7/12/26

(St. Petersburg, FL) Most trips to Florida are filled with warm sunshine and good times. A lot of memories have been made in Florida but for the Seattle Mariners, their trip to the southeast was a disaster after just three of their six games in the Sunshine State. A nightmare that they couldn’t wake up from, the M’s were swept in dominant fashion by the Miami Marlins and things weren’t going to get easier with the Tampa Bay Rays next on the schedule. It felt as if the trip turned into the M’s just trying to get to the All-Star Break as quickly as possible.

One of the most well-run organizations in the league, the Tampa Bay Rays are again making gold out of scraps as they have found themselves atop the American League. With the team staying healthy and a young lineup led by Junior Caminero taking a big step forward, the Rays are once again positioning themselves as a team that can win the AL pennant. They were not looking forward to the break but would at least try to carry momentum through the weekend.

Rays 7, Mariners 2 (Game One, July 10th)

The series opened up on Friday as the Mariners and the Rays began the final series of the first half of the season. Luis Castillo was hoping to be the one to snap Seattle’s three-game skid as he got the start against one of many breakout stars for Tampa Bay in Nick Martinez.

Seattle has had some bad luck to go along with their bad play and it started early as Richie Palacios robbed J.P. Crawford of a base hit to leadoff the game. Luis Castillo looked OK early on as he pitched around some traffic in the 1st to keep things scoreless. In the 3rd, Rays star Junior Caminero put some pressure with a one-out double for his 13th two-bagger of the season. Castillo would get a groundout of Cedric Mullins for a big second out while Caminero moved up to third. The Rays would get what the M’s have been searching for and that was a clutch hit as Chandler Simpson singled back up the middle to bring home the game’s first run, giving the Rays the lead.

J.P. Crawford seemed to be seeing the ball well in Florida as he doubled to begin the 4th. That is where things stopped as Nick Martinez sat down the next three Mariners in a row to strand the extra base hit. Tampa Bay would get another extra base hit in their half of the 4th but Tropicana Field wouldn’t hold this one. Richie Palacios already impacted the game with his glove and he did so with his bat as well. An 0-1 fastball at the top of the zone couldn’t get by Palacios as he sent his third home run of the season to right. Two runs seemed like a lot larger of a deficit for the M’s as they continued to struggle to find offense.

Finally in the 5th inning, Seattle would find their way onto the scoreboard. Of course it wouldn’t come from a string of hits but with how little offense they have been getting lately, they would take anything that they could get. With the bases empty and two outs, Cole Young came to the plate and chased a 1-2 changeup well below the zone. He golfed a fly ball out to right field and somehow got enough to get it over the fence for his 11th home run of the season. It wasn’t a pretty homer but it got the Mariners on the board nonetheless while still trailing 2-1.

Things got a little bit heated for the Mariners in the bottom of the 5th. With nobody on and one out, Cedric Mullins sent a fly ball down the left field line and into foul territory. It looked like Randy Arozarena was going to have a play, but slowed up and instead the ball dropped foul. Arozarena is still not 100% from his hamstring injury from the series in Washington DC but Luis Castillo didn’t seem happy with the effort. Things got a bit worse as Mullins homered on the very next pitch which saw Castillo shoot a glare out at Arozarena as Mullins circled the bases. La Piedra gave up one more as Victor Mesa Jr. homered to center for his fifth of the year later in the inning to make it 4-1 Rays.

Seattle got a run back on an RBI groundout by Dominic Canzone in the 6th to make it 4-2 but the Rays blew it open shortly after. After Seattle left a runner at second in the top of the 7th, Tampa Bay jumped all over Jose A. Ferrer in the bottom half. A single by Jonathan Aranda was followed by a two-run shot for Junior Caminero, his 28th of the season. A couple of singles, a disengagement violation, and a sacrifice fly by Taylor Walls plated another run, making it 7-2. Seattle would go down without much of a fight as Kevin Kelly pitched the 8th and 9th innings and retired all six batters that he faced. More and more issues continued to pile up for the Mariners as they dropped their fourth consecutive game, losing to the Rays 7-2.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Rays

• Junior Caminero- 2-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R, BB
• Víctor Mesa Jr.- 3-4, HR, RBI, R, SB
• Nick Martinez (W, 8-2)- 5.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO

Rays 6, Mariners 1 (Game Two, July 11th)

Weekend baseball was on display on a jampacked Saturday in the sports world as the Seattle Mariners visited the Tampa Bay Rays for game two of their three-game series. With four consecutive losses stacked up, the Mariners would look to Opening Day starter in Logan Gilbert to try to play stopper to the losing streak. Tampa Bay would go with Griffin Jax who they converted to a starter after acquiring him as one of the most coveted relievers at last year’s trade deadline.

