SEATTLE — Nothing about it was simple. Nothing actually has been to date this season for the Mariners.
However Seattle white-knuckled its method to a 7-6 win over the D-backs on Friday to open its three-game interleague set, stretching its profitable streak to 4 video games because of a walk-off double within the tenth inning by Randy Arozarena.
“Simply an enormous second, big pleasure,” supervisor Dan Wilson stated. “You might really feel the power in that ballpark, it was excellent.”
It’s been an extended slog again to .500 from Seattle — the Mariners hadn’t been there since April 29 once they had been 16-16, earlier than J.P. Crawford jogged dwelling on Arozarena’s slash the opposite manner off a Juan Morillo slider on Friday night time.
Lots has gone mistaken alongside the way in which. The highest two hitters in Seattle’s Opening Day lineup — final 12 months’s breakout star in Cal Raleigh and its prized offseason acquisition in Brendan Donovan — are on the IL and prone to stay there for no less than a pair extra weeks. The bullpen has gone by way of its personal harm points, whereas the rotation state of affairs has led to drama of a special selection.
However now, the Mariners, who got here into the season with greater aspirations than probably any 12 months beforehand in franchise historical past, are a win away from getting above .500 for the primary time since they had been 3-2 one recreation into the second sequence of the 12 months.
“I are available each day and all these guys are getting ready, placing of their work to attempt to do work,” Arozarena stated by way of interpreter Freddy Llanos. “However in baseball there’s ups and downs. Generally issues go your manner, typically they don’t. Proper now, issues are going our manner. You noticed within the final sequence how properly this offense can play, and immediately we had been in a position to get a pair hits and get the win.”
Coming dwelling after sweeping the A’s and vaulting into first place within the AL West, the Mariners felt nearly as good as they’ve all season. Then they mashed 4 dwelling runs — two by J.P. Crawford and one every from Julio Rodríguez and Luke Raley.
That ought to have been a recipe for a simple win. As an alternative, a packed home at T-Cellular Park was handled to a stress check, because the Mariners blew a 5-1 lead within the sixth inning, then gave up a one-run lead within the prime of the ninth.
However Cooper Criswell pitched a clear tenth, thanks largely to a diving play by Crawford to snag a 101.6 mph grounder off the bat of Corbin Carroll with the tying run on third base and the infield drawn in.
“That’s only a nice play,” Wilson stated. “That’s J.P. He comes up massive within the massive moments.”
Then within the backside of the body, Arozarena got here to the plate with one out and two on in opposition to Morillo and acquired the one non-homer hit the Mariners wanted.
“I wasn’t attempting to simply swing for the fences and hit a house run like I felt like I used to be doing final 12 months,” Arozarena stated. “I used to be simply attempting to make contact with it and convey any individual in.”
Raley drilled his team-leading twelfth homer of the season into the seats in proper discipline within the backside of the sixth inning, proper after George Kirby and Matt Brash mixed to permit 4 runs within the prime of the body.
Crawford led off the underside of the primary with a solo shot off Zac Gallen, then acquired him once more within the fifth inning with a 417-foot shot out to middle discipline — his longest homer since April 27, 2025 — for his first profession multihomer recreation.
Rodríguez, in the meantime, blasted his ninth dwelling run of Could within the backside of the third, setting a brand new profession excessive for homers in a month. He additionally hit a double down the left-field line within the seventh inning as a part of a three-hit night time — his third of 2026.
No. 11 on the season for Rodríguez was a laser that left his bat at 113.6 mph — his highest exit velocity of the 12 months and third highest of his profession on a homer — and a launch angle of simply 16 levels, the bottom on a house run at T-Cellular Park since Houston’s Yordan Alvarez on Sept. 27, 2023.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen a ball that low exit of this ballpark, and it cleared the bullpen,” Wilson stated. “That ball was simply hit a ton, on a line. His double later was additionally hit onerous. He simply continues to swing the bat properly.”
