victory.
George Kirby reached the eighth, a welcome respite from his recent form.
“George was really the story today,” said Mariners manager Dan Wilson after Tuesday’s game.
Kirby had been lit up from every angle in his previous five outings, giving up six homers and only striking out 13 while walking eight with a 7.13 ERA. This was even with a seven-inning, no-run outing among this stretch, but every other game had seen him get lit up Chicago-style: early and often.
Big Dumper Returns: Cal Raleigh’s Three Homers Power Mariners Past Phillies
With both teams sending their top starters to the mound, a low-scoring game was expected between the Seattle Mariners and Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night. A pitching duel it was not, however, as the Mariners bludgeoned Zach Wheeler and the playoff-bound Phillies by a score of 9-2.
The M’s offense got hot early and stayed hot, scoring five runs in the first inning to give their starter Logan Gilbert quite the cushion. Cal Raleigh finally found his stroke, blasting three home runs and working a walk as well.
Gilbert continued his Cy Young-worthy campaign by battling through five innings, and Seattle’s bullpen put up zeros the rest of the day to put Philadelphia on ice.
The team is being resilient and finding a way to win, as their superstar catcher noted.
“We’ve endured a lot this year,” Raleigh said afterward. “We are fighting with everything we’ve got right now.”
Kade Anderson Debuts, Randy Arozarena Delivers as Mariners Walk Off Cubs Again
Looking to gain ground in a tight wild-card race, Seattle welcomed the Chicago Cubs back into T-Mobile Park after walking them off the night before. The Mariners elected to go the exciting route again, advancing from a walk-off single to a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth.
This was the Randy Arozarena game. Coming into the night, everyone thought the story would be about the phenom pitcher making his debut for the Mariners. Randy had other ideas, blasting a two-run home run 404 feet to dead center. If Seattle makes the playoffs this year, this game could mark the turning point of the season.
Seattle saw its top prospect, and one of the top prospects in all of baseball, make a promising debut. The bullpen was also able to keep the game close to set up a dramatic ninth inning.
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.
Analysis: Where Mariners’ Farm System Ranks and What Comes Next
As the Mariners attempt to claw their way back into playoff contention, it can be easy to focus on the letdowns of the major league club. The organization has plenty of other reasons to be optimistic, with a talent-rich farm system that would be the envy of most teams.
When Seattle traded Luis Castillo to the Chicago White Sox, it was initially billed as a salary dump and a way to reduce the logjam of starters in the rotation. The Mariners acquired Seranthony Domínguez, who slots in as a middle-relief option. Seattle also received prospect Boston Smith, who has been mashing with six home runs in his first 11 games. The catcher adds to an already impressive minor league system.
Mariners Survive Brewers, Gain Ground in Wild Card Race
Seattle came limping into Milwaukee after getting pummeled 22-0 the night before, looking to exorcise some demons against the Brewers on Wednesday night. Facing former top prospect Dustin May, the Mariners got the bats going early, plating four runs in the first inning before ultimately winning 7-5.
Current Cy Young candidate Logan Gilbert, emboldened by an early lead, battled through five innings before being pulled in the sixth. Likely two batters too late.
As has been the case all season, Dan Wilson made another questionable decision that nearly cost his team the game. But his players persevered, allowing Seattle to gain considerable ground in the wild-card race.
Did Seattle have a great offensive performance? Absolutely. Were they simultaneously incredibly lucky? Unequivocally. That’s a luxury not often enjoyed by this team as it tries to turn its season around.
“It Just Got Out of Hand”: Mariners Suffer Most Lopsided Loss - 22-0 - in Team History
With one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, Christian Yelich sent a routine fly ball to Julio Rodríguez. The Mariners center fielder caught it for an out and Andrew Vaughn trotted home for a Brewers run. Simple, right? Like someone opening their front door to go out for another day of work, just as they have innumerable times before and just as they will countless times after.
