Mariners face plenty of soul-searching following nightmare road trip

The Mariners are looking for answers after losing seven of eight on the road, including equalling a season-high five-game losing streak.

Since the trade deadline the Seattle Mariners have experienced arguably their highest highs and lowest lows of the 2025 campaign to date. From winning a season-best eight games to losing seven of eight, fans have gone from believing this is a genuine World Series contender to thinking their beloved team will miss the playoffs for the third consecutive year.

The saying goes that things are never quite as bad as they seem. However, it’s understandably tough for many people to shake the nasty feeling the Mariners are going to fall short despite one of their most exciting and best trade deadlines in a long time.

That’s what happens when you go on a road trip which exposes the worst version of yourselves, against the Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. After beginning the nine-game stretch by gutting out a 1-0 win versus the Orioles at Camden Yards, the Mariners subsequently went on a horrific run which resulted in just one more victory in eight games.

Mariners pitching staff severely under-performing

The pitching took an absolute battering, as the M’s allowed 59 combined runs in the eight games and looked nothing like the unit which was so good last season. Even allowing for a ridiculous amount of injuries this year, the starters and relievers alike looked as bad as ever during this East coast road trip.

The starters combined for a tied-worst team fWAR of -0.3 during the stretch in question, as they produced a soul-destroying 7.75 ERA, 6.34 FIP and Major League high 2.03 WHIP. It was particularly ugly in Philadelphia as Logan Gilbert had his worst outing of 2025, Bryce Miller struggled in his return from injury and Luis Castillo equalled a season-high of 10 hits in a season-low 4.0 innings.

As for the bullpen, they were collectively not quite as bad but still not even average over the eight games. In that time they recorded a 7.58 ERA, 4.63 FIP and 1.69 WHIP in 29.2 combined innings, with no blown saves alluding to not even being in a position to win games.

Following the 11-2 loss in the series finale to the Phillies, Mariners manager Dan Wilson was asked about the challenge of lining up the bullpen in the face of so many short starts by the rotation. He said:

“It’s always a challenge. … Sometimes you have that luxury (of the bullpen being rested) and sometimes you don’t, but tomorrow certainly, we can recoup and we’ll be ready to go on Friday.”

More needed from the likes of Raleigh and Suárez

Of course with such porous pitching it was always going to be tough for the offense to pull out games, but don’t think they haven’t had their issues as well. In fact the lineup has been slightly less productive since the trade deadline, highlighted by a .231 batting average and .726 OPS compared to .244 and .729 respectively prior to July 31.

At the heart of this has been a slumping Cal Raleigh, who had a .257/.365/.607 slash line and .972 OPS prior to the trade deadline. Since then however, he’s produced a .194/.301/.486 slash line and .787 OPS to highlight just how important he is to the Mariners’ success.

Just as — if not more — worrying has been the form of one of the Mariners’ big trade deadline pickups in Eugenio Suárez, who has struggled since his return. His .248/.320/.576 slash line and .897 OPS have been replaced by a .181/221/.361 slash line and .582 OPS in Seattle.

This is not to say it has all been bad offensively since the trade deadline, with Julio Rodríguez being the prime example of a player who has stepped up his productivity to help the team. However, it’s clear Rodríguez can’t do it alone no matter how talented he is, with the hope that both Raleigh and Suárez can at least return to the median in the coming weeks.

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Dan Wilson discusses how the Mariners can rebound

Wilson was asked about how the team will look to bounce back from such a tough road trip and stopping it spiralling out of control. He said:

“If you’ve been in this game any amount of time you’ve been through some things like this and it can turn back the other way really quickly. It’ll be good to get home, it’ll be good to get back in our home ballpark and see our home fans out there, start getting back to work and doing what we do.”

In this respect it is a reality that the Mariners are better at T-Mobile Park, with their 37-25 record among the very best in the AL so far this year. For what it’s worth the M’s have 19 games left at home compared to 15 on the road, but how much this helps their quest to return to the playoffs remains to be seen.

Next up the Mariners will face an Athletics team at home which has the second-worst record in the AL, in a series they dare not lose. However, it will likely be on the road where the M’s fate will be sealed, with their three-game set in Houston looming as the key series in how it all plays out.

That the Mariners remain just 2.0 games back in the AL West is a minor miracle following their horrendous road tip, only helped by the Astros’ own terrible form of late. The teams are tied 5-5 in their head-to-head season series meetings, so M’s fans will have Sep. 19-21 circled on their calenders.

The Mariners overcame an even worse run of form earlier this season with 11 losses in 14 games, and still managed to get back into contention. This remains an extremely talented team, but the time has come for more players to begin playing up their potential again, otherwise this will prove to be a waste of one of the best opportunities seen in Seattle for a long time.

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rodgers Photography

The Mariners now face an important six-game homestand in which they HAVE to get back on track. What is your prediction for the two three-game sets against the Athletics and San Diego Padres? Let us know in the comments section below.