{"id":117183,"date":"2026-03-30T10:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T14:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=117183"},"modified":"2026-03-30T10:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T14:13:15","slug":"mariners-series-opener-overview-and-take-aways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/30\/mariners-series-opener-overview-and-take-aways\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariners Series Opener; Overview and Take-Aways"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first series of the 2026 season is wrapped up, and the Mariners walk away splitting the series 2-2. There were some ups and some downs in this matchup with a few familiar sights. Some things need to be fixed moving forward in order to reach the playoff hopes these Mariners have. Here is how it all went down and some takeaways from the start of the 2026 season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting Pitching Continues to Dominate<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Over this series, the starting pitching for the Mariners proved why they are one of, if not the best in the league. Logan Gilbert<\/a> started the season off on opening day, throwing 5.1 innings, giving up 3 earned runs on 5 hits with 7 strikeouts. George Kirby<\/a> followed, getting a win in 6 innings of work, giving up 1 run on just 2 hits with 6 strikeouts. Bryan Woo<\/a> had a great outing<\/a>, also throwing 6 innings, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits with 9 strikeouts. But to top it off, Emerson Hancock<\/a>, filling in for the injured Bryce Miller<\/a>, had a career night. Throwing a no-hitter, getting through the 6th inning with a career high 9 strikeouts before getting pulled.<\/span><\/p>\n

Slow bats to start the season<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Mar 29, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh (29) celebrates after hitting a RBI double against the Cleveland Guardians during the sixth inning at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well, the Seattle Mariners made history in this series, but not in the way anyone expected. The Mariners didn\u2019t record a single until their third game of the year. This is the first time a team hasn\u2019t recorded a single in their first two games since at least 1900. Much like last season, they relied heavily on the long ball up until the last game of the series. Star players also struggled<\/a> with this opening series. Through the heart of the order, Cal Raleigh<\/a>, Julio Rodriguez<\/a>, and Josh Naylor<\/a> went 3\/45. Combining for a whopping 3 RBIs and 19 strikeouts. There is no doubt that these bats will pick up soon, but this slow start definitely hurts the team offensively.<\/span><\/p>\n

Surprise offense<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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With the core of the lineup heavily struggling this series, there were some big impact bats from surprise players. Although there was a shortage of singles, Luke Raley<\/a> and Dom Canzone<\/a> showed their power this weekend. Canzone hit 2 homeruns, both in the first game. Raley had 3 in each of the first three games of the season. These two guys were a big part of these close games. A big impact on the entire series was not a surprise. Brendan Donovan was exactly what the fans were hoping for when they traded for him. The new player on the squad led the way this series, batting .429 with 2 homeruns, hopefully now solidifying his position in the leadoff spot.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take-Aways<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This opening series to this 2026 Mariners season may not have been exactly what the fans were looking for. However, there were multiple ups and some downs. First and foremost, the heart of the order will need to figure it out at the plate for this team to thrive instead of getting by. There is no doubt that they will figure it out. A big takeaway and relief is that the starting rotation still is exactly what everyone thought it was. They will continue to put up strikeout numbers and go deep into games, keeping the team in every game they play, but on the off chance they don\u2019t, there are players who have the ability to step up. This team has a lot of talent; their goal shouldn\u2019t be to recreate last season. But to make this season their own<\/a> and do something that has never happened in this organization.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

(Top Image Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first series of the 2026 season is wrapped up, and the Mariners walk away splitting the series 2-2. There were some ups and some downs in this matchup with a few familiar sights. Some things need to be fixed moving forward in order to reach the playoff hopes these Mariners have. Here is how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5781,"featured_media":117213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2,1071],"tags":[28894,28893,2060,6513,3689,2632,4144,4308,2050,1856,158],"class_list":["post-117183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mariners","category-featured","category-mlb","tag-bryan-woo","tag-bryce-miller","tag-cal-raleigh","tag-dominic-canzone","tag-emerson-hancock","tag-george-kirby","tag-josh-naylor","tag-julio-rodriguez","tag-logan-gilbert","tag-luke-raley","tag-seattle-mariners"],"modified_by":"Matthew Nethercott, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117183"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117215,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117183\/revisions\/117215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}