First pitch was delayed as Tampa Bay inducted legend Evan Longoria into the team’s Hall of Fame and would retired his #3 the next day. By the time the game started, Seattle seemed hot as a couple of walks to Randy Arozarena and Cal Raleigh along with a single for Dominic Canzone loaded the bases with just one out. Griffin Jax would lock in as Seattle continued to squander opportunities as Josh Naylor and Luke Raley both went down on strikes as the abysmal situational hitting continued.

With all of the struggles that Seattle has faced at the plate, they would need to find ways to manufacture runs. Cole Young would help that out in the 2nd with a leadoff double for his 14th of the season. The M’s would have to play some small ball as Victor Robles bunted Young over to third with just one out for Colt Emerson. He knew he had to put the ball in play and he did with a fairly deep fly ball to center. It was caught by Cedric Mullins but was plenty deep enough to bring home Young. Little by little, the M’s were able to push a run across and take a 1-0 lead.

That lead would disappear rather quickly as the Rays got to Logan Gilbert in the bottom of the 2nd. A one-out single by Chandler Simpson put the fastest runner in the game on base and then a familiar face hurt his former team. Ben Williamson came to the plate and doubled to left for his ninth of the year. Simpson scored easily to tie the game as Seattle’s lead was short lived.

The tied game didn’t last too long either. A line drive off the bat of Josh Naylor turned into a double play to end the top of the 3rd before the Rays grabbed their first lead a half inning later. Yandy Díaz would leadoff the bottom of the 3rd with his 17th double of the year to put the go-ahead run in scoring position for Jonathan Aranda. The power hitting first baseman followed Díaz’s lead with his 16th double of the year to drive in Yandy and give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead. Despite getting runners on the corners with one out, Tampa Bay could not extend that lead as Logan Gilbert struck out Jonny DeLuca and then got Chandler Simpson to groundout to keep the deficit at one.

Both starting pitchers settled in for the middle innings with neither side even getting an opportunity to push across any more offense. Griffen Jax was done after five as he continues to transition into a full-fledged starter. Gilbert stayed out for the bottom of the 7th but would not finish that inning as a two-out double by Aranda and an intentional walk to Junior Caminero saw Dan Wilson go to his bullpen for lefty Gabe Speier. Kevin Cash countered that move by pinch hitting Ryan Vilade for Cedric Mullins and that would turn out to be a huge win for the Rays. Vilade hammered the first pitch thrown by Speier out to left for a three-run shot and his seventh of the year. All the damage came with two outs in the inning but Tampa Bay managed to break things open with a 5-1 lead.

Tampa Bay added on one more in the 8th on an RBI single by Nick Fontes to score Ben Williamson, who went 4-4 against his former club. A 6-1 deficit stood in front of the M’s as the game went to the 9th and another former Mariner in Casey Legumina came in to face his former team. Legumina looked sharp despite a couple of line drives by Cole Young and Miles Mastrobuoni as they were both caught in center by Jonny DeLuca. Colt Emerson also sent one DeLuca’s way but he made that catch as well to end it. The losing streak grew to five in a row for the M’s as they dropped game two and the series to the Rays, 6-1.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Rays

• Ben Williamson- 4-4, 2B, RBI, R
• Ryan Villade- 1-1, HR, 3 RBI, R
• Griffin Jax (W, 5-6)- 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 SO

Mariners 8, Rays 2 (Game Three, July 12th)

One final game before the All-Star Break gave the Seattle Mariners the opportunity to end a five-game losing streak and avoid being swept by the Tampa Bay Rays as the two teams battled in The Trop on Sunday morning. Enjoying his best half of baseball in his career, Emerson Hancock would try to give some good vibes to the team before the break. Meanwhile, Ian Seymour would look for his seventh win of the season and prevent the Mariners from snapping their skid.

Both teams were scoreless in the 1st inning but there would still be some early offense in this one. In the top of the 2nd, Josh Naylor and Cole Young would both single while Mitch Garver walked to load the bases with nobody out. Seattle found themselves in a familiar situation but would hope to breakthrough this time around. Victor Robles would make sure to not completely waste the opportunity with a sacrifice fly to bring in a run. J.P. Crawford had the big hit to follow. A parachute double sat down the left field line for Crawford’s ninth double of the year. That plated two and gave Seattle a 3-0 lead and their first hit with a runner in scoring position since Tuesday.

There was a scary situation early for the Mariners as a comebacker on his first pitch of the game hit Emerson Hancock on his throwing hand. He would stay in the game for the time being but would leave with two outs in the second. All X-rays were negative which was good news but the Mariners would have to piece together the rest of the game with their bullpen.

