MLB: Mariners Maintain Hope, Take Series from Rangers

9/10/26

(Seattle, WA) 18 games remained for the Seattle Mariners to try to pull off a miraculous late season charge and get back to the postseason for the second consecutive season. However, it was very bleak coming out of a major letdown weekend when they lost three out of four to the lowly Athletics. With one of the two teams in front of them in the AL West coming to town, the M’s would have to take care of business this week in three games with the Texas Rangers, in what felt like a do-or-die series at home.

The season series between Seattle and Texas has centered on location. Out of the seven games played in Arlington, the Rangers dominated, going 6-1 against the Mariners with the lone win for Seattle coming in dramatic fashion. In Seattle however, the M’s took two of three from the Rangers and have dominated Texas at home this decade. Since 2020, the Mariners were 40-10 when hosting the Rangers entering the week. To keep playoff hopes alive, the Mariners would need to keep that trend going and take care of a fellow AL West contender.

Rangers 10, Mariners 5 (Game One, September 8th)

Opening up the three-game set would be a Texan facing one of his home state teams. Bryce Miller continued to pitch in the rotation with Emerson Hancock on the IL and would hope to shutdown Texas in the opener. The Rangers would have a veteran on the mound as the reliable Cal Quantrill took the ball in game one.

It wasn’t the start that Bryce Miller had envisioned as the Rangers jumped on him early on. The second batter of the game was Corey Seager and the most aggressive first pitch swinger in the sport was his usual self, taking a big rip at a first pitch fastball. Seager belted it out to right for a 416-foot home run and his 16th homer of the season. That was just the start for Texas as in the 2nd a walk for Wyatt Langford turned into a double as he stole second. An RBI single by Nicky Lopez plated Langford and put Texas up early 2-0.

Seattle had some solid contact early but didn’t have too much to show for it in the first three innings, outside of a double that was left stranded by Brock Rodden. Bryce Miller would really fall apart in the 4th with his pitch count elevating rapidly and the pressure mounting as well. A single by Evan Carter and walk for Jake Burger put two on with one out and Nicky Lopez at the plate. He would single to load the bases before Miller recorded a big strikeout of Danny Jansen for the second out. Dan Wilson made an early move to the bullpen, bringing on José A. Ferrer but he couldn’t escape the jam. A two-run single by pinch hitter Justin Foscue brought in two and made it 4-0 Texas.

It felt like a game that could get out of hand early on as Texas continued to score runs while Seattle struggled to get runners on base. In the bottom of the 4th, Seattle got the jolt of energy that they needed. Cal Raleigh doubled for the 13th time this season to leadoff the inning but remained at second base with two outs. Cole Young extended the inning with an infield single to put runners on the corners for Lazaro Montes. It was the rookie that provided the extra shot of espresso for the M’s and made T-Mobile Park history in the process. Montes absolutely obliterated a fastball right down the middle, sending his second home run over the J-Rod Squad in right center. The blast traveled 474-feet which is the longest home run hit in T-Mobile Park in the Statcast Era which dates back to 2015. It also brought the Mariners back to life as their deficit was just 4-3.

Unfortunately for the Mariners and their fans, the Rangers had a response immediately to quiet that rally. A walk and a two-run shot by Wyatt Langford for his 16th homer of the season opened their lead back up to 6-3 in the 5th. It got much worse as Eduard Bazardo continued his major struggles and would issue free passes to two of the next three batters. Danny Jansen would then deliver the knockout shot with a three-run blast to left for his sixth of the season. After cutting the deficit to one, Seattle watched Texas respond with five runs in the 5th to make it 9-3.

Danny Jansen added another RBI single to make it 10-3, turning it into a double digit performance for Texas. Seattle showed a bit of fight late as Dominic Canzone doubled home a run in the 8th before the M’s loaded the bases with one out in the 9th. A Randy Arozarena sacrifice fly would plate a run but only extended the game by one batter. Dominic Canzone took a called strike three from Adam Macko to put an end to this one and give Texas the opener, 10-5.

Notable Performances

Rangers

Mariners

• Lazaro Montes- 1-4, HR, 3 RBI, R
• Randy Arozarena- 1-3, RBI, R, BB
• Bryce Miller (L, 4-9)- 3.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 6 SO

Mariners 3, Rangers 2 (Game Two, September 9th)

A series loss would completely crush the Seattle Mariners hopes of making the playoffs for a second consecutive season. To avoid that series loss, they would need to win the final two games of the season series with the Texas Rangers in a couple of day games. With the Seattle Seahawks opening the NFL season on Wednesday night, the Mariners and Rangers played in the afternoon. The pitching matchup would feature a couple of young southpaws as 28-year-old Cody Bradford would go for Texas against 22-year-old Kade Anderson for Seattle.

