7/27/26

(Arlington, TX) Normally the weekend series in MLB end on Sunday and teams begin a new set on either Monday or Tuesday. For the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers, it was a unique wraparound series as the two AL West foes finished their four-game series on Monday afternoon. Seattle gave themselves a fighting chance with a late comeback on Sunday to snag a win and a potential split of the series if they could get the job done on Monday. However, a win for Texas would solidify themselves atop the division with a two-game lead which would sadly be one of the larger division leads in the AL West this year.

George Kirby has been as reliable of a starter as the Mariners and he will go in the finale looking for a seventh consecutive quality start. Meanwhile for Texas, Kumar Rocker will look to continue his momentum after a one-hit shutout against the Chicago White Sox in his most recent outing.

Rangers 7, Mariners 3 (Game Four, July 27th)

Both teams would get their offenses going early on in this one but for the fourth game in a row, it was Texas striking first. Leading off the bottom of the 1st, Joc Pederson drove a George Kirby sweeper the other way to left center for his 18th home run of the season. The solo blast gave Texas a temporary 1-0 lead. In the top of the 2nd, Randy Arozarena would also go opposite field to almost the exact same spot he homered to in the game on Sunday. Arozarena’s 13th homer of the season was just out of the reach of Evan Carter and tied the game up at 1-1.

It did not stay tied for long as Texas got to George Kirby early and often in this one. In the bottom of the 2nd, Nicky Lopez reached on an infield single but only moved to second with two outs after Kirby got Josh Smith to groundout. Kirby did himself no favors as he hit Elías Díaz to extend the inning for Joc Pederson. For the second time in as many innings, Pederson left the yard as he tucked his 19th home run of the season just into the right field corner. This one hurt quite a bit more as it was a three-run blast and put Texas back in front 4-1.

Seattle got a run back in the 3rd after back-to-back singles by Colt Emerson and Cole Young set up a sacrifice fly by Julio Rodríguez to make it 4-2. In the home half of the 3rd, Texas made it a laugher. Ezequiel Durán homered for the 12th time of the season to leadoff the inning and made it 5-2. Three batters later after an Evan Carter double, Jake Burger sent a two-run blast to left for his 19th of the season. Kirby gave up seven runs in just four innings while Seattle mustered just seven hits in the game. It never got much better as Texas went on to route Seattle 7-3 to take three of the four in the series and secure the season series and head-to-head tiebreaker.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Rangers

• Joc Pederson- 2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R
• Jake Burger- 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Kumar Rocker (W, 4-8)- 6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO

What’s Next

While the series loss does not put the Seattle Mariners (52-55) too far back, it does mean that they have to have a better record than the Texas Rangers who clinched the season series. Both the M’s and Houston Astros are 2 1/2 games back in the AL West and two back of Cleveland in a very crowded Wild Card race. Houston plays the Los Angeles Angels tonight so the M’s could be alone in second place by the end of the night while the Athletics take on the Boston Red Sox.

As demoralizing of a series loss as the Seattle Mariners have had this season, they have absolutely zero time to feel sorry for themselves as they finish up the road trip with arguably their toughest series of the season. The M’s now head to LA for a three-game series with the back-to-back World Series Champions in the Los Angeles Dodgers. A similar season to 2025, the Dodgers are not too concerned with being the #1 team in the NL record wise but they recently overtook Milwaukee for the top spot. There aren’t any weaknesses on this roster but the starting pitching is banged up right now with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow both on the IL and Shohei Ohtani not pitching right now with a knee injury. However, there is still a ton of talent all over this roster as the Dodgers have allowed the fewest runs in all of baseball and will get Edwin Díaz back for this series after a three month IL stint.

Take your pick on who should be in the spotlight for the Dodgers in this series. They have a roster loaded with stars, including the greatest player to ever play baseball. Instead of talking about one of the established names, we will spotlight a player enjoying their breakout season. Andy Pages leads the Dodgers in runs batted in with 69 which is saying something considering the talent in that lineup. Pages saw a lot of playing time last season for the first time in his career but looks to surpass all of his career highs set last season with still two months to go. Pages has cooled down since summer rolled around but the Dodgers have not slowed down. This will be a very brutal series for the M’s but if they can pull out two games then that could turn the tides in their favor.

• Game One, Tuesday 7:10pm- Luis Castillo (3-9, 4.85 ERA) vs. Eric Lauer (5-5, 4.83 ERA)
• Game Two, Wednesday 7:10pm- Emerson Hancock (6-4, 3.16 ERA) vs. Justin Wrobleski (11-2, 2.62 ERA)
• Game Three, Thursday 7:10pm- Bryce Miller (4-5, 2.75 ERA) vs. Roki Sasaki (4-5, 4.71 ERA)

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 (Lost Series @ Reno Aces, W 9-7, L 10-7, W 7-2, L 7-6, L 13-11, L 11-5)

Hitter of the Series

Stuart Fairchild, OF- 7-17, 2 2B, HR, 4 RBI, 6 R, 4 BB, SB

Pitcher of the Series

Josh Simpson, LHP- 3 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO

Arkansas Travelers (Split Series vs. Tulsa Drillers, L 9-2, L 5-3, W 5-4, W 8-0, L 5-3, W 8-6)

Hitter of the Series

Jonny Farmelo, OF- 6-22, 2 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 3 R, 4 BB, SB

Pitcher of the Series

Kade Anderson, LHP- 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 SO

Everett AquaSox (Lost Series vs. Eugene Emeralds, L 13-8, L 10-5, W 10-5, L 5-3, W 6-2, L 17-3)

Hitter of the Series

Korbyn Dickerson, OF- 7-18, 2 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 6 R, 2 BB, 4 SB

Pitcher of the Series

Taylor Dollard, RHP- 5.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO

Inland Empire 66ers (Lost Series vs. Stockton Ports, L 11-6, L 6-5, L 3-1, L 16-3, W 11-5, L 6-5)

Hitter of the Series

Grant Jay, C- 5-13, 3B, HR, 8 RBI, 2 R, 3 BB, SB

Pitcher of the Series

Anderson Guevara, RHP- 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO

elisportsnetwork.com

elisportsnetwork.com