> ## 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. # Salvador Perez Doubles Twice as Mariners Fall 6-3 to Royals - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-mariners-fall-6-3-kansas-city-royals-sal-perez/ - Published: 2025-07-02T05:56:08.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T06:19:35.000Z - Author: Callaghan Bluechel - Tags: Analysis, Mariners, Randy Arozarena, Emerson Hancock, Juan Burgos, Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh, Cole Young, J.P. Crawford ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/mariners-july-1-format-original-2.jpg) SEATTLE, Wash. - The Kansas City Royals struck back in Seattle in the second game of a four-game set in a near reverse of yesterday’s score, evening the series with a 6-3 road win. This time, the Mariners were limited when it came to home runs, and the Royals took advantage of some hangers from starter Emerson Hancock – and some unusually sloppy, potentially wind-affected defense from Julio Rodriguez – to put up five runs in the first five innings with stretches of base hit after base hit. Although Randy Arozarena continued his hot streak with another home run and two hits in total, the rest of the offense struggled to get it done when it mattered most and some of the other key hitters in the lineup had something of an off day at T-Mobile Park. ### Royals Take Early Lead Kansas City struck first in tonight’s game, putting some hits together for a run in the first and two more in the second. Seattle had some response – with a solo shot from Arozarena in the bottom of the second – but this opening put the visitors in the driver’s seat for the entire game. Hancock started off with two strikes to Jonathan India, but his following fastball caught a lot of the plate, and the leadup man drilled it into right center over Rodriguez’s head for a ground rule double. To Hancock’s credit, he started to work out of it. After once again going up 0-2, he this time placed his fastball three inches off the plate and Bobby Witt Jr. swung and missed. Vinnie Pasquantino hit a broken bat ground ball to third for the second out, though India advanced to third base. Up next was Maikel Garcia, who initially went up 2-0 before Hancock worked back in to make the count full. But after that, Garcia drilled a hanging sinker up the middle to bring in India for the Royals’ first run. On a 1-2 count to Perez, Hancock hung another one, this time a slider, but Perez’ shot went right to Ben Williamson at third to end the top of the first. The Mariners went by 1-2-3 in the bottom half, so it was back to the Royals before the blink of an eye. Jac Caglianone led off the top of the second with a walk and then Nick Loftin cracked a line drive down the left field line for a run-scoring double. Hancock got ahead of John Rave 0-2, but Rave fouled off a couple pitches before getting a hanging slider that he lined into right to set up first and third, nobody out. Kyle Isbel got an 0-1 hanging sinker and once again a Royal made hard contact, but Cole Young dove and made a snow cone stop before firing to second for one. Crawford tried to turn two, but Isbel beat out the tag. In any case, Loftin scored, so it was now 3-0, Kansas City. Jonathan India worked a six-pitch walk and then Witt dribbled a soft grounder to first that moved the runners up before Pasquantino walked on four pitches to load the bases. After a first-pitch ball to Garcia, Hancock started finding his spots, throwing two straight fastballs to the lower outside edge of the plate. Then, after a foul ball, he threw a slider to the same spot and followed up with a fastball that Garcia plunked as a slow roller to the left-side hole, but Ben Williamson charged in and fired to first to get him out by a half step for the third out. Leading off the bottom of the second, Jorge Polanco worked a full count and then sent a slow roller up the middle on the seventh pitch. Loftin got to the ball and threw across his body, but the throw was too slow and drew Pasquantino off the bag. But as soon as he got on, he was off again, as Lorenzen picked him off with a quick throw to first during Arozarena’s at-bat. It was the 11th time a Mariners runner has been picked off this year, ranking among MLB’s worst. Later in the at-bat came Lorenzen’s first mistake, a 3-2 slider that caught way too much of the plate about thigh-high. Arozarena hammered a hard line drive that easily cleared the left center field wall for Seattle’s first run. Luke Raley grounded out to second and Canzone flew out to right to end the inning. Hancock had a mostly easy third inning, getting Perez, Caglianone, and Loftin out in order. The M’s got one baserunner in the bottom half with one out, as Cole Young sent an 0-2 outside corner changeup on the ground between first and second for a hit – but then Lorenzen struck out Crawford and Rodriguez in quick succession. The fourth inning was another breather for Hancock as the Royals went 1-2-3 on six pitches. The bottom half was almost as easy for Lorenzen, who got two more strikeouts. ### Teams