After a disappointing opening night loss to start the 2026 season, the Mariners evened their season series with a 5-1 win over the Guardians.
Guardians right fielder Chase DeLauter brought a collective sigh of ‘no, not again’ from the Mariner fan base when he hit his second first-inning home run of the series. In Friday’s season opener, DeLauter belted two home runs, a solo home run in the first and another one in the ninth inning.
MARINERS TAKE THE LEAD
After wasting walks by Brendan Donovan, Julio Rodriguex, and Cole Young in the first three innings combined, the Mariners made Guardians pitcher Gavin Williams pay for the freebies in the bottom of the fourth inning. Williams walked Randy Arozarena, struck out Luke Raley, and walked Dominic Canzone. After fouling two consecutive pitches, Mariners second baseman Cole Young belted Williams third pitch to deep right-center field to give the Mariners a 3-1 lead.
KIRBY WOBBLES BUT DOES NOT FALL DOWN
George Kirby ran into some trouble at the top of the fifth inning when he walked Ryhs Hopkins, CJ Kayfus, and hit Brayan Rocchio to load the bases. He showed composure and downright grit when he forced Steven Kwan to fly out to left shallow field, and Hoskins was thrown out at home to end the inning.
PITCHING CHANGE SAME RESULTS
Colin Holderman replaced Williams to start the bottom of the sixth inning, and like Williams, he gave Mariner hitters a free pass to first. Holderman walked Arozarena, and Luke Raley made him pay with a 397-foot home run to right field to give the Mariners a 5-1 lead.
” I think one of the things we like to do is really put those tough head bats on them. And I thought tonight, we were able to do that to some degree and really kind of weight them out at times. And like I said, the walks that were prior to the home runs would repeat,’ said Mariners manager Dan Wilson after the game. ” I think uh, that’s the kind of thing that our offense does, and we’re not gonna, we’re not gonna hand it to you. You got to throw strikes and I thought our guys had some pretty good at bats and you know, tonight’s a good one to build, not for sure.”
SWIFT WORK
Eduard Bazardo replaced Kirby, who exited after tossing 90 pitches, 57 of which were strikeouts, in six innings and allowed one run on two hits. Bazardo retired the side after giving up an inning-opening walk to Bo Naylor. Hoskins flew out to right, Kayfus popped out to third, and Arias struck out to end the inning. The Mariners hitters followed suit in their frame with Donovan and Raleigh going down on strikes and Rodriguez ending the inning with a foul out at first.
EXCITING ENTRANCE FOR BRASH
Matt Brash replaced Bazardo at the top of the eighth and forced a Rocchio lineout to center after a review. The play was initially ruled a single, but was overturned, and Julio Rodríguez was credited with a stellar defensive play. After Kwan singled to center, Brash forced lineouts by DeLauter and Ramirez.
MUNOZ GETS SOME ACTION
Close Andres Munoz saw his first action of the season at the top of the ninth. Munoz allowed one hit to Bo Naylor, then shut down the Guardians and secured the Mariners’ win.
POST GAME NOTES
The Mariners second consecutive multi-homer game is the first time since 2019 that the team has hit for multiple home runs in back-to-back games to begin the season and the 6th all time.
• Seattle’s six home runs tie for the second most over the first two games of the season, only behind 7 home runs in a two game span in 1979 (also: 2016, 1998).
• George Kirby tossed 6.0 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits with 6 strikeouts and 2 walks…he threw 57 strikes over 90 pitches in his season debut.
o This is the third quality start that Kirby has recorded in a season debut (also: 2022, 2024)
o He has allowed no more than 2 walks in five consecutive season debuts
• Randy Arozarena logged three walks for the fifth time in his career… first since June 15, 2025 vs. CLE.
o Arozarena became the only other Mariner to record multiple games with 3 walks against
Cleveland, joining Edgar Martínez.
o Hestole the Mariners first bag of the season after taking first on his second walk of the game.
• Leo Rivas knocked his first triple since recording one in his major league debut game in 2024.
• Cole Young blasted the fifth home run of his career, his second in T-Mobile Park.
• Luke Raley slugged a home run in the 6th inning to become the first Mariners player to homer in eachof the team’s first 2 games of the season since Kyle Lewis (2020).
• The Mariners bullpen (Eduard Bazardo, Matt Brash and Andres Muñoz) pitched 3.0 innings and allowed no runs, 2 hits and 1 walk while striking out a combined 3 batters
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