> ## 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 Free-Fall Continues with 5-0 Home Loss to Rangers - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/seattle-mariners-free-fall-continues-home-loss-texas-rangers/ - Published: 2026-04-18T05:44:41.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T06:11:59.000Z - Author: Callaghan Bluechel - Tags: News, Analysis, Mariners, Logan Gilbert, Eduard Bazardo, Jose A. Ferrer, Casey Legumina, Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez, Luke Raley, Josh Naylor, J.P. Crawford \[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="6784"\] ![ Texas Rangers catcher Danny Jansen (9) waits to tag Seattle Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor (12) at home plate during the sixth inning at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/texas-rangers-catcher-danny-jansen--289-29-waits-to-tag-seattle-mariners-first-baseman-josh-naylor--2812-29-at-home-plate-during-the-sixth-inning-at-t-mobile-park--mandatory-credit-3a-steven-bisig-imagn-images-format-original.jpg) Texas Rangers catcher Danny Jansen (9) waits to tag Seattle Mariners first baseman Josh Naylor (12) at home plate during the sixth inning at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images \[/caption\] The Mariners dropped their fourth game in a row on Friday night, 5-0 to the Rangers. It was their ninth defeat in a row to teams not named the Houston Astros. It was Seattle’s fourth shutout loss of the season, with the Mariners becoming the first MLB team to log a fourth game without scoring a run of the 2026 season. Seattle only produced two real scoring chances all game on Friday, and with such paucity of opportunities, even going 1-4 with runners in scoring position (good by 2026 M’s standards), they couldn’t scratch across a run. ### Despite early shakiness and persistently bad outfield defense, Logan Gilbert gutted out a solid start. For much of the first three games the Mariners and Rangers played against each other back in Arlington, the visiting M’s were able to put up early runs against the high-powered Texas pitching staff, even if their bats fell as dead as a doornail for the rest of the game. Texas returned the favor early on Friday. M’s hurler Logan Gilbert began the game with two uncompetitive high balls to leadoff man Brandon Nimmo before sending a four-seamer right down Third Avenue. Nimmo scorched a line drive over the right field wall and gave the Rangers an early 1-0 lead. Gilbert’s early wildness didn’t fade, with an overcooked slider plunking Corey Seager on the foot, but although Jake Burger also reached base, Gilbert got a strikeout each for his splitter, heater, and changeup to escape the inning. Although he settled in somewhat, he still didn’t really find his best stuff. The Rangers, like most opponents since 2025 began, didn’t get easily fooled by his splitter, but this keenness applied against his slider and curveball as well. As per usual with Gilbert, Texas weren’t really able to square up his well-placed stuff, but they were able to foul it off incessantly. Defensive miscues behind Gilbert resulted in some further chances for Texas in the second and third. Rangers third baseman Josh Jung led off the top of the second with a fly ball to center field. The Julio Rodríguez of years past would have been very much able to reach the ball in flight and snare it down, but for whatever reason, the Mariners center fielder has had much less range to begin 2026 - and such a trend continued as the ball fell over his head for a double. Gilbert, to his credit, worked out of the jam, with two groundouts and a flyout stranding Jung at third. But he wasn’t so lucky in the third, as Wyatt Langford shot a single into left to bring Corey Seager home without even an out separating the hit from Seager’s fly ball that dropped in for a double thanks to a bad jump from Luke Raley. Things got dicier with a one-out bunt single from Evan Carter and the rare base hit from Joc Pederson (not to mention that it took Gilbert 13 pitches to strike out Burger), but Brendan Donovan’s diving stop at third began an inning-ending double play to keep Texas at two runs. Seattle’s starter finally settled in by that point, taking down the next seven batters in order. But with a climbing pitch count, he began to lose his edge in the sixth, walking Pederson with one out. Wilson yanked Gilbert and brought in his stopper Eduard Bazardo. Although Bazardo gave up a quick double to Jung, he buckled down and blew over Josh Smith and Danny Jansen to end the inning. Gilbert’s 5 ⅓ innings with two earned runs, seven strikeouts, and just the one walk were more than enough to put the M’s in a good position, despite the rough start. ### The M’s blew a bases loaded chance in the emerging classic whiffy, jittery fashion, but managed to work up enough of a pitch count to chase deGrom after the fourth. Unlike most of the first three weeks of the season, the heart of the order did well to set