Mariners Turn Three Hits into Five Runs, Tie Opening Guardians Series
The Seattle Mariners still haven’t hit a single through the first two games of the season. That didn’t matter on Friday night.
Cleveland Guardians starter Gavin Williams may have spun good enough stuff to punch out seven Mariners, but he also walked six, and timely round-trippers from Cole Young and Luke Raley put the M’s far ahead of the visitors and brought the team to its first win of the year.
“Furious George” deals with early homer and puts together a quality start to begin his 2026.
Chase DeLauter’s prospect stock is about as high as can be right now. After mashing two home runs in his regular season debut on Opening Day, day two hurler George Kirby became the third Mariner to foolishly leave a pitch on the lower inside part of the plate, exactly where the 24-year-old rookie likes it.
DeLauter delivered another drive towards the right field wall, and for the third time in two days, it cleared the fence. Now, it was one of those barely-a-homer fly balls that prime Ichiro would have stolen in his sleep, but it wasn’t exactly a knock on Luke Raley that he didn’t put himself on SportsCenter as the ball flew over his head.
Kirby settled in at that point, helped by Cole Young’s diving stop to take a single away from José Ramírez. He had some good zip on his fastballs, dotting the top edge of the zone for a Rhys Hoskins strikeout in the second and doing the same to Gabriel Arias in the top of the third. Even more encouraging were some curveballs that fooled a Cleveland batsman or two; it’s a pitch that he’s struggled to locate at times during his career.
Seattle’s starter got an important fourth strikeout to end the top of the third with DeLauter up to bat again. Steven Kwan had done what he does best, shooting a single into left, but Kirby took the first inning lesson to heart and peppered him with high fastballs. Furious George played with a bit of fire on an inside corner belt-high heater, but his own side-to-side movement froze DeLauter in place and brought the action to the bottom of the third.
But after a quiet fourth in the top half and some run support on the other side, the fifth inning presented a logjam. He didn’t have his usual pinpoint accuracy with the fastball, and with his slider as off as it had been all game, he had to power through with the curveball and some good luck.
Even with some good pitches peppered in, Kirby walked the first two batters of the frame on a combined 14 pitches, and he overcooked a slider to Brayan Rocchio and put him on with a hit foot. Just a few minutes after the M’s took the lead, they had to deal with premier contact hitter Steven Kwan in a bags packed situation.
That’s where the luck came in. Kwan hit a lazy fly ball to left, not right at Randy Arozarena but an easy catch for the left fielder, and had any other left fielder made the catch, Hoskins would have stayed put on the bag at third. But with Arozarena’s notoriously bad arm, Hoskins decided to test his fortunes.
Arozarena threw him out by 30 feet. Kirby got back in his groove for the sixth inning, finishing his outing by freezing Kyle Manzardo on a top-edge sinker. His final line of six innings pitched, two hits, one earned run, one walk, and six strikeouts was exactly what the Mariners were looking for from Kirby.
The Mariners still haven’t gotten anything of note from the heart of their order.
After an absence of baserunning traffic for the first two frames, Seattle had a golden opportunity to knot the score in the bottom of the third. Leo Rivas, playing short for the time being as J.P. Crawford nurses a shoulder injury, cracked a medium-strength fly ball down the right field line. Had a Mariner right fielder been out there, it would have been an easy double, but the Guardians have a strong outfield to take advantage of the double-killing prowess that T-Mobile Park has. DeLauter ranged to his left and managed to get his glove on the ball with a quick spring, but the ball bobbled out of the leather and Rivas wound up holding third.
Of the next three batters, just one had the right approach. Brendan Donovan looked to get the ball in play and saw a fastball up in the zone, but his swing was a little low and what would have been a sacrifice fly ended up about 50 feet too short for out number one.
