6/16/25

(Seattle, WA) Following one of the Seattle Mariners best series of the season, momentum was back in the Pacific Northwest as the team continued their six-game homestand against another fellow AL Wild Card contender on Monday night. With the Boston Red Sox in town, the M’s would look to keep their hot bats rolling and take advantage of a shaky rotation from the Red Sox.

For Boston, Monday marked the beginning of a new era of Red Sox baseball. After trading away franchise cornerstone Rafael Devers on Sunday night, the Baby Red Sox were officially born as they rolled into town winners of eight of their last ten games and five consecutive wins overall. With a new look and very young lineup, the Sox would look to put the Devers drama behind them and turn the focus back to baseball on the field.

In the opener, Seattle would see the return of their ace and 2024 All-Star, Logan Gilbert. In his return from his injury on April 25th, Gilbert would look to give the M’s rotation a little boost and hopefully some more consistency. For Boston, Lucas Giolito would take the ball as he continued to try to figure things out after a very tough start to 2025 and his Red Sox tenure.

Red Sox 2, Mariners 0 (Game One)

Before the game, the Mariners celebrated the 2025 baseball and softball high school state champions. All the championship teams were recognized as they line up across the outfield after special seasons for all the high school athletes.

Logan Gilbert looked good out of the gate on Monday night, hitting 97-mph in the top of the 1st. He looked to fly right through the inning as he retired Jarren Duran and Abraham Toro for a quick two outs. Then came the #1 prospect in baseball in Roman Anthony, who has gotten off to a tough start so far in his short big league career. It would be a memorable night for him however as smoked a heater up and on the outside corner out to right center. It would have enough to get out for his first MLB home run, giving Boston a 1-0 lead.

Seattle failed to get anything going in the first two innings and once again the Red Sox would strike with two outs in the 3rd. A two-out triple into the right field corner by Jarren Duran put a little added pressure on Logan Gilbert, but with two outs he was one pitch away from getting out of danger. Abraham Toro looked to have a base hit on a grounder up the middle, but a diving stop by Cole Young gave the M’s a chance. Unfortunately, a little bobble on the transfer allowed Toro to beat it out for a two-out RBI single, extending the Sox lead to 2-0.

Finally, Seattle would get in the hit column with a leadoff single in the bottom of the 3rd by Dominic Canzone. A single by Ben Williamson followed and the Mariners had their first threat. That threat looked real promising when Cole Young singled to load the bases with nobody out and the top of the Mariner order coming to the plate. The red-hot J.P. Crawford couldn’t come through this time as he chased a high fastball for strike three. Julio Rodríguez did not fare any better as he also went down on strikes. The threat was officially wasted when Cal Raleigh chased a pitch that bounced well out in front of the plate for another strikeout. It was a string of terrible ABs from the top of the Seattle lineup as they wasted a bases loaded, no out threat and continued to trail 2-0.

Logan Gilbert looked very good in his first outing in a couple of months as the ace finished his outing after five innings. His velocity dipped a little bit but that is to be expected as he works his way back to 100%. More importantly, Gilbert said everything felt good after the game which is the biggest positive from Monday night. He allowed just two runs on three hits while just walking one and striking out ten in his return.

Lucas Giolito carved up the Mariners with relative ease in his best start with Boston. The stretch of three consecutive singles was all the Mariners could get against the veteran as Giolito finished his day up after six scoreless innings. He would only allow those three hits and one walk while matching Gilbert with ten strikeouts as well. Both pitchers looked really good but Seattle would need to get to Boston’s bullpen to comeback in this one.

Seattle would put together threats in both the 7th and 8th innings. A Jorge Polanco single and Dylan Moore walk put two on with one out against Justin Wilson before he got Dominic Canzone to pop out followed by Ben Williamson striking out. In the 8th against Greg Weissert, back-to-back walks by Cole Young and J.P. Crawford put two on with nobody out. Julio Rodríguez sent a line drive to center that was flagged down by Ceddanne Rafaela before Cal Raleigh struck out again. Jorge Polanco fouled out to third to end the inning. In the 9th, Aroldis Chapman cut right through the M’s, striking out the side to put the opener away. Seattle was shutout for the fourth time this season in a 2-0 loss to Boston.

Notable Performances

Red Sox

Mariners

• Logan Gilbert (L, 1-2)- 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 SO
• Cole Young- 1-2, BB
• Ben Williamson- 1-3

What’s Next

With the loss, Seattle drops to 36-35 and out of the third Wild Card spot. While Texas had Monday off, Houston lost on a walk-off home run by Nick Kurtz for the Athletics while the Angels beat the Yankees 1-0 in 11 innings. The AL West is still led by the Astros who are 4 1/2 games ahead of the Mariners and five ahead of the Rangers. The Angels move to 6 1/2 back while the A’s remain in last place, 12 games behind Houston.

Seattle will have to flush the shutout loss quickly as they continue the three-game series with Boston on Tuesday at 6:40pm. Seattle will face a similar pitcher in game two as Walker Buehler (5-4, 5.01 ERA) continues his quest to right the ship after a shaky start to his Boston career. Buehler is coming off a quality start in his last time out but is allowing one home run every five innings pitched so far this season. For the Mariners, Bryan Woo (5-4, 3.39 ERA) will look to get the M’s back on track. Woo faced the Red Sox back on April 24th and outdueled their ace Garrett Crochet by going six innings and allowing just two runs on three hits with one walk and eight strikeouts.

elisportsnetwork.com