5/18/25

(San Diego, CA) For the first time in history, Major League Baseball held a rivalry weekend where each team would play their rivals. While many teams in baseball have hated rivals, the rivalry between the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres started out as being forced before becoming more of a friendly rivalry between the fan bases.

Dubbed the Vedder Cup, named after Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder, the rivalry and name became official with the winner of this season’s series winning the first official Vedder Cup. The trophy was designed by Eddie Vedder himself who has ties to both Seattle and San Diego and has taken to the rivalry while still being a Chicago Cubs fan.

While the rivalry and the story behind it is lighthearted, the two teams coming into the series are two of the very best in baseball. With the Mariners coming off a disaster of a homestand and San Diego set for a long and heated battle with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, the series would be a playoff like atmosphere and could be a preview of the Fall Classic.

Mariners 5, Padres 1 (Game One, May 16th)

With Seattle’s rotation beat up but getting close to being 100%, Dan Wilson made some changes but it would still be Logan Evans beginning the series on the mound in San Diego. Another young starter would be on the mound for the Padres as former Mariner prospect Stephen Kolek looked to continue his unbelievable start to his career, entering Friday without allowing an earned run in his first two career starts.

It took no time at all for Kolek to give up his first career run. On his first pitch of the game to J.P. Crawford, Kolek threw a fastball on the inner half but Crawford dropped the barrel on it. It would fly out to right field for Crawford’s seventh career home run on the first pitch of a game and his fourth long ball of the season. His resurgent 2025 season continued as Seattle grabbed a quick 1-0 lead.

Logan Evans dealt with some traffic consistently in his outing but stranded runners in the first two innings. In the 3rd, he got in a lot hotter water after a leadoff single by Fernando Tatis Jr. Luis Arráez then blooped a single into left field, but Ben Williamson acted like he was going to catch that which forced Tatis to stay at second instead of moving up to third. That turned into a huge play as Manny Machado hit a grounder to J.P. Crawford who stepped on second and threw to first for a tricky double play. Tatis moved up to third instead of scoring and Evans would then strikeout Jackson Merrill to get out of the jam. Williamson’s heads up fake helped Evans get out of the inning unscathed with Seattle still leading 1-0.

Cal Raleigh would draw what seemed like a harmless walk in the top of the 4th as Kolek struck out Randy Arozarena for the second out. Then came Rowdy Tellez who made the walk hurt a lot more than it looked like it would. Tellez got a sweeper down and in and crushed it out to right field for a 408-foot two-run bomb. It was the seventh homer for Tellez on the season and extended the Mariner lead to 3-0.

A two-out triple by Jake Cronenworth was stranded by Evans in the bottom of the 4th and he did the same with a double by Luis Arráez in the 5th to keep the shutout intact. In the top of the 6th, Seattle continued to pull away. Julio Rodríguez sent a single back up the middle for a leadoff single to start the inning. In stepped Cal Raleigh and he did what he does best, hit the ball a long way. Raleigh sent a heater on the outside corner the other way for a two-run blast and his 14th home run of the season. The opposite field power was on full display as Seattle found themselves up 5-0.

Logan Evans was brilliant in the opener in the best outing of his young career. For the first time in his career Evans pitched into the 6th and made it through the 6th. Despite dealing with lots of traffic, Evans didn’t veer off course and stayed in the strike zone consistently. Pitching to contact was the key for Evans and he finished his day after six scoreless innings and allowed seven hits with one walk and three strikeouts for the best start of his young career.

Carlos Vargas and Casey Legumina both pitched 1-2-3 innings in the 7th and 8th to send the game to the 9th at 5-0. With a non-save situation, Collin Snider would come in to pitch the bottom of the 9th. He would start off on a high note with a strikeout of Xander Bogaerts before hitting Gavin Sheets with a pitch. He would lose the shutout on an RBI double by Jake Cronenworth as Sheets scored to make it 5-1. Snider would bounce back with back-to-back strikeouts to close the door on the opener. Seattle started out the road trip and the Vedder Cup with the 5-1 win.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Padres

• Luis Arráez- 3-4, 2B
• Jake Cronenworth- 2-4, 2B, 3B, RBI
• Stephen Kolek (L, 2-1)- 5 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO

Mariners 4, Padres 1 (Game Two, May 17th)

Game two is where Seattle shifted their rotation, bumping up Emerson Hancock to pitch in game two. One of San Diego’s best surprises so far in the season as Nick Pivetta took the ball looking to continue his career year.

Seattle missed out on a scoring opportunity in the 1st and San Diego did the same in the 2nd. As the broadcasts booths shifted around as part of the Vedder Cup and the offenses woke up as well. In the bottom of the 4th, Gavin Sheets sent his sixth home run of the season over the San Diego Zoo sign in right center. On the very first pitch of the top of the 5th, Rowdy Tellez blasted his eighth home run over the season over the exact same sign. The dueling solo home runs had both teams on the board at 1-1.

Hancock was pulled early in the 5th but Gabe Speier got out of the inning with the game still tied going into the 6th. In the 7th, the game was untied. Adrian Morejon came in as the first reliever for San Diego and pitch #1 to Cal Raleigh was a mistake. Raleigh hit an extremely high fly ball to left field that carried out for a solo home run and #15 on the season for Raleigh. His second home run of the series had put Seattle out in front at 2-1.