the table in the bottom of the first on Friday. Cal Raleigh worked a walk against a somewhat jittery Jacob deGrom and Rodríguez went with a middle-away heater and bashed it down the right field line for a double. But like a lot of pitchers the M’s had faced to this point, deGrom knew which buttons to push DeGrom knew not to catch much of the zone against the free-swinging - and very good at in-zone contact, unlike the following two batters - Naylor. The first two were buried in the dirt, the third a slider about two inches below the zone that the Mariners first baseman wasn’t able to check himself on. A curveball below the zone got Naylor to swing and miss, and by the time the eighth pitch crossed a lot of the plate, the count was 3-2 and Naylor fouled it off. Naylor, however, won the battle on the 10th pitch, drawing a walk to load the bases. It was a pyrrhic victory. Arozarena struck out, unable to put the ball in play, and once Luke Raley merely fouled off a 3-1 fastball down the chute, deGrom knew he had him beat. Raley swung underneath 98 miles an hour to put the last nail in that inning’s coffin. That was the last time deGrom had to deal with a runner on second. But after needing 32 pitches to finish the frame, the Rangers starter had a limited runway to go deep into the action. Seattle had worked him up to 88 pitches after the end of the fourth inning, with a few isolated singles here and there that forced him to work a bit more. At that point, however, pitch counts ceased to matter - and the M’s had to put something together. ### Third base coach Carlos Cardoza committed a cardinal sin of third base coaching and took an opportunity away from the M’s. If there is one thing a third base coach absolutely cannot do, it is let a team’s struggles with runners in scoring position affect baserunning decision-making. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Josh Naylor knocked a leadoff single and made his way to second on a groundout, and with two outs, J.P. Crawford shot a grounder past Jung at third. The ball went right to Langford in left field, crossing into his throwing arm at about the point Naylor crossed third. Under normal circumstances - i.e. if the left fielder isn’t Randy Arozarena - nobody would send a runner here, just trust the next man up to do his job. But with the Mariners falling back into their inability to get a hit with runners in scoring position (or just about at all), Cardoza decided to send Naylor home on the ultimate longshot. Naylor was thrown out by about eight time zones. Sure, Mitch Garver flew out to left to begin the seventh, but he had a better chance of knocking in the run than Naylor had of getting home on that send. ### Ferrer slipped a bit in the top of the seventh, but with the way the M’s would end up swinging the bat, the game had been over since the first Texas hitter. With just a two-run deficit, the M’s went to the best guys of their bullpen in order to keep the score close. Jose A. Ferrer took the mound in the seventh inning, but once Seager jumped on a first pitch sinker to get a one-out double, what little grasp the M’s had on the game withered away. Langford dunked a single between Arozarena and Crawford to set an even better table. Although Ferrer got Burger into a 2-2 count, he hung his changeup down the middle of the plate and Burger slashed it into center field to bring home Seager. Casey Legumina relieved Ferrer later in the inning. Although he got out of the frame without further damage, with not even a hint of production to speak of from the offense, the M’s let him stay out for the eighth and ninth. Legumina looked more than a bit shaky in the eighth, but it was the ninth when Texas tagged him for a pair of runs. From the weak offensive showings to follow and the unenthused runs in the outfield during the rally, the M’s looked about as lifeless as the woolly mammoth before the final out was recorded. ### Brendan Donovan exited the lineup to begin the top of the fourth inning, replaced by Leo Rivas. Worse than any one loss in the standings is an uncertainty about Brendan Donovan that came about thanks to an early exit in the top of the fourth inning, as Leo Rivas replaced him at third. According to Wilson, this was due to some hip tightness of unknown severity, with more information to come on Saturday morning. Losing Donovan would be as bad of a blow as could come to the beleaguered Seattle Mariners, as his .304/.437/.518 slash line is one of the best on the team and his leadoff production has formed one of the few bright spots in a season that has started so poorly. The M’s play two more games against the Rangers over the weekend before taking on the Athletics in a three-game series from Monday through Wednesday. With Donovan’s status unclear and Seattle on the brink of disaster, the M’s will have to rise to the occasion - and that means, just like they did in the Astros series, thinking small while being confident in themselves and each other.