By Paul L. Taylor Posted on

Mariners continue to struggle hitting in 2-1 road loss to Rangers

Shades of 2024 are beginning to emerge, as the Seattle Mariners lose their third straight game despite a strong start by Logan Gilbert.

Since 2021 the Mariners have been a model of consistency, as one of only four teams to win 85+ games each year. However, ask fans which of the five winning seasons was the most frustrating and we would contend the majority would pick 2024, when the team went 85-77 and finished one game out of a wild card spot. (Although technically two, due to head-to-head tie-breakers.)

This was the season when the Mariners rotation caught lightning in a bottle and established themselves as the best in the majors, ranking first in ERA, WHIP, batting average, fewest walks and quality starts. That’s the type of production you can’t waste and yet the team did just that, despite finishing the season tied with the Braves for the fewest overall runs allowed.

The reason for this was because, as good as the rotation was, the offense was almost as bad in finishing 21st in scoring. Among other things, the Mariners ranked 29th in batting average and 25th in slugging percentage, while striking out more times than any other team. (A year earlier they had finished with the second-most, only because the Twins set a Major League record with 1,654 Ks.)

Before continuing, we stress as we have done before that it’s still early in the season, but at the same time can’t help but notice there are shades of 2024 in how the Mariners have started this campaign. If nothing else, it’s certainly something to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.

Following an injury-impacted 2025 with saw four of the Mariners’ five preferred pitchers combine to miss 34 starts, the rotation has returned to its standing as one of the best in baseball. As of Tuesday morning they rank fourth in ERA, tied-fourth in fewest walks, third in WHIP and have thrown the most strikeouts.

Now contrast this with the offense, which had actually started the season well enough with a combined 22 runs during the opening series at home versus the Guardians. However, at the time of writing they are tied-20th in scoring, thanks to ranking second-worst in OPS and most strikeouts, while also propping up the league with the lowest batting average.

Mariners continue to struggle offensively in Texas

Following a disappointing Angels series which twice saw the Mariners limited to just one run, these scoring woes spilled over into the start of the Rangers series with another ugly display. On the night they could only manage two hits and a couple of walks, as they lost 2-1 and wasted Logan Gilbert’s best start of the season to date.

Gilbert couldn’t have done much more, as he allowed six hits, no walks and two earned runs, while also striking out five over 6.0 strong innings. And yet he was still ultimately tagged with his second “L” of the season, in a classic case of being Felixed. (No need to explain this to the majority of Mariners fans.)

The game had actually started extremely well for the Mariners, as Cal Raleigh hit a bomb to right field for his first home run of the season and a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. After this however, the Mariners would only reach base five more times (including via a throwing error and a hit-by-pitch), and never advanced past first.

In fairness the Rangers only managed seven hits and two walks themselves thanks to Gilbert, along with much-needed scoreless innings by Jose A Ferrer and Cooper Criswell. However, the home side tied the game up at 1-1 in the bottom of the first and scored the crucial second run in the bottom of the sixth, which was all they would need on the night.

Cal Raleigh and Dan Wilson discuss the lineup’s hitting woes

Postgame, Raleigh was asked about where they are execution-wise right now, with this obviously not the start to the season the Mariners wanted (or expected). He said:

“You’ve just got to take care of those little things. I mean it kind of starts with the offense. … We’ve just got to create some traffic. You’ve got to find some free bases here and there, and we’re just not doing that. So, to me, that’s just kind of where it starts, and usually that’s kind of what gets the rally going.”

Mariners manager Dan Wilson talked about how they were able to get Jacob deGrom’s pitch count up early in the first couple of innings and make him work. However, when asked about what happened after this with the quicker pitch counts, he said:

“They were flooding the zone, they were giving us good pitches to hit and our guys were making a lot of hard contact. But a lot of it (was) on the ground and just not able to get it through the infield.”

Again, it’s still early in the season and there are positives offensively as well, including Randy Arozarena reaching base in all 11 games, Cole Young proving himself as a difficult out and Brendan Donovan showing what he’s capable of. (He was back in the lineup on Monday night after missing two games with a groin strain.) Now, it’s a case of Raleigh building on his first home run of 2026 and the likes of Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor playing up to their talent level.

On paper this lineup is better than what the Mariners put out in 2024, but this doesn’t mean a thing if they don’t start putting it together on the field, which is where games are won last time we checked. We predict they will be just fine in the long run, but for now fans are going to worry, as is their right.

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rogers Photography

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