Trade Runs in Fifth The fifth inning was another difficult frame for Hancock, as the Royals again put together several hits. First, Witt knocked a hard grounder deep into the hole between short and third and beat out Crawford’s throw. Pasquantino sent a ball to the gap in left center that Rodriguez initially had a beat on, but the Seattle center fielder made an awkward slide and the ball fell and just like that, it was second and third, nobody out. Garcia harmlessly chopped out to Raleigh for the first out. But then Perez hit a deep fly ball to center. Rodriguez made another defensive miscue, climbing the wall about as the ball fell on the warning track about 10 feet away from him, and so Perez got to second and both runners scored. Rodriguez had a liner his his way in the next at-bat by Caglianone, but this time made the catch, and Loftin grounded out to first to end the half inning. But that damage had been done and it was now Royals 5, Mariners 1. Raley sent a first-pitch fastball into right center for a leadoff double in the bottom half and got moved to third by a Canzone groundout. Then Williamson slapped a line drive down the right field line to score Raley. Williamson took a risky turn around first and hustled for second, but his left hand hit the bag before the tag could be applied. Young went up 2-0 but shanked the following middle-middle sinker foul and then flew the next one out to left. Williamson tagged up and made it to third with a half second to spare. Crawford put together a good at-bat, fouling off two marginal pitches before blooping a hanging slider into the left field triangle. The M’s were clawing back – the score now 5-3 – and Kansas City manager Matt Quatraro pulled Lorenzen for sidearm right-hander John Schreiber, who got Rodriguez to line out to right to end the inning. ### M’s Bats Fall Silent From Sixth Onward The Mariners had one good chance to score in the last three innings, but could not come up with the clutch base hit then and weren’t able to hit any homers to drive the deficit down. The pitching held mostly firm despite a Royals run in the ninth. Hancock went out to start the sixth, though Eduard Bazardo was warming up in the bullpen, with the starter at on 90 pitches to start the frame. But the M’s starter worked around a two-out hit batter to complete his sixth inning. Schreiber went back out for the bottom of the sixth and struck out Raleigh to start off. But Polanco worked an eight-pitch walk and Arozarena drove a fastball into center for a single, so Quatraro called in lefty Angel Zerpa to face Luke Raley. Wilson countered the matchup with a pinch-hitter, Donovan Solano, who unfortunately grounded into a tailor-made 5-4-3 double play on the second pitch. Bazardo came on for the seventh for Seattle, getting flyouts from Pasquantino and Garcia to start off. Perez hit his second double of the game, this time down the left field line, but Caglianone hit a shot right to Solano at first for a quick third out. Dylan Moore pinch-hit for Dominic Canzone to lead off the seventh and worked a leadoff walk. After three straight balls to Williamson, Perez and Pasquantino went out to the mound. But Williamson walked two pitches later to bring up Young with two men on and nobody out. The three-batter rule met for Zerpa, Kansas City brought in Lucas Erceg, a hard-throwing righty. Erceg missed the first two outside and the third high before getting a free strike on the next pitch. The next ball was a sinker on the outside edge that Young grounded to the right side once more, but this time, Loftin was right in front of it and Kansas City turned an easy 6-4-3 double play and Crawford grounded out to end the inning. Manager Dan Wilson brought on Juan Burgos – a right-handed reliever making his major league debut – for the eighth, and the new man got two quick flyouts before getting Kyle Isbel to watch a top-of-the-zone sinking fastball for strike three. Time was running out for the Mariners, down two in the bottom of the eighth as Steven Cruz came on in relief for the Royals. But the eighth inning saw no action from the Seattle bats. Rodriguez led off with a groundout to short and then Raleigh whiffed on a 101 mile an hour fastball up in the zone before Polanco flew out to center to end the inning without a whimper. Burgos came back out for the final frame. India struck out on the sweeper to lead off, but Witt drilled a ball to deep center on the very next pitch. Rodriguez opted to play it on the bounce off the wall and Witt had a double – and then got to third on a stolen base. After Pasquantino popped out, Garcia walked on five pitches and then Perez grounded a ball up the middle for an RBI single to make it 6-3\. Caglianone flew out to center for out number three. The Mariners went quickly in the ninth, failing to make a rally. Kansas City brought on Drew Waters in left as a defensive substitution for Caglianone, moving Rave to right. Right-hander Carlos Estévez came on in relief and got Arozarena to fly out to center and Solano to pop out to left. Miles Mastrobuoni