4/16/26

(San Diego, CA) A short but very successful homestand for the Seattle Mariners built momentum for the defending AL West champions for what felt like the first time in 2026. A sweep of the Houston Astros put the bad vibes to bed and gave Seattle a chance to completely erase their terrible start and also take advantage of a mediocre American League.

A brief homestand would be followed by a brief road trip as the M’s traveled south to take on the team with the second-best record in the sport in the San Diego Padres. The first leg of the second Vedder Cup would prove to be a stern test for the Mariners to see if that momentum was just a blip on the radar or if the M’s had really started clicking. It would also be the toughest opponent the M’s have played so far this season and would test their abysmal 1-5 record on the road.

Padres 4, Mariners 1 (Game One, April 14th)

Seattle would take the field with high energy to begin their Vedder Cup defense in San Diego to take on the Padres in the series opener on Tuesday night. It would be a fantastic pitching matchup right out of the gate as Bryan Woo searched for his first win against the Padres Opening Day starter in Michael King.

Both starters got their day off to a nice start with relatively stressless 1st innings. In the 2nd, Michael King got a little bit wild after giving up back-to-back singles to Randy Arozarena and Luke Raley. King would hit J.P. Crawford to load the bases with just one out for Dominic Canzone. The lefty fell behind 0-2 before driving a well located changeup out to center field. Jackson Merrill would make the catch but it would be plenty deep enough to score Arozarena to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.

Bryan Woo would also get in some trouble in the 2nd as a single by Xander Bogaerts turned into something more after Woo was called for a balk because Josh Naylor wasn’t close enough to first base on a pickoff move. Woo would work around that but couldn’t work around Ramón Laureano’s one-out triple in the 3rd. Fernando Tatis Jr. would send a base hit back up the middle to bring home Laureano and tie the game at 1-1. A single and stolen base by Jackson Merrill kept the pressure on with two outs for Woo and Xander Bogaerts coming to the plate. The San Diego shortstop would come through with a base hit to center to score a couple and give the Padres their first lead, 3-1.

Woo would settle in after that despite allowing eight hits. He would get through seven innings but the Mariner offense couldn’t get anything going against Michael King after that 2nd inning rally. Casey Legumina pitched the bottom of the 8th but found trouble immediately after Jackson Merrill led off the inning with his fourth double of the season. Two batters later, Xander Bogaerts struck again with a base it to right to drive in his third run of the game and make it 4-1.

San Diego is known for having one of the best bullpens in the sport and it was on full display on Tuesday night. Adrian Morejon and Jason Adam both breezed through their innings, allowing just one baserunner between the two of them. That set things up for the best closer in baseball in Mason Miller to come on for the 9th. With 19 strikeouts in just 24 batters faced, Miller presented quite the challenge for Seattle. Randy Arozarena put together a nice AB but flew out to left to begin the inning. Luke Raley was dismissed as Miller’s 20th strikeout of the season and while J.P. Crawford would put the ball in play, it wasn’t much as he hit a harmless groundout to second to end this one. The bats once again disappeared for the Mariners as they dropped the opener in San Diego 4-1.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Padres

• Xander Bogaerts- 3-4, 3 RBI
• Jackson Merrill- 3-4, 2B, 2 R, SB
• Michael King (W, 2-1)- 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO

Padres 7, Mariners 6 (Game Two, April 15th)

Of course the Seattle Mariners were going to lose games after their sweep of Houston so there was no panic as they set their sights on the San Diego Padres for game two of the three-game Vedder Cup series on Wednesday. Looking to even up the series, Seattle would hand the ball to an early breakout start in 2026 in Emerson Hancock who would look for his third quality start already. For San Diego, it would be Randy Vásquez taking the bump as he faced the Mariners for the first time in his career.

With everyone wearing #42 for Jackie Robinson Day, it would be the Mariners striking first once again in the top of the 2nd. Randy Arozarena and Luke Raley would set the stage with a walk and single respectively to put two on with one away. It would also be Dominic Canzone once again proving the run support as he hammered a shot out to right field. It would hit the bottom part of the foul pole below the wall and ricocheted away from Nicholas Castellanos in right. That allowed Arozarena and Raley to score as Canzone stopped at second with his fourth double of the year, putting Seattle in front 2-0.