For the second game in a row, it would be Texas landing the first shot but this time they had to wait until the top of the 2nd. Jake Burger would leadoff the inning and the pull-happy righty would surprise everyone by going the other way. A 2-1 fastball at the very bottom of the zone was driven the other way to right center field and Burger had enough power to muscle it out for hit 26th home run of the season. The solo shot continued the Rangers slugging ways in Seattle and gave them a 1-0 lead.

That lead didn’t last very long as Seattle was ready to respond in the home half of the inning. Their inning would start with a Cal Raleigh walk to put the leadoff man on but Cody Bradford struck out Julio Rodríguez for the first out. A pop-up behind home plate by Josh Naylor was caught by Elías Díaz at the backstop while falling down for a great defensive play and the second out. Cal Raleigh would move up to second on the pop-up to get himself into scoring position. In stepped Taylor Ward who has not had a great run in Seattle since being acquired at the deadline, but he would step up here. A base hit back up the middle would score Raleigh easily and tie this game up at 1-1.

Kade Anderson worked out of some trouble in the 3rd with a strikeout of Wyatt Langford to strand runners at the corners. He would have a clean inning in the 4th but it looked like Cody Bradford would answer as he retired the first two Mariners in the bottom half of the inning. Josh Naylor prevented that with a base hit back up the middle to extend the inning for Taylor Ward. He would work a walk to put two on and then Cole Young put a bow on the rally. Young smashed a line drive off the wall in right field for extra bases and both Naylor and Ward would come around to score. Cole Young’s 18th double of the year gave Seattle their first lead of the series at 3-1.

It was not a line that would blow anyone away but Kade Anderson had himself a mighty fine day on Wednesday. The rookie dealt with some traffic but stranded almost all of it in his longest outing of his young big league career. Anderson would go six complete innings and allowed six hits but just one run while walking one and striking out five. A day after the bullpen was heavily worked, Anderson stepped up big for the M’s and ate as many innings as he could and earned his first quality start in the big leagues.

With a two-run lead and both starters out of the game, the bullpens would be responsible for the ending of this one. Tyler Alexander pitched two perfect innings for Texas while Seranthony Domínguez stranded a lonely walk in the 7th for Seattle. Trevor Williams would strand a Lazaro Montes double in the home half of the 7th and it would be Gabe Speier on for the 8th. He would face the man he has faced more than any other batter in his career in Corey Seager to begin the inning. Seager was 0-16 in 18 ABs against Speier, but this one was different. Seager would again rip at the first pitch and drove one out the other way for his 17th of the season. It made things very interesting as the game would go to the 9th with Seattle leading 3-2.

Andrés Muñoz would need to preserve the one-run lead as he was on to close it out. Muñoz was not sharp as his fastball was all over the place and he walked Jake Burger to begin the inning, putting the tying run on. Cam Cauley would run for Burger and moved up to second on a swinging bunt by Joc Pederson that was in essence a sacrifice. Nicky Lopez pinch hit for Elías Díaz but Muñoz struck him out swinging on just three pitches. Evan Carter was the last chance for Texas. Again, it took just three pitches for Muñoz to finish this one off as he got Carter on a changeup to complete a big win. It would be Kade Anderson’s first MLB win as the Mariners hung on for a 3-2 win.

Notable Performances

Rangers

Mariners

• Kade Anderson (W, 1-1)- 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO, First MLB Win
• Cole Young- 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI
• Taylor Ward- 1-2, RBI, R, BB

Mariners 4, Rangers 3 (Game Three, September 10th)

For the final time in the 2026 season, the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers shared the field as the two teams met for the rubber game of the three-game series in Seattle. In a must-win series for both clubs, the pitching matchup would be World Series caliber. For Texas, they would have a future Hall of Famer on the mound in Jacob deGrom. He would face off against Logan Gilbert for Seattle in a battle of former Stetson Hatters from their collegiate days.

The pitching was out of this world to begin the game for both deGrom and Gilbert. They would combine to strikeout 11 of the first 13 batters in the game and both were dialed in for this playoff-like atmosphere. Hitters were going to have a very big challenge in front of them to get the offenses going in the finale.

Once again, it would be Texas to strike first. In the 3rd, Nicky Lopez became the first baserunner with a single to center. There was finally some offense and two batters later there would finally be some runs. Joc Pederson would provide the power this time for Texas on a first pitch slider on the outside corner from Logan Gilbert. Pederson pulled it to right center for a two-run shot and his 26th of the season. In a pitchers duel, it was Gilbert who blinked first and allowed Texas to take a 2-0 lead.

