> ## 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. # Mariners Finally Take Singular Series from Rangers in 2026 - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-mariners-finally-win-series-texas-rangers-2026/ - Published: 2026-09-11T05:46:53.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T06:10:24.000Z - Author: Callaghan Bluechel - Tags: News, Analysis, Mariners, Kade Anderson, Logan Gilbert, Dan Wilson, Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez, Cole Young, Dominic Canzone, Taylor Ward, Andres Munoz [Embed from Getty Images](https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2294402793?ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) At least the Mariners can play spoiler. That is hardly where anyone on the team wanted them to end up when the season began. But the autopsy of the year - where three guys the Szymborski Projection System (ZiPS) had putting up a combined 15.2 FanGraphs wins above replacement (fWAR) only accrued 4.9 fWAR with 15 contests left in the season - is already written in the oft-surprised and oft-sullen faces of those in T-Mobile Park’s home dugout. Going into their series against the Texas Rangers, the M’s had already squandered their last chance to jump back into the fray with a somewhat robust series loss to the Athletics over their previous four games. Things had already been dire for Seattle since at least the end of July if not earlier, but that set of games was the moment that the players on the team fully realized they had to stare down the music. Perhaps there was a new attitude that arose a few hours, give or take, after rookie Lazaro Montes [sent a Cal Quantrill meat and cheese sub to Saturn](https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/home/seattle-mariners-lazaro-montes-mammoth-might-474-foot-homer) on Tuesday. If the M’s can’t make the playoffs for themselves, perhaps they can use one of their last remaining series against a contender to ruin someone else’s day. ### **Kade Anderson and Logan Gilbert went 13 combined innings with four runs allowed total.** Both the least experienced and most experienced starting pitchers did what the team needed of them on Wednesday and Thursday. That in and of itself was a departure from the muddy record of M’s hurlers since the All-Star Break, when the staff has suffered one of the worst stretches in recent memory up and down its roster. Before Anderson’s first career win on Wednesday, Seattle starters had logged a 4.99 ERA and 5.04 FIP in the second half, and the youngest had struggled with a 5.40 ERA and 5.63 FIP in his first three starts. Wednesday was Kade Anderson’s first win in a Mariners jersey, as the rookie southpaw kept the Texas Rangers to one run in six innings while striking out five and walking one. After a few outings that showed more inchoate promise than concrete results, the game was a reminder of the high-class quality of Anderson’s stuff and the reason that he is one of the highest-rated pitching prospects in the game. Anderson had begun his major league career with nine earned runs in his first 15 innings, something the rookie attributed to a lack of confidence in his first starts and an unwarranted feeling that every inning might be his last. “I didn’t have anything different than I had the other three outings, so it’s completely mental,” Anderson said after tossing six innings of one-run ball on Wednesday. This was even with Anderson struggling out of the gate in that fourth outing, as a pair of singles with two outs in the first extended that inning to 17 pitches, Jake Burger led off the second with a big fly to put Texas up 1-0, and the Rangers put two men on with one out in the third. At that point, however, Cal Raleigh went out to the mound, something that Anderson expressed appreciation for postgame. “\[Raleigh\] holding me to that standard has helped me continue to adjust to this,” Anderson said. “And it just felt like what he said, it kinda clicked, and that’s the standard I hold myself to now.” Anderson’s fastball velocity took a jump with his bolstered confidence, with an average speed nearly two miles an hour faster in the sixth than it had been in the first. When he pulled the string on Burger to log his fifth strikeout and finish six full innings, it became official: he had the first quality start of his career. “Kinda felt like I was back out there pitching again,” Anderson said. “It shouldn’t take me this long to get there.” Gilbert, the starter on Thursday, has had more than enough experience taking a long time to figure out an adjustment. Once an efficiency monster and the doubtless ace of the staff in 2023 and 2024, hitters got a beat on his two-strike sequences in 2025 and started putting up enough foul balls to cut his innings per start from 6 ⅓ to a little less than 5 ⅓. There have been plenty of green shots in 2026 for his efficiency, but also a few dud games such as a [seven-run disaster](https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-mariners-seven-games-back-lazaro-montes-leaves/) against the A’s in the previous series. It was the good Gilbert in the rubber match, however. Not only was he efficient, breezing through seven innings, he also turned back the clock to his K-stacking ways with 11 punchouts during his outing. “When we’ve seen Logan in the past, and we’ve seen the ‘vintage’ Logan Gilbert, that’s what we’ve seen,” Wilson said. “We’ve seen him go deep. I know there was a period of time where he wasn’t going as deep, where he was getting in deeper counts, but I thought the aggression today was a direct reflection of where he’s at mentally.” Gilbert leaned on his slider, four-seamer, and splitter - a not unusual case of affairs - but his mix on Thursday was more slider-heavy as he found he could command all of his pitches well. The spin, of course, was doing particular wonders. Of the 40 sliders Gilbert threw, the Rangers swung and missed or took a called strike on a full half of them. When Texas did swing, they missed 75% of the time. Gilbert’s slider is usually good, but not this good. That didn’t mean that there wasn’t any danger. When the Rangers did connect, they managed to put some actual damage on the Mariners starter. Joc Pederson took Gilbert deep in the third for two runs and the top of the fifth saw plenty of traffic for the visitors. Evan Carter led off with a hit by pitch and got to third on a bad throw from Raleigh before Burger walked to put runners on the corners. Nicky Lopez