It is only when zooming out that a picture of utter mayhem, calamity, and chaos comes into view. That was the 20th run the Brewers scored on Monday. That was Yelich’s second at-bat of the inning and the 11th batter that infielder Leo Rivas faced in his one-inning, nine-run pitching stint. Rodríguez was so checked out that, seemingly thinking there were already two outs, he tossed the ball into the crowd - an action that awarded each runner two bases and thus scored Jonathan Ornelas from second while moving William Contreras to third.
Luis Lara, who had earlier in the inning logged his first major-league home run to make it “only” 16-0, capped off the rout with a run-scoring single. Garrett Mitchell logged a merciful third out to end the eighth and conclude the beating of a horse that was barely even skeletal by that point.
The final score was 22-0.
The good news for Seattle is that whether by a gulf of 22 runs or one, all losses count the same. The merciless beatdown may have counted for two and a half losses on their Pythagorean record, but their actual record only went from 59-66 to 59-67. They need to win both remaining games of the series, but they’re somehow still in this.
That doesn’t make such a putrid loss any less embarrassing. What’s perhaps more surprising is that there was a time when this game was close.
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.
Ugly Anniversary Sweep Symbolizes Futility of Mariners Nostalgia
Outsiders have doubted this franchise for 49 years,” Alvin Davis said to cap off the Mariners’ 50th anniversary. “Let that doubt fuel you; prove them wrong. We believe in you; prove us right.”
There comes a point where the past and future clash and one side must win. For the Mariners, this was no more obvious than when the team celebrated the 50th anniversary of the team’s inception over the course of 1976.
To put it diplomatically, the previous 50 years have been some of the most comically inept and irrelevant in American athletic history. Until “the Kid” came along, the most famous man to ever wear a Mariners logo was a serial killer; By the time Bill Bavasi was done with the team, the city saw him with equivalent contempt.
It’s hard to run out of ways to describe the depths of humiliation the team has found in 50 years. At least the Jacksonville Jaguars haven’t ever had that much raw generational talent; the M’s wasted the Hall of Fame primes of Ken Griffey Jr., Ichiro, and Edgar Martinez. If Randy Johnson hadn’t “quiet quit” more than two decades before that word entered common parlance, he would have suffered the same fate.
Nostalgia can be destructive even when the thing being looked back upon is good, but in the Mariners’ case, nostalgia seems diametrically opposed to success. It is as if there is a giant blinking neon sign telling the organization that it can choose one: dwelling on the past or winning a World Series. The M’s need not forget the past, but the outright reverence that the organization holds towards failure brings nothing but a rather karmic continuation of such.
After all, in 49 years of outsiders doubting the Seattle Mariners, those outsiders have been right 49 times. And based on the way the Mariners played against the Tampa Bay Rays - and the situation they put themselves in - there’s no reason to think that season 50 will end any differently.
Mariners Offense Continues Slumber, Wastes Strong Logan Gilbert Start against Rays
The cathartic excitement of 45 seconds prior meant nothing as a 39,468-strong crowd saw Josh Naylor take the final pitch of the game for strike three, capping off a 2-1 loss and the Mariners’ 11th defeat in their past 16 games. Those fans booed relentlessly, their patience broken by the continued ineptitude of the offense.
Logan Gilbert had hurled well for Seattle, going deep into the seventh inning, but thanks to the lack of batting, it didn’t matter. The M’s barely avoided the third shutout in four games, and though they managed a run at the very end, it was still just the fifth run since the trade deadline: a stark reminder that the struggles the team had were due to the shortcomings of the stars.
Seattle went scoreless for most of the game, helpless against Rays pitching.
Where Gilbert was effective, Rays starter Drew Rasmussen was brilliant. Or perhaps the Mariners offense was once again lethargic; in truth, it was probably both.
