Hancock debuts with strong outing, Cal clobbers baseball, Mariners win seventh straight with two-game sweep of Padres
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The Seattle Mariners are once again sole owners of the Vedder Cup, sweeping the San Diego Padres through two game thanks to tonight’s 6-1 victory. Right-hander Emerson Hancock made his Major League debut against a Padres team looking to rebound from Logan Gilbert’s masterclass but were unsuccessful as the Georgia born prospect threw five innings of one-run ball. The Mariners offense largely struggled to capitalize on the traffic that they did get on the bases against San Diego starter Yu Darvish, going 3-11 with runners in scoring position in this game, but a five-run eighth inning started by Cal Raleigh’s two-run titanic blast to right field kicked the door down to give Seattle their seventh straight victory as they continue on a hell bent path towards an American League Wild Card spot.
Seattle Mariners right-handed pitcher Emerson Hancock made his Major League debut in the win over the San Diego Padres (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Emerson gets the job done in MLB debut
Mariners (new!) starting pitcher Emerson Hancock did exactly what manager Scott Servais and the team could’ve asked for during his Major League debut. Seattle needed Hancock to come in and give them five innings while keeping them in the ballgame as they looked to win this series against San Diego and continue their winning streak, and Emerson was able to do that as he took over in the rotation spot of Bryan Woo who is sidelined with right forearm inflammation. While Hancock doesn’t quite have the “stuff” that the other Mariners pitching prospects of Gilbert, Kirby, Miller, and Woo, he’s still a strong prospect with a plus fastball and a general four-pitch mix that may have him MLB ready immediately.
Looking into his outing on Baseball Savant is a little hard, because it says that Hancock used three types of pitches, not using the curveball that got him a good grade back in 2020 when he was drafted. Hancock threw a sinker, slider, and changeup, but savant does not say that he threw a fastball in this outing. It’s hard to believe that, but even going with that information, Hancock displayed that he’s got a solid pitching arsenal at his display. He got a little dinged in his pitch count with the 20 foul balls he surrendered to the Padres but was otherwise great at pitching to contact to allow his strong infield defense to help get through those five innings of just one run ball.
Seattle Mariners centerfielder Julio Rodriguez drew a walk before Cal Raleigh’s two-run homer (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Cal crushes, and the insurance comes rushing in
Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, alongside Tom Murphy, has helped to push this Seattle offense forward throughout the summer months to desperately help the team's pitching staff. While Cal has especially crushed against the American League East, he continues to mash against all as his two-run homer late in this ballgame ignited the team's offense. A JP Crawford sacrifice fly scored Cade Marlowe in the bottom of the third to tie things up at one, before Seattle got things going in the bottom of the eighth inning. A Julio Rodriguez walk started everything, before Cal slammed a pitch in the bottom center of the zone to right field in what looked nearly identical to his drought-busting homer last season.
Following Cal’s monster bomb, Teoscar Hernandez was hit in the bill of his batting helmet by Padres reliever Steven Wilson, bringing Eugenio Suarez and Julio Rodriguez out of the Mariners dugout immediately. Seattle was able to keep the line moving despite the Dominic Canzone (pinch hitting for Jose Caballero, who had pinch hit for Mike Ford) ground out to make it two outs. A Ty France double scored Hernandez, Cade Marlowe singled to score France, Josh Rojas reached on an error, and Dylan Moore rounded the inning out with a single to score Marlowe. A five run inning to give the Mariners a lead that they’d never look back from.
The Seattle Mariners offense largely struggled against San Diego Padres starter Yu Darvish, only getting one run against him (Photos by Liz Wolter)
Burn the money
The big three faces of this San Diego Padres roster in Fernando Tatis Jr, Juan Soto, and Manny Machado were largely disappointing during this two-game set against the Mariners. While you could say the same thing about most of their season, but it was interesting to see just how poorly they did at the plate for San Diego as they continue to search for a Wild Card spot while currently sitting in fourth place in the National League West division. After they were blown away as Logan Gilbert dropped a house on the entire Padres lineup, you’d think that all of San Diego’s hitters would be looking to unleash on Emerson Hancock making his MLB debut. With nerves and having to face this very talented Padres lineup, you’d think it was a perfect recipe for a big night from San Diego. That wasn’t the case, as Hancock avoided any real damage, and the Padres big hitters were left searching for answers.
The Seattle Mariners deployed five relievers during this win over the Padres (Photos by Liz Wolter)
‘Pen report
The Mariners did empty out the bullpen to an extent in this victory after Hancock went the five innings, as Seattle deployed five of their relievers in the win. After Hancock went five innings, the Mariners had Justin Topa, Gabe Speier, Trent Thornton, Matt Brash, and Isaiah Campbell close things out. With those five names, you can look at it like only two of them being their high-leverage relievers in Justin Topa and Matt Brash, with Speier being on the fringe because the Mariners have used him in that sort of situation before, but mainly right after their starter. They combined to make up the remaining four innings of scoreless baseball, avoiding any real danger and closing the door on a Padres team that continues to flail.
