Mariners suffer disappointing loss to struggling Royals

Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on May 24, 2026

Published in Baseball

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Failure and defeat are embedded into a baseball season. It’s the nature of a 162-game schedule and the avalanche of opportunities afforded players over the accumulation of all those games.

While defeat is an undesirable outcome in any game, it also isn’t unexpected given that nearly every team will lose a minimum of 60 games.

Often how a team loses a game can be more indicative of its actual wherewithal for success than the games won.

With the exception of Colt Emerson’s performance, just about everything else in Seattle Mariners' disappointing 8-6 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Sunday that felt frustratingly familiar in what has been a largely underachieving performance over the first 54 games.

Seattle scored three runs in the top of the ninth to make the final score seem respectable. But for those that sat through the nine innings either by force or by regrettable choice, they know it wasn’t a game the Mariners deserved to win. They lost two of three to a team that had lost nine of its last 10 games coming into the weekend series.

The Mariners, now 25-29, will travel to scenic Sacramento to face the A’s, who lead the AL West’s war of attrition and mediocrity.

After eking out a somewhat unimpressive 2-0 win Friday night over a struggling Royals squad, manager Dan Wilson talked about winning the series immediately the next day, hoping to build some consistency.

Instead, the Mariners were held scoreless over nine innings Saturday by a pitcher that was once in their organization.

And on a gorgeous sun-drenched Sunday afternoon, they tossed out a clunker that looked more Cactus League than big league. They were sloppy in the field, carelessly overaggressive at the plate and hapless in their execution. Throw in some curious decision-making and you have all the components in the equation for a lopsided loss.

Usually these sort of stretches result in a team meeting to clear the air. The Mariners already had that meeting after being swept by the San Diego Padres on the previous homestand.

The game started off promising with Julio Rodríguez launching a solo homer to left field off Royals starter Seth Lugo in the first inning.

Seattle starter Bryan Woo worked the first five innings without a run. Though it wasn’t easy. His defense forced him to throw extra pitches with miscues in the field. And he struggled to put away hitters.

His outing fell apart in the sixth. He issued a leadoff walk and then threw away a sac bunt from Kyle Isbel to put runners on second and third with no outs. Woo looked like he might escape the trouble, retiring the next two hitters. But he intentionally walked Vinnie Pasquantino after falling behind 2-0 in the count. Salvador Perez followed with a single through the left side for a 2-1 lead. Carter Jensen followed with a double to left to make it 4-1.

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