“When there’s nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire” – Stars, “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead”
“When there’s nothing else to fight for, let me fight for this” – Bryan Woo, on fighting to stay in a little too long in tonight’s Mariners game, a sloppy 6-4 loss to the Angels.
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I’m trying to sum up some annoyance at Bryan Woo for arguing to stay in this game, and at Dan Wilson for letting him, and at Cal Raleigh for dropping a third strike (stupidest rule in baseball) leading to a Rube Goldberg-esque chain of events, and at the Mariners for going 1-for-8 with RISP tonight and generally blowing chances against literally the 2026 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Disneyland, USA, and I just can’t. There’s nothing to fight for, or against, just the slow march towards the end of this dreadful season.
The Angels got on the board in annoying fashion in the second inning, when Josh Lowe lofted a little two-out single into center field. Christian Moore then hit an even weaker parachute fly ball that Julio dashed and reached for but missed, causing Laz Montes to bluescreen momentarily as he scrambled to pick up the loose ball in what’s been his first real tough test as a big-league outfielder, allowing Lowe to score from first. Blech, and also unfortunately a tone-setter for the rest of the night.
The Mariners answered back in the bottom of the inning, though. Cal Raleigh worked a walk, and then Julio Rodríguez obliterated a terrible middle-middle fastball from Orioles starter Grayson Rodriguez. I remember listening to Grayson Rodriguez pitch to Julio Rodriguez in 2019 when Julio was playing for the West Virginia Power and the other Rodriguez was with the Delmarva Shorebirds in the now-defunct South Atlantic League. Those games were always hyped up big time, top prospect vs. top prospect. Anyway, Julio won this outing.
Here, with the Rick Rizzs call, as is proper:
451 feet is currently the longest distance a ball has been hit in baseball today, and I will miss saying that when there are no balls hit in baseball today because there is no baseball.
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The Mariners had a chance to really break the game open here after Josh Naylor worked a walk and Cole Young singled to put two more on with no outs, but unfortunately Lazaro Montes reached out for a changeup and grounded into a double play to put two outs on the board. Leo Rivas then came through with a clutch two-out RBI, though, bringing home Naylor to make it 3-1 before J.P. popped out to end the threat.
The Mariners had some traffic against Rodriguez and a chance to add on more but frittered away their opportunities. A leadoff double from Randy Arozarena in the second was left stranded at third (Julio and Canzone both struck out) and in the fourth a clever challenge from Cole Young to turn a strikeout into an eventual walk followed by a laserbeam single off the bat of Lazaro Montes was also stranded when Leo Rivas, who is notably not Michael Arroyo, grounded into an inning-ending double play.
That opened the door for the Angels to tie things up in the fifth. Josh Lowe threw his bat at a curveball and was rewarded with a weakly hit leadoff double, and then some more sloppy play bit the Mariners as Cal Raleigh threw away what should have been out number two on a curveball Christian Moore chased after in the dirt, leading to Lowe advancing to third and Moore reaching on my absolute least favorite play in baseball, the dropped third strike rule. Lowe would then score on a groundout to bring the Angels within one.
Despite the curveball working well for him – he had already struck Neto out on the pitch twice – Woo went with a sinker in to Neto, who yanked the pitch into right for a game-tying RBI. I was perplexed as to why Woo moved off his curveball, which he was throwing particularly well tonight – he boosted its usage up to 14%, his most commonly-used secondary tonight, and of 15 thrown landed four for called strikes and got swings on another seven with four whiffs. I was going to ask him about it postgame, but instead we had to do the continued sad autopsy of slicing up the 2026 Mariners to see what parts are the most shriveled. So for now we will put Bryan Woo’s curveball in a box labeled “40 in 40s – 2027” and hope we get to unpack them this spring.
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The Mariners jumped back in front in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of some shoddy command from Rodriguez, who walked two and then threw a wild pitch that allowed J.P. Crawford, who had led off the inning, to score. But again, the Mariners couldn’t do any more damage than that, and the Angels then went ahead in the sixth against a clearly tiring Bryan Woo.
Woo’s efficiency hadn’t been great all day, despite recording eight strikeouts against the strikeout-prone Angels. For those who have watched a lot of Mariners starters in 2026, the noncompetitive five-pitch leadoff walk to a hitter with a below-average walk rate who strikes out a quarter of the time appears like a canary in the coal mine that has been this season. Two batters later, Woo allowed another free pass by plunking Denzer Guzman, who walks even less and strikes out even more. With Woo pushing into the 100s with his pitch count, Dan Wilson came out to do a mound visit, at which point Woo was seen yelling forcefully in the face of his manager from behind his glove. Because there’s nothing left to burn but ourselves, Wilson left him in, and Woo immediately went to a 3-0 count against Christian Moore – who is currently running a 34% K rate – before serving up a fastball right on the plate that Moore tattooed into center for a go-ahead double. Just when you think the 2026 Mariners can’t get any more 2026 Mariners, they Mariners all over.
Michael Rucker came in and cleaned up the mess, everyone say thank you Michael Rucker, and Laz Montes helped him out with a great catch. And you know if we’ve reached the “defensive highlights” part of the recap we’re in dire straits.
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Direness indeed. Cooper Criswell had the eighth and continued to look not as sharp as he did before going on the IL, walking – no come on guys, seriously, Denzer Guzman again? And of course that leadoff walk came around to score because baseball does still have rules, even meaningless baseball. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway – the Mariners failed to score again after that wild-pitch run in the fifth against the Angels bullpen. It’s the most not matters time in the most not mattering season. Why does it still hurt?
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