Looking for any way to wake up the sluggish bats, Mariners manager Dan Wilson shook up the lineup. Taylor Ward led off the game with Cole Young batting second and Julio Rodríguez batting fifth. It didn’t work. Ward - whose struggles at T-Mobile Park continued in his fourth game with the M’s - went 0-4 with two strikeouts, while Young’s one hit didn’t come with anyone on base.
Seattle’s chances were relatively few and far between. Rodríguez knocked a one-out single and stole second before Naylor walked to put two men on. Brendan Donovan struck out and Cal Raleigh walked in turn to load the bases, but with Colt Emerson at the plate, Rasmussen knew what to do.
Colt Emerson, Mariners Overcome Bullpen Collapse for Second Straight Walk-Off Win vs Twins
The Seattle Mariners raced out to an early 6-0 lead before their bullpen imploded in the eighth inning, allowing the Minnesota Twins to rally to inexplicably tie the game. But after blowing a save in the ninth, the Mariners redeemed themselves for their second walk-off win in as many days.
Rookie Colt Emerson’s hard-hit walk-off single capped another outstanding offensive performance by a club that has struggled with consistency swinging the bats this season. Combined with a scoreless seven innings from George Kirby, it looked like a blowout in the making, but these M’s like to give fans cardiac trouble.
The bullpen had other plans, with several top arms giving up timely home runs to allow their fellow wild-card contender back into the game. How did they squander a six-run lead before managing to survive with the win?
Bats Clock Out Early, Mariners Drop Five Games Under in Game 111
The Mariners are five games under .500 for the second time this year. The first time was 25 games into the season, when they had a 4-9 record after an ugly sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers. From then until the 62nd game of the year on June 2, they went 23-14 to take the division away from the Athletics and put themselves in the catbird seat as the team everyone expected to pull away with the West.
Two months later, the story of the AL West in 2026 could be summarized by paraphrasing the Sumerian King List: “Who was in first? Who was not in first?” But you don’t need a familiarity with 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian literature to see how the Mariners have dropped the ball and allowed the Rangers, then the Astros, to climb into first place. The bats have gone awfully quiet in the nearly 50 games since, with a .225/.297/.352 team slash line from June 3 to July 30. By the time the M’s faced off against the Twins on Friday, they were 53-57 and uncomfortably close to falling out of the race entirely.
When Mitch Garver struck out and finished a 5-3 loss, the situation declined even further. The M’s are now three games back of the division-leading Astros, two and a half games back of the Rangers for second place, and three games back of the Twins and Guardians for the third wild card spot. They are guaranteed a losing season record against the Guardians and Rangers - effectively making them a game further behind those teams - while one more loss to the Twins would lock in that same losing tiebreaker with them, too.
The bats fell asleep for six innings and missed opportunities throughout.
If the Mariners ever got the chance to wish into existence one simple change to their team, it might be prudent to choose the ability to punish mistakes. Underneath much of it, Seattle has a remarkably bad performance against pitches right down the middle: against pitches in the middle square of the strike zone - imagine it split like a tic-tac-toe grid - the M’s went into Friday night with the lowest batting average (.275), fifth-lowest slugging (.552), and sixth-lowest hard-hit rate (49.1%). These become even more stark when sorting for just fastball-type pitches: the lowest batting average (.279), third-lowest slugging (.522), and fifth-lowest hard-hit rate (51.9%).
Part of it is due to some bum luck, with a .234 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) on such pitches; one might imagine it would coalesce towards the .306 leaguewide middle-middle BABIP. The following graph shows the difference in spray locations between the Mariners and the team with both the highest batting average and highest slugging on pitches down the middle, the Phillies:
How Should Mariners Approach Deadline Four Games Under .500 Yet Still in Playoff Hunt?
The Mariners certainly know what they’re doing wrong after they dropped their latest series to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday with a 6-2 loss.
“Yeah, it’s up to us,” Bryan Woo said after his five-run, five-inning losing outing. “The front office and coaches and everybody has put enough into the product on the field. It’s time for us to do something about it.”
