{"id":119095,"date":"2026-04-16T14:39:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T18:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=119095"},"modified":"2026-04-16T14:39:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T18:39:44","slug":"is-the-mariners-offense-finally-turning-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/16\/is-the-mariners-offense-finally-turning-around\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Mariners Offense Finally Turning Around?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The beginning of the season was rough for the Mariners. The big bats in Julio Rodriguez<\/a>, Cal Raleigh<\/a>, and Josh Naylor<\/a> were nowhere to be found. The home runs kept Seattle in the games, but the strikeout numbers were rising quickly. This Mariners team has been known in the past for its large strikeout numbers, but has still created success. Hits are finally starting to come around one by one for the rest of the team, but the real question is, will they stay consistent?<\/span><\/p>\n

Astros Get Seattle Back on Track<\/h2>\n

Playing the Houston Astros is always important, being a division rival and having years of success. Until last year, they dominated the Mariners. The M\u2019s turned it around and started becoming a successful team across the league. This was the first time Seattle and Houston faced off this season, and it was a battle of the worst. Seattle has some of the worst offensive stats in the league, and Houston has some of the worst pitching stats in the league. This helped the M\u2019s get back on track<\/a>. Naylor hit a couple of home runs and put together some hits. Rodriguez looked like he may be getting out of that first-half slump.\u00a0Raleigh seemed to be more patient and driving balls with intent instead of aimlessly swinging.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How This Affects the Team<\/h2>\n

Sweeping the Astros can get this team to where they need to be and hopefully get back above .500. Losing close games to the San Diego Padres, however, does not. This team is still streaky, either great offense and bullpen struggles, or great pitching all around, and zero offense<\/a>. The only thing that will get this team where they need and want to be is consistency. When almost the whole team has more strikeouts than hits, there is a problem. The only thing consistent about this Mariners team right now is the starting rotation<\/a>. They go out every game and keep the team in the game with a chance to win. The offense affects this team tremendously right now, and it does not look positive.<\/span><\/p>\n

What To Do Going Forward<\/h2>\n

The reality of it all is, there is nothing to do about past games. Yes, they may have struggled to open the season. But there have been good glimpses of success and what this team can be. There have also been some questionable managerial decisions from the fans’ view, with lineups and bullpen choices. All will get ironed out as time goes on, and players will find their stride. This offense has looked like it is turning a corner, or at least is trying to. Unless players find their consistency, there is going to be a lot of struggles in Seattle. Going forward, there needs to be adjustments. Cannot expect success when there is no change following losses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking Down the Line<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This team has all of the tools to succeed. Once they get their footing and some direction, there is no stopping them. The only thing harming this team right now is themselves. These close losses at the beginning of the season are what cause teams to miss the postseason. It seems just as they find the right direction toward success, they turn right back around. Seattle is heading in the right direction, but hasn\u2019t quite turned this offense all the way around. Some more consistency and game planning can change everything. There is nothing lost yet; the division is still in reach, and they aren\u2019t too far back. The struggles look a lot bigger than they actually are. Once they find their groove, the Seattle Mariners will be a team to fear not only in the American League West but in the AL.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Main Photo Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The beginning of the season was rough for the Mariners. The big bats in Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh, and Josh Naylor were nowhere to be found. The home runs kept Seattle in the games, but the strikeout numbers were rising quickly. This Mariners team has been known in the past for its large strikeout numbers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5781,"featured_media":119158,"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":[1071,35,17],"tags":[2060,4144,4308],"class_list":["post-119095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-news","category-mariners","tag-cal-raleigh","tag-josh-naylor","tag-julio-rodriguez"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119095","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=119095"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119159,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119095\/revisions\/119159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}