executed a perfect safety squeeze and everybody was safe when Gilbert’s desperate throw home wasn’t in time to nab Carter. Danny Jansen, looking to help his team expand on a now three-run lead, bunted the runners over to second and third. Josh Naylor kept the runner at third from scoring with a throw home for the second out, but as a hook in the dirt got past Raleigh, Lopez - now on third - darted for the plate. The ball bounced right back to Raleigh, however, and the M’s catcher had Lopez dead to rights. The bags were far less full in the seventh, but the Rangers still had enough to nearly get another run on the board. With two outs and Wyatt Langford on third, another pitch got past the battery, and this time, Raleigh had to chase it down. With no time to spare, he hurled it back to Gilbert, whose tag just so happened to land right on Langford’s outstretched hand. “It’s kind of a chance thing, like I’m not that good to pretend I knew what I was doing,” Gilbert said. “Cal made a good toss and just happened to get him.” > Logan Gilbert caps an 11-strikeout performance by proving that yes, pitchers are athletes. What a play. https://t.co/s2y5eWdOP2— Josh Kirshenbaum (@J\_Kirshenbaum) [September 10, 2026](https://x.com/J%5FKirshenbaum/status/2098169029512876359?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) ### Julio Rodríguez and the M’s put together just enough runs to take both games. Seattle can add these two games to the one-run win column, something that has been as dry as the Columbia plateau this year. But unlike most of the heart-slashing losses against the A’s in their previous set of games, the M’s offense wasn’t on its A-game on either Wednesday or Thursday. An RBI single from Taylor Ward in the second and Cole Young’s two-run double in the fourth were all the runs they got in the second game of the series, while in the rubber match, there wasn’t any offense to speak of for the first six innings. Of course, a lot of that was due to Jacob deGrom. Where Gilbert struck out 11 on Thursday, deGrom fanned 12, and unlike his opposing hurler, the Rangers starter only allowed one hit, a single to begin the sixth. The Rangers’ tribulations during the year might well be best summed up by *that* fact: that their starter brought a perfect game into the sixth against an opponent they had dominated all year and still lost. Seattle’s playoffs odds are practically light years long, but that didn’t stop them from bringing Texas down with them. It’s just about the only thing they can take away from their series win. That and the fact that Julio Rodríguez pulled a hard hit in the air, something he had only previously done 12 times in the second half this year and 34 times overall in 2026 (he had 45 such batted balls in 2025 and 53 in 2023 - and in the second half last year, he did it 24 times). Rangers reliever Jacob Junis was no deGrom. He hit Randy Arozarena with nobody out in the seventh and a wild pitch allowed him to second before Dominic Canzone brought him home with a single. Once Cal Raleigh got on with a hit of his own, Rodríguez came to the dish as the winning run. Junis’ first pitch went over the middle of the plate a little low and a little in, exactly in Rodríguez wheelhouse. Unlike a lot of times in the 2026 season when he has taken such pitches only to chase ones further off the plate, Rodríguez attacked that pitch. The ball went flying at 112.4 miles an hour off the bat. In one moment, Seattle had a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. > J-ROD FOR 3 🔱 @Mariners lead! https://t.co/SdgnaEhl8j— MLB (@MLB) [September 10, 2026](https://x.com/MLB/status/2098170904442257825?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) Rodríguez had gone 1-4 with three hard hit balls on Wednesday, and in retrospect, that was a hopeful sign for Thursday’s matinee. According to the center fielder, he has felt more in the zone over the past couple of days. “I would say yeah,” Rodríguez said. “If you see like, even my swing decisions and all of that, definitely feel more comfortable and more focused on the things I need to do.” There has also been a lot of work for Rodríguez as he looks to return to, as he calls it, his roots as a baseball player. He was in the yard quite early in the morning on Thursday taking batting practice. Nothing anyone can do can change what has already happened - or not happened - so far in 2026\. But Rodríguez, like everyone on the team, is looking to finish the year as strongly as possible. ### A pair of saves for the M’s closer finished off each win. Despite some early struggles in the year, Andrés Muñoz has been one of the few relievers to weather the team’s bullpen problems in the second half, with a 3.79 ERA, 2.52 FIP, and 0.895 WHIP over the second half going into Thursday’s game. “Señor Smoke” already had one save in the series once the rubber match began, a relatively uneventful affair as he stranded a leadoff walk to secure the team’s 3-2 win on Wednesday. But things weren’t as easy on Thursday, as despite getting the first two outs, Muñoz issued free passes to both Langford and Carter. Burger had the opportunity to reverse Rodríguez’ homer with a base hit of his own, but he chopped it right to Cole Young and the game ended with Muñoz’ 27th save of the season. As he has been doing for much of the second half, Muñoz mixed in a fair few changeups during both outings, with the pitch showing quality movement and trickery. That might be the most promising development for the Mariners closer as the 2026 season closes: with that pitch activated over a full year, he could find the best of his elite profile come 2027. ### On deck: Seattle’s next nine games come against competition they should be able to crush, as they go on a road trip to Sacramento, Anaheim, and Denver to face three of the worst teams in the game. But as the weekend made abundantly clear, there are no guarantees in baseball. And even with their series win against the Rangers, the M’s are still six games back of the division and five games back of the third wild card (though with losing records against the Blue Jays and Guardians, their actual deficit is the same in either case). It is incredibly likely that the three-team trip will, despite the lack of quality among their opponents, be when the team’s playoff chances officially disappear and the casket is finally closed on a set of guys who set out to win the whole thing. But they, and everyone else, still have to play the games.