Talk outside the Mariners organization suggested that Sunday afternoon’s series finale against the Houston Astros was the season’s biggest game in the most important series thus far.
Looking to avoid their first series sweep of the season, the Mariners turned to right-hander Bryan Woo, who has endured multiple stints on the injured list this season.
It ended with the 35,038 in attendance giving a standing ovation as he walked off the mound, celebrating one of his better starts of the season and just his second since June 24.
“Credit to Bryan Woo,” manager Scott Servais said after his team’s 6-4 win to regain a share of the AL West lead. “To get off to a good start today, really good today. Fastballs, two-seam, four-seam, got enough off-speed pitches in there to keep them honest, most of them. Obviously, Yordan [Alvarez] was seeing it pretty good.”
Woo, the winning pitcher (4-1), pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing four hits, two runs (both earned), and one home run, while striking out five. He threw 73 pitches, with 51 for strikes.
“For Bryan, just recognizing that his stuff is good enough to beat any team, any lineup in this league,” Servais said. “Just trusting his stuff, and I think he does. It’s way better this year. Seeing the quality of strikes and how efficient he is deep in the game. The fastball just explodes on hitters. Bryan’s learned a lot.”
Woo threw first-pitch strikes to 13 of the 20 hitters he faced, helping him get ahead in the count and, most importantly, return to the basics after a rough outing against the Angels on July 12.
“Trying to get back to the basics, get back to the simple approach,” Woo said. “Be in the middle of the zone to start and then you can expand from there. Be aggressive, make your pitches. It doesn’t really matter how aggressive or not a team is, I still need to get ahead, I still got to do my part, and I think that’s what I did a much better job of today.”
If it weren’t for Alvarez’s 384-foot home run to right field and his ground ball single in the first, Woo would have been perfect through five innings.
The sixth inning was a stark contrast, turning chaotic to say the least.
With a runner on first and third with no outs, Alex Bregman lined a low shot to shortstop J.P. Crawford, who either couldn’t handle it on the fly, leading to an easy 6-4-3 double play.
It ended Woo’s night, leaving a runner on third as left-hander Tayler Saucedo entered, and Julio Rodríguez exited the inning after crashing into the outfield wall while nearly making an incredible catch.
“I think I did a lot better job controlling what I can control,” Woo said. “Getting back to a very simple, basic approach. Not try to overcomplicate things. Kind of reflected on the first couple starts of the season, what my thought process was. I think I know the simpler I can keep it, the better.”
The Mariners may be 9-17 since June 19, but as manager Servais referenced postgame Sunday, they still haven’t lost “the hunt.”
“There’s a lot of baseball left,” Mitch Haniger said. “It doesn’t really matter where you are halfway through or even the beginning, it just matters where you are at the end. It’s all about just getting in the playoffs and we still think we can win the division. We know we’re right up there with any of these teams.”
Unfortunately for the Mariners, they are now tied for the AL West lead once again after an 11-game swing in the division saw the Astros claim their first true division lead of the 2024 campaign Saturday night.
Fortunately, Sunday was only game 101 of 162, and the longest losing streak since 2022 (five games) has finally come to an end.
“I think when you go through tough times, guys still show up to work every day, positive, working hard,” Haniger said. “I think that’s the most important thing. I think on some of the bad teams that I’ve been on over the years, you don’t see that. You see guys kind of hanging their heads and you see guys kind of slacking off, but that’s not the case here.
“We just have a lot in here who work hard and we have a close knit team.”