Mariners' dreadful start continues as Rangers finish off sweep

Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on Apr 8, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ARLINGTON, Texas — It’s not just the Seattle Mariners’ losing record here in the first 13 games of the season, which dropped to 4-9 following Wednesday’s 3-0 loss to the Texas Rangers.

To be certain, it’s an unexpected and abysmal start to a highly-anticipated season where much was expected following last season’s postseason run.

But it’s how the Mariners have gotten to this point in the season that is at times vexing, other times galling and mostly disappointing.

The Mariners’ offense has returned to being a strikeout-laden, non-hit producing mess. The defense is making costly errors and also failing to make plays that are necessary to win games. And the pitching, well, like so many years, it has to be almost perfect every night.

Seattle lived this lifestyle for so many seasons and appears to be mired in it again.

The series finale featured yet another outstanding pitching matchup with Bryan Woo and MacKenzie Gore.

It was as advertised for the first four innings. Gore’s outing would end after five innings due to his pitch count.

Woo’s outing ended after five innings, when his defense let him down in what was a decisive three-run inning.

With one out, Danny Jansen hit a ground ball to third baseman Brendan Donovan, who retreated a step, fielding it deep on the infield dirt. As he went to throw to first base to get the slow-footed Jansen, Donovan’s back leg buckled awkwardly, causing him to fall backward while taking all the power from this throw and allowing Jansen to reach first on an infield single.

It wasn’t scored an error, but it should’ve been an out.

Josh Smith and Ezequiel Duran each followed with ground ball singles that found holes to load the bases. It appeared Woo would get the second out of the inning when Brandon Nimmo bounced a soft hopper to first baseman Connor Joe, who was called up before the game.

Wanting to keep the Rangers scoreless, Joe fielded it on the run and fired home. But his throw was high and out of the reach of Mitch Garver, who tried to stretch and make the grab. The ball bounced around off the backstop, allowing Smith to score after Jansen for a 2-0 lead.

The Rangers tacked on another run on Corey Seager’s sac fly to center that made it 3-0.

In two previous starts vs. Seattle, Gore, pitched a combined 13 innings, allowing just one run on eight hits with a walk and 16 strikeouts. Yes, 16 strikeouts.

Gore pitched five scoreless innings, allowing just one hit — a fifth inning single to Mitch Garver — while walking two batters and striking out nine.

The Mariners’ best chance to do anything against Gore came in the first inning. Leadoff hitter Rob Refsnyder worked a walk after falling behind 0-2. Julio Rodríguez also drew a one-out walk to move Refsnyder to second. It would be the Mariners’ only runner in scoring position against Gore.

But Refsnyder wouldn’t leave second as Randy Arozarena and Donovan each struck out to end the inning. It was the start of a run where Gore retired 13 of the next 14 batters he faced.

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