The score stayed the same into the 5th as Seattle was still in search of their first baserunner against Jacob deGrom. Texas added to their lead in the 5th as Logan Gilbert lost command a bit. He would hit Evan Carter who stole second and moved up to third on an errant throw by Cal Raleigh. A walk to Jake Burger put runners on the corners and a safety squeeze by Nicky Lopez was executed perfectly to bring home Carter and make it 3-0. With runners still at first and second and nobody out, Danny Jansen moved the runners up with a sacrifice bunt to put them at second and third. A grounder by Joc Pederson was right at Josh Naylor and he came home with it to get Burger at the plate for the second out. Seattle then caught a huge break as a wild pitch hit the backstop and bounced right back to Raleigh who tagged out Lopez at the plate. It looked like a massive inning for the Rangers but they pushed across one lone run to make it 3-0.

A three-run lead seemed massive with how Jacob deGrom looked on Thursday afternoon. He was completely dominant and looked like the same pitcher that won back-to-back Cy Young awards in 2018 and 2019. Seattle managed an infield hit in the 6th by Cole Young, but that was it against deGrom. He and Gilbert combined for the most strikeouts by two starting pitchers in the same game this season with 23 punchouts between the two of them. deGrom would go six scoreless innings with just the one hit allowed while striking out 12 in one of the best pitching performances this season.

Seattle would need to get it done against the Texas bullpen with Jakob Junis as the first reliever used in the 7th. His outing was a disaster. Junis hit Randy Arozarena with his first pitch before throwing a wild pitch to move him to second. Dominic Canzone got the M’s on the board with a single to left to make it 3-1. Cal Raleigh kept the line moving with a base hit to right to bring Julio Rodríguez to the plate. J-Rod wasn’t waiting around and crushed the first pitch 112-mph off the bat. It went over the Texas bullpen 410-feet for a three-run blast and his 21st homer of the year. In a span of just 10 pitches, Seattle’s 3-0 deficit turned into a 4-3 lead.

Gabe Speier would put up a zero in the 8th and again it would be a one-run lead for Andrés Muñoz in the 9th. Again though, Muñoz was not on his A-game and was wild yet again. Luckily, he would get a couple of grounders to record two outs before walking Wyatt Langford to put the tying run on. A walk to Evan Carter was even worse as the go-ahead run was on with Jake Burger at the plate. He would keep the ball on the ground back up the middle where Cole Young was waiting for it. Young would step on second while still making the throw to first just in case the runner at second was called safe. He was not called safe and the replay review confirmed that both runners were out. Seattle only needed one of them to be ruled out so it was all smiles for the Mariners as they came back late to spoil deGrom’s dominant start and steal the series with a 4-3 win.

Notable Performances

Rangers

Mariners

• Julio Rodríguez- 1-3, HR, 3 RBI, R, Go-Ahead Three-Run Homer in 7th
• Logan Gilbert (W, 12-9)- 7 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 11 SO
• Dominic Canzone- 1-4, RBI, R

What’s Next

It could have been a lot better for the Seattle Mariners (69-78) during the week but they bounced back to take a huge series from Texas to stay afloat in the AL West battle. Houston would spoil things a bit by taking two of three in Philadelphia to keep Seattle six games back while widening their lead over Texas to three games. The Mariners remain five back in the Wild Card but with way more traffic in front of them in the mediocre American League. Houston continues their tough September with three games at Tampa Bay this weekend while Texas visits Arizona for three games in a 2023 World Series rematch.

For the Seattle Mariners, it will be time for some retribution as they visit the Athletics for the final series between the two AL West rivals of 2026. The A’s (59-88) were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Thursday but have embraced the role of the spoiler down the stretch. They showcased that they can excel in that role by taking three of four in Seattle last weekend and will look to do the same in three games this weekend. They also just took two out of three from Toronto so they are thriving as a spoiler to many teams trying to fight their way into the playoffs.

It was not your typical damage dealers last weekend for the A’s as most of those guys remain on the IL. While Shea Langeliers could return for the end of the series, which is still unlikely, Seattle has to keep guys like Max Muncy and Zack Gelof in check. Those two combined to go 10-33 in the four games in Seattle with four homers and seven runs batted in. There seemed to be one bad inning a game for Seattle pitching, so they need to be much more respectful of this A’s lineup this time around.

• Game One, Friday 6:40pm- George Kirby (9-11, 4.18 ERA) vs. Jeffrey Springs (4-13, 6.02 ERA)
• Game Two, Saturday 6:40pm- Bryan Woo (11-9, 4.03 ERA) vs. Gage Jump (6-10, 5.12 ERA)
• Game Three, Sunday 1:05pm- Bryce Miller (4-9, 4.22 ERA) vs. Jacob Lopez (6-4, 4.78 ERA)

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