Cal Raleigh homers, but Mariners' bullpen falters late in loss to Athletics

Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on Apr 21, 2026

Published in Baseball

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The victories and series win over the Rangers over the weekend came with future costs.

With closer Andres Muñoz, lefty setup man Gabe Speier and the ultra-versatile Eduard Bazardo all unavailable to pitch due to heavy usage in the past series and in the games prior, manager Dan Wilson had to try piece together the back end of a close game. The puzzle got that much more difficult with starter Emerson Hancock only giving them five complete innings of work.

The results?

Not great.

Lefty Jose A. Ferrer, who replaced Hancock with no outs in the sixth, somehow picked up three outs without allowing a run to score, despite giving up two hits and hitting a batter.

But Casey Legumina couldn’t do the same in the eighth, giving up three runs in would eventually be a 6-4 loss to the Oakland A’s in Monday’s series opener at T-Mobile Park.

Legumina, who rarely pitches in such late-game leverage situations, gave up leadoff hustle double to Tyler Soderstrom and a single to Jacob Wilson to put runners on first and third. Legumina walked Jeff McNeill to load the bases.

Max Muncy gave the A’s a productive out with a sac fly to right field that was just deep enough to score Soderstrom ahead of a strong throw from Dom Canzone. Lawrence Butler added to the lead with a two-run single to right field.

But the bullpen wasn’t all at fault. The Mariners offense, after scoring three runs in the first two innings off Oakland starter J.T. Ginn, went quiet, failing to add runs until it was too late.

The Mariners picked up a run in the ninth when Leo Rivas double into the right-field corner to score Cole Young from first base. But J.P. Crawford popped out in foul territory and Cal Raleigh flew out to shallow right to end the game.

It was two more failed at-bats on a night when the Mariners went 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven runners on base.

The Mariners jumped on Oakland starter Ginn in the first inning.

Working a 3-1 count, Raleigh got a sinker away and sent it into the Mariners’ bullpen for a solo homer. It was his third homer of the season and it came through a simpler approach and process that yielded so many homers last season.

Julio Rodriguez followed with a single up the middle. He immediately stole second and then scored on Josh Naylor’s double down the first-base line.

Seattle tacked on another run in the second inning when Canzone’s towering fly ball to right field carried just over the wall and into the stands for a leadoff homer.

But the Mariners never added to that 3-0 lead.

They didn’t lack for opportunities.

Naylor was stranded at second in the first inning. He hit a one-out double in the third inning and watched as Randy Arozarena and Luke Raley both struck out.

Canzone led off the third a screaming double off the wall in right field. He moved to third on Young’s ground ball to first. But Leo Rivas couldn’t get a ball into the outfield to score him and Crawford’s soft ground ball to first was gloved for the final out of the inning.

Given a 3-0 lead after the second inning, Hancock couldn’t quite deliver a quality start as the A’s chipped away at the lead via the solo homer.

Carlos Cortes smashed a solo homer to deep right-center to start the fourth inning.

Hancock gave up back-to-back homers to Nick Kurtz and Shea Langeliers to start the sixth inning, which ended his outing.

His final line: five innings pitched, three runs allowed on seven hits with no walks and three strikeouts.

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