Quick notes
The Mariners beat the Padres 6-1 in tonight’s game…Seattle has now won 7 consecutive games for the first time since 8/28/22-9/4/22 and are a season-high 10 games over .500 at 62-52.
Seattle now has 6 consecutive series victories, going 9-1-1 over their last 11 series.
In their last 10 games, the Mariners are 9-1.
Starting pitcher Emerson Hancock made his Major League debut tonight, tossing 5.0 innings and allowing just 2 hits, 1 run (1 ER), 3 walks and 3 strikeouts over 87 pitches…he recorded his first Major League strikeout, a swinging strikeout, against batter Fernando Tatis Jr. in the 1st inning.
Hancock became just the 6th starting pitcher in franchise history to pitch 5.0+ innings and allow 2-or-fewer hits in a Major League debut with Seattle…he joins Pat Rice, Ken Cloude, Taijuan Walker, Roenis Elías and Bryce Miller.
Hancock and Miller join 5 other starting pitchers in the Majors this season with a debut outing of 5.0+ innings pitched and 2-or-fewer hits: Andrew Abbott-CIN, Jhony Brito-NYY, Reese Olson-DET, Brandon Williamson-CIN, Emmet Sheehan-LAD.
Hancock became the 10th player (8th pitcher) to make his Major League debut with Seattle this season, joining INF José Caballero, RHP Bryce Miller, RHP Juan Then, RHP Bryan Woo, RHP Ty Adcock, RHP Isaiah Campbell, RHP Devin Sweet, OF Cade Marlowe and RHP Prelander Berroa.
This year marks the 3rd season in Mariners history in which 3 pitchers drafted by SEA in the 1st Round have started a game for them: 1988 – Mike Campbell, Mike Moore, Bill Swift; 2004 – Gil Meche, Matt Thornton, Ron Villone; 2023 – Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Emerson Hancock.
The Mariners and Cardinals are the only teams in the Majors with their 1st pick from the 2018, 2019 and 2020 drafts all on their active rosters: SEA (Gilbert / Kirby / Hancock), STL (Gorman / Z. Thompson / Walker).
Cal Raleigh went 2-for-4 with 1 run, 1 home run and 2 RBI in tonight’s game…his homer in the 8th inning put the Mariners up 3-1 and marked his 8th go-ahead RBI of the season
Raleigh’s 450 ft home run was the longest home run of his career (previously: 444’, 2x).
Ty France picked up his 29th multi-hit game of the season tonight after going 2-for-3 with 1 run, 1 double, 1 RBI and 1 HBP…it was his 18th game reaching base 3+ times, which ties J.P. Crawford for the most by a Seattle hitter…France has reached base safely in 14 of the last 16 games (7/23-c).
France’s HBP in the 7th inning was his 20th HBP this season and 70th in his career…he has now totaled 20 HBP in each of the past 3 seasons (2021-c), becoming the 14th player in MLB history with 3 or more 20+ HBP seasons, and the 9th to do it in 3-consecutive seasons.
Eugenio Suárez went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles in tonight’s game…he recorded the Mariners first hit of the night in the 1st inning and picked up his 22nd multi-hit game of the season…Suárez has now hit safely in 14 of the last 16 games (7/23-c).
Cade Marlowe picked up 2 singles, 2 runs, 1 RBI and 1 walk in tonight’s game to record his 4th multi-hit game of the year…it is the 2nd game in which Marlowe has reached base 3+ times.
José Caballero recorded his 20th career stolen base tonight in the 7th inning, pinch running for Mike Ford after Ford drew a walk.
Caballero became the 6th rookie in franchise history to record 20+ stolen bases, joining Phil Bradley (1984), Donell Nixon (1987), Ichiro Suzuki (2001), James Jones (2014) and Rodríguez (2022).
He also ranks tied-2nd for the most stolen bases by an American League rookie this season (also: Anthony Volpe-NYY).
Following a walk in the 8th inning, Julio Rodríguez has now reached base safely in 16 of the last 17 games (7/22-c) during which he is batting .311 (24x74) with 5 home runs, 12 RBI, 3 walks (1 IBB).
J.P. Crawford drove in Seattle’s first run of the evening on a sacrifice fly in the 3rd inning…he snapped a 13 game on-base streak (7/24-8/8) following tonight’s game.
The Mariners bullpen tonight (Justin Topa, Gabe Speier, Trent Thornton, Matt Brash, and Isaiah Campbell) combined for 4.0 innings and allowed only 2 hits, 2 walks and struck out 3.
What’s next?
Following this two-game sweep of the San Diego Padres, the Mariners will get Thursday off before they begin a big series against the Baltimore Orioles. It’s a big three-game set because the Orioles sit atop the entire American League, Seattle continues to try and inch closer towards the third Wild Card spot, and the Mariners will be inducting “King Felix” into the organization’s Hall of Fame. That three-game set kicks off on Friday, August 11th with a first pitch time of 7:10PM PST as the Mariners look to get a strong performance from Luis Castillo on the mound against Orioles right hander Kyle Gibson. That day, postgame, the Mariners will have a firework spectacular to kick the weekend off honoring Hernandez.