M’s Complete 22-4 Sweep of A’s with 9-1 Blowout, Take First Place in AL West
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Seattle Mariners left fielder Rob Refsnyder (30) is congratulated by teammates after hitting a three-run home run against the Athletics in the first inning at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images [/caption]
Despite still being a game back of .500, the Mariners are in first place in the AL West. In one sense, it doesn’t matter; a man once said that you should check the standings once on June 1 and every day starting July 1. But in another sense, the series was massive.
“Yeah, I think so,” said Mariners starter Logan Gilbert when asked if the series (in which they outscored their opponents by 18 runs) was their most complete of the season. “To go out there and prove it like that, and everybody steppin’ up at different times, it says a lot about the team.”
For the first time since sweeping the Astros at home back in April, the M’s cobbled together three consecutive complete wins. From the first inning onward on Wednesday afternoon, Seattle held a watertight lid on a team that had come into the series scoring 4.8 runs per game in their home ballpark. Julio Rodríguez put a bow on the whole thing with a three-run jack in the eighth, but the final outcome was not in doubt long before the 9-1 final score.
Rob Refsnyder got the Mariners started with a three-run homer, continuing an inchoate upturn.
The Mariners’ $6.25 million acquisition of platoon bat Rob Refsnyder hasn’t been a very productive signing despite the clear pedigree of production against lefties over his previous four seasons. With a horrific .113/.195/.197 slash line going into Wednesday’s game, it appeared that his time with the Mariners was nearing an ignominious conclusion.
That may yet be true. But a glimmer of hope shone through in the first inning, as he built on a hit in Tuesday’s game with a loud 107.7 mile per hour bomb.
As had been a trend all series and as would continue all game, the Athletics’ infield defense helped him out. Second baseman Jeff McNeil, with two outs and J.P. Crawford on first base, had a simple opportunity for an inning-ending out at first thanks to a Josh Naylor grounder. But his throw went wild to allow both runners into scoring position and Refsnyder a chance at the dish.
The A’s were in their second straight game of altering their rotation to bring a lefty starter against the Mariners, this time Jeffrey Springs. Refsnyder, of course, was quite aware of what had led to that decision.
“Yeah, I don’t blame ‘em. We haven’t been very good against lefties, haven’t really done my job at this point, so yeah, I get it,” Refsnyder said about Sacramento’s switch.
Had home plate umpire Mark Wegner been a robot, Refsnyder would have walked on four pitches. Although Wegner had called two of five out-of-zone pitches strikes, Refsnyder felt at that point that it was too early to challenge. That may not have been the best process - a run is a run is a run, no matter when it is scored, and loading the bases would have increased the M’s chances of scoring; not to mention that Refsnyder has been reluctant to call for a challenge with the bat this season - but it ended up working out, and timing up a hanging changeup was probably better for his future performance than taking a walk.
This is because of the gulf that has existed for the entire season between how Refsnyder has actually performed and what his performance says about future play. In essence, he has skied a whole lot of balls he should drive, still hitting them with force but far too high in the air to matter. This suggests that one simple adjustment would lead to a whole lot of production on contact, and once he makes that adjustment, the M’s could see a renaissance.
Refsnyder’s homer left the yard at a 23 degree angle, right in the middle of that “launch angle sweet spot” of eight to 32 degrees. He got on base for the fourth time in five plate appearances.
One homer does not a resurgence make, as can be seen from a one-off Dylan Moore Fourth of July jack last year that amounted to little more than a dead cat bounce. Unlike Moore, however, Refsnyder has a hit and two hit by pitches on Wednesday to shore up his recent performance as something potentially substantial.
According to Refsnyder, the injury factor also influenced some of his struggling, with something in one of his knees bugging him for much of the year. He said it wasn’t any particular diagnosis - “just an old man, just grinding” were his exact words when asked about it - but it has apparently been affecting his swing all year.
“Early in the year, we were trying to figure out why I was missing some pitches that I just shouldn’t be missing, we looked at Kinetrax Hawk-Eye, which is tracking how your body moves,” Refsnyder said. “Some mechanical breakdowns have come from that stuff, kudos to the medical team, you know, pinpointing some stuff.”
Refsnyder said he was on the “right track” when it comes to his knee and adjusting around it, though it does seem to be an ongoing situation.
Colt Emerson and Julio Rodríguez tacked on some more production as the game went on.