Emerson Hancock was dialed in early and put up a couple quick innings to begin his day. In the top of the 3rd, Cal Raleigh would hit his third double of the year to put a runner in scoring position with one out. Julio Rodríguez would then come to the plate and he sent a deep drive way out to center field. Seattle has had some terrible luck early this season and that continued as Jackson Merrill made a leaping catch to rob Julio of a home run. While Cal would move to third, the highlight reel catch cost the Mariners as Randy Vásquez got Josh Naylor swinging to get out of the inning unharmed.

Another threat came for Seattle in the 4th after a double by Randy Arozarena and a walk to Cole Young. Leo Rivas took a 3-2 pitch for a called strike three to end the inning, but quickly challenged and he was right, turning the strikeout into a walk to load the bases with two outs. That challenge paid off as Brendan Donovan ripped a 2-0 cutter in the middle of the plate to right field to plate two and extend the lead to 4-0.

San Diego would get their first baserunner of the game in the bottom of the 4th on a single by Xander Bogaerts but nothing would come of it. San Diego would unfortunately have to go to their bullpen in the 5th as Vásquez saw his day come to an end and Ron Marinaccio would take over. He gave up a one-out single to Randy Arozarena and then Arozarena stole second for his fifth swiped bag of the year. It didn’t matter where he was as what came next was a mammoth shot by Luke Raley. The red-hot lefty continued to be Seattle’s best hitter to start the season as he clobbered home run #4 out to right field. The two-run blast had Seattle feeling great with a 6-0 lead.

Emerson Hancock stranded a double in the 5th and while he stranded Xander Bogaerts single, the Padres shortstop got him in a big way in the 6th. After Jackson Merrill singled with one out, Bogaerts was in swing mode early, fouling off the first pitch. The second pitch was almost in the exact same spot and this time he didn’t miss it. Bogaerts launched a two-run shot out to left for his third home run of the season. Just like that the Padres were on the board and Hancock’s day was done after six innings with Seattle in front 6-2.

The bullpens kept the score the same into the 9th and despite it being a non-save situation, Dan Wilson decided to bring in closer Andrés Muñoz to pitch for the first time since Saturday. The result was a complete meltdown. Some bad luck started the inning as Manny Machado walked before a little cue shot by Gavin Sheets turned into his seventh double of the year. Muñoz seemed to lock in as he struck out Nicholas Castellanos but a high chopper by Ty France turned into a base hit as there was no play to be made to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate. It would be Fernando Tatis Jr. pinch hitting for Jake Cronenworth and while he would bring home a run, Seattle was glad to trade on out for it as he hit a sacrifice fly to right. Needing just one out and with the lead still 6-3, Muñoz stayed out there but singles by Luis Campusano and Ramón Laureano made it interesting as all of a sudden it was a 6-5 game with the winning run on first. Jose A. Ferrer would try to put out the fire but Jackson Merrill hit a line drive into the left field corner. The ball was misplayed by Randy Arozarena which allowed but Campusano and Laureano to score. A devastating and unfathomable collapse was complete as Seattle blew a 6-2 lead to lose game two to the Padres, 7-6.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Padres

• Jackson Merrill- 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI, R, Walk-Off Double, Robbed Home Run
• Xander Bogaerts- 2-4, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Randy Vásquez (ND)- 4 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 6 SO

Padres 5, Mariners 2 (Game Three, April 16th)

With the series already lost, Seattle would enter the finale of the three-game series in San Diego just trying to figure some things out on the road and end a seven-game road losing streak. In an attempt to avoid the sweep, Seattle would have Luis Castillo on the mound as he too looked to end a tough stretch. He would go up against another veteran starter in Walker Buehler who is eyeing a bounce back season in his first year with the Padres.

This one started out sloppy for the Mariners as Brendan Donovan was picked off in the 1st and San Diego would come out hot in the 2nd. Gavin Sheets double for the eighth time this season before Miguel Andujar singled to put two on with one out. The Padres cashed in on the scoring chance as Luis Campusano singled home a run. An error by Luis Castillo loaded the bases and that’s when the damage really happened. An RBI groundout by Ramón Laureano and a two-run single by Fernando Tatis Jr. put the M’s in a big hole early with the Padres leading 4-0.

