Mariners lose same game they’ve lost all season, 4-1 to Rays
· Yahoo Sports
The 50 Seasons Celebration weekend instead turned into Groundhog Day as the Mariners were swept away by the Rays. The same problems that have plagued the 2026 Mariners all season long plagued them again today: a lack of connection in the lineup, a lack of situational hitting, too much chasing out of the zone, and a starting pitcher with the audacity to be imperfect, all leading to a 4-1 loss to see the Mariners fall to seven games below .500.
To be fair, Hancock was pretty far from perfect, running a pitch count of 80 over just four innings, falling behind in counts and failing to command his secondaries. Hancock had to immediately work around a bases-loaded no-outs jam in the first. Some of it was his own misdoing: in a 1-2 count to Yandy Díaz leading off the game, Hancock left a four-seamer middle-middle that he’s lucky isn’t on Mercer Island currently, as Díaz settled instead for a hard-hit single. Hancock then left a sweeper in on Jonathan Aranda’s lefty loop zone, which he accordingly looped into center. Chandler Simpson tried to bunt the runners into scoring position and instead came up with a lucky weak base hit, made worse by Hancock deflecting it – let your infielders infield, Emerson! But to his credit, Hancock came back to get the next three outs and work out of the jam, striking out scary Junior Caminero on 97.5 elevated, getting Liam Hicks to pop out on a well-located fastball up in the zone, and then striking out Victor Mesa Jr. on a curveball that just nicked the bottom of the zone. Vibes were on the upswing!
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The top of the Mariners lineup rewarded Hancock immediately: Taylor Ward checked in with his first extra-base hit as a Mariner, and a triple! at that, and then Cole Young went after the first pitch he saw from Rays starter Ian Seymour, a sinker, rapping a ground ball RBI base hit into right. Vibes were sky-high!
But as it so often has this season, the Mariners offense spluttered after that, and the vibes came crashing right back down: Randy Arozarena hit into a ground ball double play, and then Dominic Canzone went after the first pitch he saw and POPped it up, as Dave Sims would say. The Rays actually gave the Mariners second life by dropping that popup but Julio Rodríguez struck out swinging after a changeup.
After Hancock navigated around a leadoff walk in the top of the second, Josh Naylor continued to show signs of life with a leadoff single in the bottom of the inning, but again the offense machine broke down when Cal Raleigh struck out swinging after a changeup. Weston Wilson, in for the lefty Brendan Donovan against Seymour, worked a walk, but then Colt Emerson struck out, again on the changeup. That turned over the lineup for Taylor Ward, who worked more of his OBP magic and tapped a ball back to the pitcher, who mishandled it, allowing Ward to reach, but that put Cole Young into a tricky bases-loaded two-outs situation and the Youngster couldn’t come through, grounding out to end the inning. My kingdom for a hitter coming up with runners on and less than two outs. This on-out-on-out-on-out Morse Code of offense is just not it.
Hancock worked around some traffic in the third, but wasn’t able to escape damage in the fourth – his own fault, after hitting seven-hole hitter Cedric Mullins with a curveball with one out. Richie Palacios then rapped a ground ball past Weston Wilson at third, and then Yandy Díaz came up with the two-out hit the Mariners weren’t able to get in the previous inning, taking advantage of a poorly-located cutter on the plate for another hard-hit RBI single that tied up the game.
The Mariners offense, for their part, did exactly what they’ve been doing all season and did not answer back in the bottom of the inning, going meekly 1-2-3 on 10 combined pitches. The Rays, sensing a sweep, came out in the fifth with several innings of having seen Hancock struggle with his command combined with declining velocity on his sinker and four-seamer and got very aggressive. Chandler Simpson led off with yet another hit that should not have been a hit, as yet again Emerson Hancock put himself in between a ball and a defender. Stop doing that, Emerson! Hancock followed that up by really spraying it around in Caminero’s at-bat, which luckily ended with Caminero chasing up high again and popping out on the infield – smartly played by Josh Naylor, who let the ball drop and took the fielder’s choice out at second, wiping out the speedy Chandler in favor of Caminero.
But that heads-up play didn’t save the Mariners, as some more fluky BABIP luck cost them, with a flyball single from Liam Hicks dropping into no-man’s land in left field. A flyout from Victor Mesa Jr. moved the runner to third, and then Hancock served Cedric Mullins a sinker right on the plate that he was able to work for a broken bat RBI base hit. It’s a frustrating way for the runs to score but that’s what happens when a team makes a ton of contact.
Speaking of a ton of contact, with the Rays ahead 2-1, it was time for the patented Bullpen Swoon. The victim this time was Jose Ferrer, pressed into service as Hancock departed the game at the end of the fifth and coming back out for the sixth. Taylor Walls led off with a parachute single on a pitch located roughly on the ISS, followed by Díaz poking a pitch through the 5/6 hole. But Ferrer then made things harder on himself with a wild pitch to put two runners in scoring position with no outs. It looked like the Mariners might make another Houdini escape, as Ferrer got his next two outs – one an out at home, punishing Simpson for a bunt and the failure of the contact play, making at least Rick Rizzs happy today, and one must imagine Rick Rizzs happy – but a Liam Hicks double drove in two runs to put the game out of reach, 4-1.
From there it was pretty much what you’d expect. The Rays nipped and nibbled, racking up 14 hits, but not adding on to their lead again. The Mariners, meanwhile, drooled and dribbled, collecting a grand total of two singles and a walk from the end of the second inning through the rest of the game – even the traffic they got on in the ninth was via mistakes, a hit by pitch (Josh Naylor, on his already injured wrist, to add injury to the insult that was this game) and a misplay on a Cole Emerson ground ball.
The Rays are tough – they’re leading the AL for the reason, and they put a ton of pitches on Hancock just like they did on Kirby earlier in this series. But they also didn’t play the cleanest game of baseball today, and there were ample opportunities for the Mariners to at least steal one win out of this disappointing weekend. One run of offense is just not going to get it done. The Mariners need a spark, badly, and not from benches-clearing non-brawls or firing hitting coaches, but from their actual hitters who were supposed to carry this team. Over half the Mariners lineup didn’t record a hit today. That’s more than an off day for certain hitters, more than a rookie still trying to find his footing; it’s a lack of connection and a lack of committed at-bats, and until that changes, this team will continue to slip even further behind in the standings. But hey, at least it was at least a fitting tribute to 50 years of Mariners baseball.