But they don’t quite know how. The team has a consistent discipline issue, careening between lethargic defeatism and frantic efforts to arrest their decline. The failures of the latter cause the team to return to lethargy, and the cycle repeats on a near-nightly basis.
With this in mind, how should the Mariners approach the upcoming 2026 trade deadline? They have a few more days than they would otherwise have most years - with the deadline set for Aug. 3 - but the hour is fast approaching when they have to decide on tune-ups, changes, and deals.
The team is in an odd spot. It’s not a situation where they can reasonably go out and get one-year rentals like they did in 2025, but it’s also not a sell situation, either; they could very well still go on a run and make a splash in the playoffs. An intuitive approach for Seattle is to deal away upcoming free agents in exchange for longer-term options, but those sort of minor sales would have to be augmented by long-term options for the relevant team (say, a prospect). The M’s also have a bunch of starting pitchers, including near-MLB prospects, allowing them to trade from that pool to deepen other areas of the team.
One thing they cannot do is stand completely pat. Beyond that, however, it’s prudent to examine the attitudes that the Mariners might have about their trade deadline situation; there are lots of ways to skin a catfish, after all.
Five Mariners Homers Overcome Heavy-Hitting Dodgers in Chavez Ravine Thriller
The Mariners’ disastrous series against the Rangers finally put to rest the notion of the team as the AL West favorite, with a 52-55 record and a two and a half game deficit in the division with a month-long gauntlet fast approaching. What had been true for the whole season was now eminently evident to the entirety of the dugout: that both greater commitment and greater precision are needed in order to return to the playoffs, much less to the precipice of the pennant.
Iron, as they say, sharpens iron; who better to face than the two-time defending champion Dodgers? They immediately displayed why their offense is one of the best in baseball, working to quickly punish whatever Luis Castillo pitches leaked out over the plate. But the Mariners, needing a win to keep pace with the Rangers and Astros ahead of them, managed to put together a thrilling 7-6 victory on the backs of five home runs and some high-stress relief pitching.
It was the first Mariners win against the Dodgers since April 19, 2021. It was the first Mariners win in Dodger Stadium since June 28, 2009. To put it another way: the last time the M’s beat the Dodgers in the City of Angels, Rob Refsnyder was 18, Cal Raleigh was 12, Dominic Canzone was 11, and Julio Rodríguez was eight. Those were the four M’s to go deep on Tuesday.
Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez hit a homer in the same game for the first time since April.
Before the season began, the duo of Rodríguez and Raleigh were projected to accrue between five and six wins above replacement (WAR) each. With 55 games left in the season, Rodríguez had 1.8 FanGraphs WAR (fWAR) and Raleigh 0.5, each reflective of injury-shortened years with significant struggles - especially in the case of Raleigh, who had a .165/.269/.300 slash line going into Tuesday.
The struggling catcher found himself on the IL for roughly a month-long stretch of time straddling May and June, but he appeared set to roar back on the scene after a homer-studded rehab assignment in Tacoma. That ended up being a mirage; Raleigh had a .170/.304/.277 slash line between his return on June 16 and the end of the Rangers series on July 27. The power stroke was especially absent, as he had just three homers during these 33 games.
Canzone Clinches Comeback in Texas, Keeps Mariners Season Alive
When Julio Rodríguez popped a two-on, one-out, right-down-Broadway cutter haplessly into center field, it looked like the moment when the downfall was obvious. This downfall, like many, was perhaps better conceptualized as a calque of the word’s German equivalent: going under - a slow process that takes a while to materialize after it is set into motion, but which becomes ever clearer until there is a point when it is undeniable.
On the flip side, the decision seemed easy for the brass. A Mariners loss would put the team three and a half games underneath the division lead right before the deadline, at a time when many teams would be looking for the likes of Randy Arozarena or even George Kirby or Logan Gilbert.