Luis Castillo would actually do a nice job calming down and stopping the bleeding to prevent this one from getting out of hand early. La Piedra got through the 5th and into the 6th before having the bullpen take over.

Before he left the game, Seattle finally woke the bats up in the top of the 6th. Back-to-back singles started the inning from Cole Young and Brendan Donovan to put runners on the corners for the thumpers in the Mariners lineup. Cal Raleigh kept the line moving with an RBI single to right before Julio Rodríguez did the same against reliever Bradgley Rodriguez. With two on and nobody out, it looked like a massive inning for the Mariners. Josh Naylor hit into a fielder’s choice for the first out of the inning but runners were still at the corners.

A walk to Randy Arozarena loaded the bases and forced San Diego to go back to their bullpen to bring in Adrian Morejon for a lefty-lefty matchup against Luke Raley. The topic of this game then shifted as Dan Wilson lifted one of the Mariners best hitters, if not the best hitter so far this season and brough in Connor Joe for just his fourth at-bat of the season. The move to get a right-handed bat up didn’t pay off as Joe went down swinging before J.P. Crawford grounded out. What felt like a big inning turned into a big talking point surrounding Mariners manager Dan Wilson as Seattle continued to trail 4-2 after stranding the bases loaded.

San Diego got one run back on an RBI single by Manny Machado and the Padres took a 5-2 lead into the 9th. That is when the bad man himself Mason Miller entered the game. While Seattle had good ABs against him on Tuesday, they were helpless against the best in the game this time around. Miller sat down J.P. Crawford, Mitch Garver, and Cole Young all looking on strikes with just 14 pitches being used. It was complete dominance by Mason Miller as Seattle went from the sweeper to the sweepee, losing the finale to San Diego 5-2.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Padres

• Fernando Tatis Jr.- 1-2, 2 RBI, R, BB
• Luis Campusano- 1-4, RBI, R
• Walker Buehler (W, 1-1)- 5 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO

What’s Next

Just like that all of the good vibes are gone yet again as the Seattle Mariners (8-12) will now return home for six more games against AL West foes before getting a break from division play. The M’s sit in the basement of the AL West, tied with the Houston Astros after they took two of three from Colorado. The Angels are half of a game out of first place after they split four with the Yankees while the Athletics are tied for first after splitting four with the team they are tied with in the Texas Rangers.

Seattle will host the two teams tied atop the division in their six-game homestand starting with three against the Texas Rangers. This will be the second time already that these two AL West foes have squared off after Texas swept Seattle in Arlington just last week. It will be the exact same pitching matchups from that series where despite Texas earning the sweep, they were all tightly contested games with a few costly mistakes by the Mariners giving the Rangers the three wins. Texas has gone 3-4 since that series, losing two of three to the Los Angeles Dodgers and splitting a four-game series with the Athletics.

The offense was abysmal for the Mariners in the first series between these two teams and if the bats aren’t better this time around, it will be yet another series loss for the M’s. Therefore the spotlight for the Rangers will be on their trio of starters in this series. Jacob deGrom gave up an early home run to Cal Raleigh before going five innings without allowing another hit with one walk and six strikeouts in what was a 2-1 win for Texas. Nathan Eovaldi followed by going six innings and allowing two runs on six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in a 3-2 Rangers win. In the finale, MacKenzie Gore was even better as the lefty went five scoreless with one hit allowed and two walks with nine strikeouts. If the Mariners allow the Rangers starters to replicate those lines, they will be in trouble as the Rangers bullpen is currently fourth in baseball with a 2.99 ERA.

• Game 1, Friday 6:40pm- Jacob deGrom (1-0, 2.87 ERA) vs. Logan Gilbert (1-2, 4.18 ERA)
• Game 2, Saturday 4:15pm (FOX)- Nathan Eovaldi (2-2, 5.40 ERA) vs. George Kirby (2-2, 3.25 ERA)
• Game 3, Sunday 1:10pm- MacKenzie Gore (2-1, 3.00 ERA) vs. Bryan Woo (0-2, 2.16 ERA)