Seattle’s runs came from many sources, with the batters firing on all cylinders. Of the nine starters, only Jhonny Pereda went without a hit, and he got on twice with a pair of walks. One of those free passes came on the heels of a two-out Cole Young single in the fourth inning and set the table for Colt Emerson to come through.
Emerson’s weakness against fastballs had shown earlier in the game with a strikeout on the four-seamer and later on with a ground ball to second on a cutter, but as Springs’ sweeper stalled in the center of the strike zone, Emerson whacked it down the line over first baseman Nick Kurtz’ head and the ball rolled into the furthest crook of the right field corner. By the time Carlos Cortes got it back to the infield, Emerson had rocketed to third standing up and both runners had scored to extend Seattle’s lead to five runs.
The rookie third baseman may have shanked a cutter to second base with two on and one out in the sixth, but his speed forced shortstop Darrell Hernaiz to make a quick throw over to first to try get the double play. Instead, however, Hernaiz missed Kurtz and allowed the least forced run of all to come around against Sacramento as Young sailed home.
Emerson got on base again with one away in the eighth, this time shooting a first-pitch sinker into center, a swing decision that was a remarkable manifestation of the balanced plate approach he has taken his whole time up with Seattle; he picks the right pitches to be aggressive on. Young had already gotten on with a walk, so although Crawford struck out, Rodríguez came up with two on.
A’s reliever Luis Medina kept his strikes at the top of the zone, but missed with plenty early on to fall behind 3-1. Rodríguez missed a heater in that count that went a bit high, but as Medina tried to find that spot again, the Mariners center fielder squared it up and rocked it deep to center. The ball landed as three more runs for Seattle and capped off the Mariners’ scoring in a 22-4 series rout.
Wednesday was Seattle’s fourth straight game with 10 or more hits. For Rodríguez, his home run marked the 10th of the season, interestingly the second straight year of hitting number 10 on May 27. The comparisons don’t stop there; as the center fielder slashed .244/.318/.432 on May 27, 2025 and is now slashing .258/.317/.437 at the completion of the action on Wednesday.
Rodríguez’ hard hit rate and expected stats are both slightly down from where it was at this point in 2025, but his in-zone contact rate is up. Still, while the M’s would like to see more consistency from the center fielder at the plate, the big area to improve upon this season is the defense.
Logan Gilbert was the second straight Mariner to throw six shutout innings and notch a win.
Firing on all cylinders was not just a descriptor of the offense, as just like Emerson Hancock had done on Tuesday, Gilbert spun six scoreless and kept the A’s far on the back foot. The Mariners hurler threw a whole lot of everything in general, beginning a few counts with secondary stuff and getting a fair amount of weak contact.
If anything could be a dock on Gilbert’s performance, it was that he was still too predictable on 0-2 and 1-2 counts, with not a single heater in those situations (and no punchouts on 0-2). He still got some strikeouts, however, with four on the splitter, one on the slider, and one on the four-seamer. One of those splitter Ks was notably a 1-2 splitter in the zone for a called third strike, indicative of the general book to lay off Gilbert in those counts.
Seattle’s defense also helped the starter out. Robles made a diving catch in each of the first two innings on liners from Shea Langeliers and Jonah Heim, while Crawford began a double play in the fourth and turned back the clock for a diving grab to his left in the sixth inning. That last play saved a run with two outs and Tyler Soderstrom on second base, though Seattle was quite a bit ahead by that point.
Despite the A’s scoring one run in the ninth against Cooper Criswell just as they had against Andrés Muñoz the day before, it mattered just as much as it had in the second game: not one iota. When all was said and done, Gilbert had the 50th win of his career. The pitching win - given how much run support matters for it - isn’t the prized statistic it once was, but the starter expressed appreciation for the benchmark.
“It’s definitely not everything, but it’s a cool milestone. I didn’t know that [it was the 50th win], actually,” Gilbert said after the game. “Nice to get to 50, ton of respect for the guys that can do 200! Like that stuff’s crazy, no, it puts it in perspective.”
On Deck
The Mariners have a day off on Thursday before going back home to face the Diamondbacks and Mets in a six-game homestand. Although the Mets have been an unmitigated disaster all season long so far, the D-Backs enter the series having won 10 of their last 11 and 14 of their last 17.
For Seattle, it will be an opportunity to get above .500 for the first time since March 30.