Jose A. Ferrer kept the Rays off the board as he pitched 1 1/3 innings. By the time Nick Davila took over, the lead was even bigger. Weston Wilson crushed his first home run as a Mariner and second of the season out to left field for a solo shot to make it 4-0. Buddy Kennedy then reached on an error followed by a J.P. Crawford single which ended Ian Seymour’s day very early. Cole Sulser took over to face former Ray in Randy Arozarena and he made sure he did a little damage to his former team as well. Arozarena went the other way for a three-run home run and his 11th of the season. The offense finally had the breakthrough inning as the M’s took a commanding 7-0 lead.

The bullpen continued to keep Tampa Bay off the board until the 8th when Eduard Bazardo took over. He struggled out of the gate, giving up a single to Yandy Díaz and a two-run homer to Jonathan Aranda. He retired the next three he faced and another J.P. Crawford double got one of those runs back as Andrés Muñoz came on for the 9th. He wasted no time striking out Victor Mesa Jr. and then got Taylor Walls to line out to left. After walking Richie Palacios, Muñoz locked back in with a strikeout of Hunter Feduccia to end the suffering. The five-game skid was over as the Mariners salvaged the finale with an 8-2 win over the Rays.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Rays

• Jonathan Aranda- 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, R, HBP
• Yandy Díaz- 2-4
• Ian Seymour (L, 6-2)- 3.1 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 SO

What’s Next

A 1-5 road trip sees the Seattle Mariners limp into the break with a record of 48-49 with inconsistent play really taking its toll. They stare up at Texas in the AL West who took two out of three from Houston while Los Angeles dropped two of three in Minnesota. The A’s are going into the break in even worse shape than the M’s as they were swept by the White Sox to run their losing streak to nine games. Texas is atop the division by 1 1/2 games over Seattle and three over Houston. The A’s and Angels have fallen way back at 8 and 11 1/2 games respectively.

We now move to the All-Star Break where everyone outside of Randy Arozarena will have four days to rest and gear up for what the Mariners hope will be a strong second half. Disappointing is an appropriate word for the first half of the season after the M’s came oh so close to winning the American League pennant for the first time ever last season. The second half will begin at home as Seattle hosts the San Francisco Giants (41-55) for three games. The Giants have been a major disappointment this season after bringing in Rafael Devers and Luis Arraez and are much closer to the Rockies at the bottom of the division than the Dodgers at the top of the NL West.

It is hard to do a player spotlight because anyone on the Giants outside of Heliot Ramos could be traded by the time the series starts on Friday. However, we will circle Rafael Devers just in case he is still wearing the uniform come Friday. Devers was acquired by the Giants from Boston last season well before the deadline in a blockbuster. He made more headlines when he decided to move to first base for San Francisco after refusing to do so for Boston. A very good and still young (29) lefty, Devers leads the Giants in home runs (19) and RBI (52) despite a low average at .249. He made his MLB debut against the Mariners and have hurt them ever since with a .330 career average and .998 OPS with 11 homers and 36 runs batted in in 44 games. So you know that the M’s will be hoping he gets traded before Friday just so they don’t even have to worry about him adding to those outstanding totals.

Mariners Minor League Update

This will be a new segment each week to update what is going on in the Seattle minor league system. We will continuously give scores for each team but will also highlight some of the key players that have had strong series.

Tacoma Rainiers (Split Series @ Las Vegas Aviators, L 9-5, W 9-7, W 18-4, W 12-10, L 8-7, L 3-1)

Hitter of the Series

Ryan Bliss, 2B- 18-30, 5 2B, 3B, HR, 9 RBI, 11 R, 2 SB

Pitcher of the Series

Domingo González, RHP- 3.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO

Arkansas Travelers (Split Series @ Amarillo Sod Poodles, W 11-3, L 13-8, L 4-3, L 8-3, W 8-2, W 2-1)

Hitter of the Series

Charlie Pagliarini, 3B- 8-25, 3 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 6 R, 2 BB

Pitcher of the Series

Nico Tellache, LHP- 11 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 4 SO

Everett AquaSox (Split Series @ Vancouver Canadians, L 10-1, W 7-1, W 7-4, W 4-3, L 7-6, L 9-8)

Hitter of the Series

Josh Caron, C- 5-17, 3 HR, 10 RBI, 4 R, 2 BB, 2 SB

Pitcher of the Series

Adam Maier, RHP- 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO

Inland Empire 66ers (Lost Series @ Ontario Tower Buzzers, W 5-2, L 22-21, L 7-6, W 12-4, L 3-2, L 4-2)

Hitter of the Series

Aiden Taurek, OF- 8-21, 3 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 6 R, 7 BB

Pitcher of the Series

Connor Wilford, RHP- 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 SO

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