Guardians starter Gavin Williams got bailed out by some bewildering swing decisions from Cal Raleigh, throwing seven pitches outside the strike zone and getting a strikeout before there was even a third ball. Julio Rodríguez made a couple of junk swings on some breaking stuff low and away, but Williams actually tossed some pitches over the plate to get the inning-ending K.
It was emblematic of a notable slow start to the season for the Mariners’ 2-3-4 hitters. Raleigh walked once on Opening Day but struck out in his next seven at-bats across both games. Rodríguez alternated between one walk and five punchouts. Josh Naylor hit seven straight weak grounders to start his season before lining out to right in the eighth, though that out was more a result of DeLauter’s good range.
Aside from the one walk apiece from the catcher and center fielder, the at-bats ranged from weak to completely uncompetitive. The bad swing decisions were one thing, but even when they took hacks at the right pitches, their timing was still bad. Rodríguez whiffed at a center-cut seventh inning fastball and popped up the following hanging breaking ball, letting Guardians Rule 5 pick Peyton Pallette get away with some mistakes.
Pallette, to his credit, twirled a good two-inning outing for his new club, working a quick eighth to pass the baton to his teammates in the top of the ninth.
Cole Young breaks his batted ball fast in style with a three-run fourth inning jack while Luke Raley adds on with a two-run shot of his own, allowing Seattle to weather weakness from their stars.
Opening Day wasn’t very notable for second baseman Cole Young, who seemed to take a step back from his encouraging Spring Training, with some back-footed swings and two looking strikeouts in a hitless showing. His first at-bat on Friday looked similar with another backwards K, but he made the most of his one good piece of contact.
Williams, who led all MLB pitchers in walks last year, put Randy Arozarena and Dominic Canzone on board with two of his first six walks of what will likely be another high-walk campaign. Even with Williams as wild as ever, Young shifted his approach and attacked the pitches Williams tossed over the plate. With an 0-2 count on two foul balls, he saw a fastball right down the chute and pulled it in the air.
It wasn’t exactly the most threatening batted ball, but it went to the right part of the field and cleared the fence by a few feet. The homer flipped the score and gave Seattle a lead it wouldn’t relinquish for the remainder of the evening.
But it’s always good to have insurance. Guardians reliever Colin Holderman put Arozarena on first with the Mariner left fielder’s third walk of the game and hung a 2-2 cutter right down Broadway to Luke Raley. After an injury-marred mess of a year in 2025, Raley came into the new year as in need of a hot streak as anyone, and got a good start with a solo shot on Opening Day.
It seems his discomfort issues are behind him at present. Holderman’s cutter found nothing but the club head of Raley’s bat and the waiting arms of the fans in right field, a blow that gave Seattle the final totals of the game, 5-1.
The M’s bullpen did its job in the remaining three innings, with Eduard Bazardo, Matt Brash, and Andrés Muñoz each throwing scoreless innings. Brash seemed to be off his A-game during his eighth inning, but a stellar shoestring grab by Rodríguez in center - his second notable defensive play of the game after an earlier running grab inwards - kept an extra runner off the bases as Cleveland fell short of any real comeback threat.
For the bottom of the order, it was a good showing that brings to mind why the M’s are so highly rated by projection systems. Even with Raleigh, Rodríguez, and Naylor all but absent at the dish, the other six batters went 3-15 with six walks (that may be a Mendoza Line average, but it’s also a .429 on base percentage) and found good enough sequencing to squeeze five runs out of it.
On Deck: Guardians bring a southpaw to the rubber for Saturday.
Raley, Canzone, and Young have provided notable heroics against the right-handers Cleveland has put out on the rubber, but the six through eight guys aren’t known for their abilities when facing a same-handed pitcher. With Joey Cantillo taking the hill, Raley will be out and Rob Refsnyder will be in, but it’s unclear whether Canzone will stay in or Víctor Robles will trot out to right field. Young will stay in as the second baseman regardless.
On the mound for the Mariners will be 2025 ace Bryan Woo, who will be tasked with getting the Mariners a series lead as the opening homestand continues.
