The Mariners’ core emerged early, while the A’s core emerged late.
The Mariners lost to the Athletics 6-4 in Monday’s series opener. Emerson Hancock still looked like a new and improved version of himself, but he also took some bad shots and ended up getting burned. Carl Rowley and Dominic Canzoni had home runs, and Julio Rodriguez and Josh Naylor combined for five hits. But the Mariners ultimately couldn’t overcome the Athletics’ 13 hits on the day.
advertise
Hancock’s day may have been an early-season story. He entered the day’s game with a 2.75 FIP, 24.2% walk rate and 4 starts of WAR as a qualified starting pitcher. This is a surprise for the Mariners, who have been eager to add some depth outside of their top five starters. In fact, Hancock looks like more than just depth so far in 2026. As Michael Rosen pointed out on FanGraphs last week, he made a lot of changes in the offseason, including tweaking his skillset and fundamentally changing the way he pitches.
On Monday, Hancock largely looked like a new and improved version of himself. He continued to pound the zone with a 95 mph fastball and issued zero walks. He continued to expand the offensive zone, changing his sweeper to a righty and his changeup to a lefty. He struck out 11 times in 51 swings and had three strikeouts.
Again, in most cases, it works. Hancock broke up a few singles, trapped a few early, hit a double in the fourth inning and even struck out Lawrence Butler in the fifth. Again, without a walk, these were the only baserunners against him.
Unfortunately, three other people arrive at the base and continue running. In the fourth inning, Hancock threw a fastball to Carlos Cortes that didn’t even catch the zone, but Cortes sat on it and turned it into the right-field seats.
advertise
In the sixth inning, Hancock threw a mid-center fastball to slugger Nick Kurtz, who hit the ball to center. Hancock pitched the same pitch to the next batter, Shea Langriers, who also pressed it to center. Two consecutive home runs tied the score at 3-3, ending Hancock’s day.
Here’s where those home runs are:
Ultimately, Hancock’s stat line was five innings, seven hits, three hits, three walks, no four balls, and three home runs. This is not a fine line. It could be worse. In addition to home runs, he also gave up a lot of hard contact. It was his lucky outing, a sharp inside pass to center that opened the game, seemingly setting off an acrobatic display from Julio:
advertise
Still, this looks to be the “good” version of Hancock we’ve seen so far this year. The speed is there. The movement is there. The smell is there. How about throwing a pair of mid-center fastballs to two of the best sluggers in the league? No. But that’s a far cry from Hancock’s poor performance over the past three years.
Jose Ferrell reached second in the sixth inning after back-to-back home runs. He immediately gave up a tough single to counter turning Cortez. He walked out the next two batters, but Leo Rivas couldn’t quite get a bat single and the pitch hit the bases. Ferrell then allowed Lawrence Butler to hit a hard hit right back to the mound. Ferrell reached for the ball over his head, ran around to find it, realized it was in his glove, threw it for first down and escaped the inning.
Matt Brash had a quiet seventh inning against the No. 1 team, keeping the score tied at 3-3.
However, by Game 8, Dan Wilson seemed to be out of relievers. Andres Munoz and Gabe Speyer are both pitching in back-to-back days, and Edward Bazardo has been throwing a lot lately. Wilson went with Casey Legumina, who didn’t perform well. He gave up the first double and later hit a single and loaded the bases. For a moment, it looked like he might escape with minimal damage after a flying sac, making the game 4-3. But Butler’s single provided the remaining runners, giving the Athletics a 6-3 lead and eventual win.
advertise
Overall, it was a good day for the Mariners offense. In the bottom half of the first inning, Raleigh hit a home run in reverse to score first. Julio followed, the Rockets singled in the middle, and Naylor double-teamed him to make the score 2-0.
Naylor continued to swing at nearly every pitch he saw on Monday, this time collecting three hits, including his first two doubles of the season. Now he’s on pace for a 54 wRC+ in 2026, which isn’t great but is still about five times better than last Thursday’s 15 wRC+. It’s great to see him start counting again, but the results are starting to show. He also notched his first stolen base of the season and returned to being a pest on base pitchers, waving his arms at second base to annoy A’s starter JT Ginn, who seemed to give him the cold shoulder on his way to the dugout after first base; Naylor was undeterred, continuing to make wild gestures after a double in the third.
Dominic Canzone also had a great day. He hit a home run to right base in the second inning to make it 3-0 and followed that up with a two-run homer off the right field wall at 111.8 mph. Both balls were on the inside of the plate, and he was the best hitter in the world.
The Mariners made things interesting late. In the eighth inning, with a 3-6 deficit, Julio and Naylor each hit a home run. But Randy Arozarena flew out, as did Rob Refsnyder, who was still in the game after relieving Luke Raley in the sixth inning.
advertise
Now, I defended Wilson’s bullpen management in my last recap on Saturday, and I stand by that today (even if unfortunate circumstances put Beans in a late leverage position). But with one out and no one on Reilly in the sixth, providing a handedness matchup for Refsnyder, who seemed to come back to bite Wilson in the eighth when Refsnyder was left facing the right-hander.
“Both (Canzone and Reilly) swing the bat so well, it’s hard to get them out of any game. Same thing when (Reif Snyder) is out there, he swings the bat so good, it’s hard to get him out,” Wilson said after the game about the call. “These are tough decisions … but it felt like tonight, that’s the decision we’re going to make.”
I generally don’t like to say “well, actually” to quotes like this. Wilson is notoriously reluctant to speak ill of his players in order to answer a question – I would even go so far as to say that, in general, that’s a great quality to have. But Refsnyder entered the day with one hit on the season, and Reilly entered the day with 21 hits on the season. The way they swing the bat is not “good.”
Again, I’m not really taking Wilson’s quote at face value here. I’m sure he knew Reilly was hot, while Rafe Snider didn’t. I think the reasoning here is that this is just the Mariners’ process and they’re not going to abandon that process for a small sample size of hot hands. Raley is playing well, but he hasn’t even reached 100 games, and he hasn’t earned a full-time job. Counterfactuals like this are also difficult. Maybe the Athletics would have used a different pitcher if Reilly was still in the game, and of course, handedness isn’t the only factor to consider in pitcher-hitter matchups.
advertise
Still, I don’t like the exclusion process. I said the same thing last season when the Mariners were hitting at a historic rate, and if this trend continues, I’m sure I’ll be writing a similar story this year. Batters on the bench fared much worse, and when you seek handedness early on, you often take it back later. That was the case on Monday, and while it’s a stretch to blame the loss directly on that — the Mariners still gave up six runs.
Regardless, the Mariners almost came back. In the ninth inning, Cole Young hit a single and Rivas hit a double, chasing the score to 6-4. But JP Crawford popped up, Raleigh flew out, and the game was over.