If Dominic Canzone failed to reach base, it would be the culmination of multiple wasted opportunities; the M’s had two men on with one out in the fourth and the same amount of baserunners with no outs in the sixth, all with nothing to show for it. The Texas Rangers’ two-run lead was a number not insurmountable but that seemed hard to overcome for an offense whose approach could scarcely have been called Fabian over the course of the year, because the Fabian Strategy actually worked.
Rangers reliever Cole Winn fell behind Canzone 2-0 and hung a splitter right down the pipe, a little below the middle of the zone. For the first time in more than two weeks, Canzone walloped a homer, putting the Mariners in the lead.
“I got him 2-0 pretty quickly, and with first and second there, he’s gotta come in the zone with something, and they’d been throwing me soft pretty much the whole series,” Canzone told Mariners TV’s Brad Adam. “Not that I was necessarily sitting on it, but just trying to get something elevated and get it in the air.”
Seattle, who had been looking for the game to latch onto as a starting point, clung to their lead for the rest of the game, winning 6-4 and preventing - for now - calamity.
Mariners’ Meandering Losses to Reds Leave Team Shrinking Breathing Room
On March 31, 2026, the Mariners lost their sixth game of the season and fell to a .500 record. The team did so again on July 21, and in the 111 days between, they performed that same act thrice (June 20 and 25, July 9). Five times in between those days (April 3 and 29, May 29, June 29, and July 19), the M’s did the opposite, winning a game to get back to an even record.
Before the season, the team was held as one of the best squads in the American League. According to FanGraphs, they went into Wednesday’s matinee with the second-highest chance to win the World Series of any American League team, only behind the Yankees.
But the experience for the Mariners in 2026 has been a dreary cycle of drought and drenching. They get a set of wins and then the foot goes off the gas. They lose a bunch, struggle a bunch, and then get a cathartic burst of energy that sets them off for some wins. Rinse and repeat: 63% of the way through the season, they won half and lost half.
Wednesday wasn’t encouraging. Once again - this time by a score of 5-3 - the Mariners fell below .500, having lost the following two games of their series against the Reds to turn what could have been a momentum-bringing homestand into yet more water-treading.
Tuesday’s loss had been a little more of an encouraging one, with good at-bats during most of the game - other than clutch situations, as has been depressingly common with the team - and some good defensive plays by the Reds keeping Mariners runs off the board. But a mystifying decision by skipper Dan Wilson to put Michael Rucker in ended in a ninth-inning homer for Cincinnati and the complete dissipation of the team’s energy.
Both games were winnable, but the team plainly lacked the killer instinct to put the Reds away. Seattle is now 52-53; they would have to go 38-19 over the rest of the year just to match their win total from 2025. In more immediate terms, the losses continue their gradual, brick-by-brick immurement in the divisional race.
Three Burning Questions for Mariners at All-Star Break
The Seattle Mariners, along with the rest of MLB, have completed the unofficial "first half" of the 2026 season. The baseball world focuses on Philadelphia over the next few days as the All-Star festivities begin in the City of Brotherly Love. The Mariners enter the break one game below .500 at 48-49. It certainly has been a frustrating, uneven first half of a season where the team, and its fans, felt a berth to the franchise's first ever World Series was at hand.
Nothing in this beautiful, amazing, dumb sport is that simple. Now, the Mariners have serious questions. Ones that need addressing if the Mariners are to even make the playoffs at all, much less punch their ticket to the Fall Classic.
Are Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor ever going to snap out of it?
The fact that the Mariners are in a playoff spot (tied for last Wild Card spot) despite getting virtually nothing from Raleigh and Naylor is a minor miracle. They are batting a combined .218 with just 17 homers combined. For reference, these two sluggers had - you might want to sit down for this - 49 home runs before the All-Star break. After Naylor arrived at the deadline last season, he was an instant spark and the deal he signed to stay in Seattle long term seemed like a no-brainer.
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