pinch-hit for Moore, but it didn’t make a lick of difference as he popped out to center to end the ball game. ### Hancock Still Struggling, Manages Six Innings Hancock, it seems, is having a rough go of it. During his last three games, including tonight, he has allowed 16 earned runs in 15 innings pitched (an ERA of 9.60), given up sixteen hits and nine walks (1.563 WHIP) with just eight strikeouts. Tonight’s game offered a clear viewing as to why Hancock has struggled again as of late. Most of the time, he swapped between not hitting the plate or hitting too much of it. There were some stretches of time where he was hitting the corners, but the Royals got the benefit of some good pitches to hit – and given their contact focus, they managed to stretch together productive innings. However, with Hancock looking for weak contact from Kansas City to stretch his start out after throwing 51 pitches through two innings, the Royals’ contact approach began to work against the visitors. Hancock got through the third and fourth with just 21 combined pitches and was able to get out of the fifth inning jam with 90 total pitches on the game, a low enough tally where he could pitch a sixth inning. “I \[had\] a simple plan: attacking the zone, getting back out over the heart of the plate. Mixing some pitches the best that you can, at that point you’re just trying to get quick outs,” Hancock said after the game. Hancock was clearly frustrated at the result and blamed himself for the loss. “We were able to get through six, but just didn’t execute well enough to give us a chance to win there.” Dan Wilson had a different takeaway. He emphasized that the team’s offense – only down two going into the bottom of the sixth – definitely had a chance to win. “Honestly, Emerson gave us six strong innings, ran into a little trouble early, but able to get out of it,” Wilson said. “All in all, his six innings of work was what we needed tonight, gave us a chance to win, but we weren’t able to do it offensively tonight.” ### Arozarena Most of Seattle’s Offense Randy Arozarena is a streaky hitter. Right now, he’s on a winning streak. Yesterday, he smashed two home runs and powered Seattle to a 6-2 victory. Today, he also got two hits, one of them another homer, this time a no-doubter into the bullpen. His second hit was a line shot with one man on into center field to set up a good chance for Seattle, although a double play ball by the next man up snuffed it out. It’s easy to tell that Arozarena is seeing the ball well as if he’s hitting a beach ball. He’s incredibly well-timed right now – staying back on off-speed stuff and keeping up with the fastball – and his flyout in the ninth was on a below-the-knees slider, barely missing the barrel where most would normally miss the ball. But one man cannot do it all for a baseball team, and much of the rest of the Mariners weren’t on their A-game. Rodriguez seemed off timing-wise, missing a middle-middle hanging slider in the first inning and struggling with his usual issue of sliders away. Raleigh was also off his game at the plate, getting a golden sombrero. While it seemed that Crawford also had some issues in his timing, he was still able to work contact into key foul balls and his RBI bloop single. ### Juan Burgos Flashes in Major League Debut Tonight’s game saw the MLB debut of right-hander Burgos, who has amassed a 0.62 ERA, 0.586 WHIP with a .358 opponent OPS in 21 games for the AA Arkansas Travelers and one game for the AAA Tacoma Rainiers. Burgos relies mostly on three pitches – a mid-90s sinking fastball, a low-90s cutting fastball, and a low-mid-80s sweeper – though he also displayed a curveball. He used his sweeper as his primary out pitch, tending to aim low under the zone, while relying on his sinker and cutter to get strikes up in the zone and away. Much of his contact today resulted in fly balls. During his first inning of work, he got the Royals out 1-2-3, including freezing Kyle Isbel on a 97 MPH sinker that ran across the top of the zone for his first big league strikeout. He began his second major league inning with a beautiful strikeout of Jonathan India, fooling the Royal leadoff man with a Nestor Cortes-style delayed windup on one pitch and then getting him to twist into a knot on a low and away sweeper. But Witt managed to dig one out for a double to deep center to start Kansas City’s rally, and from then on, it seemed that Burgos was a little flustered, getting into some three-ball counts and walking one batter. But he got out of the ninth with just one run across, finishing off his first outing with two innings pitched, two hits, one earned run, one walk, and two strikeouts. “Good to see Burgie make his debut tonight, get his first strikeout, and I thought he threw the ball very well for a first time out,” Wilson said. ### On Deck The series stands at 1-1 between the Mariners and Royals, with two more left to play. Logan Gilbert is scheduled to start tomorrow while Brian Woo will round out the series on Thursday. Both games take place at 7:10 PM Pacific Time.