Seattle’s bullpen continued to hang zeros to protect the one-run lead going into the 9th. Alek Jacob would enter for the Padres in the top of the 9th and after retiring the leadoff man in the inning, gave up a walk to Cal Raleigh. Randy Arozarena singled to put a couple runners on as Seattle threatened to add on. Donovan Solano worked a nine-pitch walk to load the bases for Dylan Moore who gave Seattle insurance.  A base hit down the left field line brought home Raleigh and Arozarena with a two-run single to extend the Mariner lead to 4-1.

After recording an out in the bottom of the 8th, Andrés Muñoz came back out looking for the four-out save. He would retired all four batters that he faced as he ran through San Diego in the 9th. Jake Cronenworth, Elías Díaz, and Jason Heyward went down in order for the 14th save of the season for Muñoz. Seattle had allowed just two runs in 18 innings against one of the best offenses in baseball as they wrapped up the series and took game two 4-1.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Padres

• Gavin Sheets- 1-4, HR, RBI, R
• Xander Bogaerts- 3-4
• Nick Pivetta (ND)- 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO

Mariners 6, Padres 1 (Game Three, May 18th)

With the finale, the Seattle Mariners were looking for their third sweep of the season and take the first three games of the season long Vedder Cup. The re-shuffle of the rotation, Bryan Woo would take the hill for the Mariners against San Diego’s Opening Day starter in Michael King.

This time it would be San Diego to jump out to an early lead. Fernando Tatis Jr. led off the bottom of the 1st for Seattle and got the best of Bryan Woo the first time around. Tatis pulled a sweeper on the outside corner out to left for a solo home run and his 12th of the season. In the blink of an eye the Mariners fell behind at 1-0.

Woo got out of a jam in the 2nd and as he worked into a groove, the offense began to wake up and help out the young right hander. With two outs in the top of the 4th, the bats exploded. It started with Randy Arozarena who hit a laser over the wall in left for his sixth home run of the season to tie the game at 1-1. Rowdy Tellez followed by going the other way for his fourth double of the season to put the go-ahead runner in scoring position. Mitch Garver reached on a swinging bunt for an infield single before Leody Taveras gave the Mariners the lead. A double into the right field corner was his fifth of the season as it bounced over the wall to make it 2-1. An infield single by Miles Mastrobuoni added another run as Garver scored and Seattle’s two-out rally gave them a 3-1 lead.

Bryan Woo mowed down the Padres in the 4th and 5th and some extra run support continued to trickle in. Randy Arozarena once again started the run with a fly ball to right that was dropped by Fernando Tatis Jr. for a two-base error to begin the 6th. Mitch Garver brought him home with an RBI single to extend the lead to 4-1.

Once again, Bryan Woo was phenomenal for Seattle and has continued to look like the best pitcher in the Mariners rotation. Woo settled in and didn’t panic after the home run to open the game and continued to dominate with the fastball. Woo would go seven innings and allowed just one run on the solo home run on five hits with no walks and five strikeouts. A dominant week continued to build Woo’s case to be a Cy Young candidate as he shutdown two of the best offenses in baseball.

Seattle added two in the 9th on a sacrifice fly by Cal Raleigh and an RBI single by Julio Rodríguez to make it 6-1. Eduard Bazardo got in some trouble as he came on to pitch the bottom of the 9th on walks to Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill to begin the inning. He settled in after that as he retired Xander Bogaerts, Gavin Sheets, and Jake Cronenworth to complete the sweep for Seattle. A huge response to a terrible homestand ended with a sweep of the Padres as they finished off a 6-1 win in the finale.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Padres

• Fernando Tatis Jr.- 1-4, HR, RBI, R
• Jose Iglesias- 2-3
• Michael King (L, 4-2)- 5.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO

What’s Next

With the sweep, Seattle (26-19) remains in first place in the American League West and capitalized on Houston and Texas beating on each other while the Athletics got swept by San Francisco. The Mariners now lead the Rangers and Astros by 2.5 games and the Athletics by 5 games, with the Mariners currently owning the tiebreaker against every team in the division.

With still seven more games on the road trip, Seattle will look to continue to be road warriors as they travel to the Windy City for a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox. After a historically bad season, Chicago (14-33) has improved to being this season but that isn’t saying much. Chicago’s offense has been the worst offense in the American League through about a quarter of the season and while the pitching isn’t as bad, the White Sox are still in the bottom 10 on the mound as well. Chicago has won two series in a row over Miami and Cincinnati before they were swept by the Cubs over the weekend.

We won’t take the low hanging fruit and talk about Luis Robert Jr. here. Instead, the player spotlight will be on Miguel Vargas in his first full season with the White Sox. Getting the everyday playing time now that he wasn’t getting with the Dodgers, Vargas has made the most of his chances at the hot corner and leads the White Sox in doubles, home runs, runs batted in, and OPS while sitting second in hits. Vargas has multiple hits in three of his last five games, including a four-hit game against the Cubs on Friday. There isn’t a lot of scary bats in the lineup, but Miguel Vargas is a guy that can do some sneaky damage, especially against right handers.

• Game 1, Monday 4:40pm- Luis Castillo (3-3, 3.65 ERA) vs. Davis Martin (2-4, 3.65 ERA)
• Game 2, Tuesday 4:40pm- TBD vs. Bryse Wilson (0-2, 6.00 ERA)
• Game 3, Wednesday 11:10am- Logan Evans (2-1, 2.57 ERA) vs. Shane Smith (1-3, 2.05 ERA)

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