Mariners dealt ugly loss by Nationals; Colt Emerson homers again

Adam Jude, The Seattle Times on Jun 13, 2026

Published in Baseball

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WASHINGTON — At least they got out of this one without losing another key player to injury.

That’s about the only nice thing worth noting about the Seattle Mariners’ ugly 8-3 loss to the Washington Nationals on Saturday afternoon, their fifth loss in nine games on this 10-game East Coast swing.

Sloppy isn’t a strong enough descriptor of what transpired at Nationals Park. The Mariners (37-35) very much looked like a team running on fumes with a second-string lineup at the end of a long trip.

The M’s will try to salvage a .500 trip Sunday afternoon before returning home for a day off Monday.

The Nationals scored three runs in the first inning off Luis Castillo, all of which were unearned after a simple throwing error on Josh Naylor trying to lob a ball to the pitcher covering first base.

They scored two more on a Luis Garcia Jr. home run to take the lead in the fifth inning immediately after an error on third baseman Miles Mastrobuoni. (Officially, that play was later changed to a hit for the Nats’ James Wood, a generous ruling from a hometown scorer for a star player, to be sure).

Just two of the five runs Castillo allowed over 5 2/3 innings were earned.

Mitch Garver was tagged with an early error on a catcher’s interference call, and a throwing error on reliever Eduard Bazardo on a pickoff to first base allowed another run to trot home easily as the Nationals put the game out of reach in the seventh inning.

Colt Emerson, the 20-year-old rookie shortstop, provided the few highlights for the Mariners. He belted his second home run in as many days here to tie the score in the fifth inning — a two-run blast in the second deck to make it 3-3.

Later, Emerson made a diving play up the middle — with the infield drawn in — spun around and fired home to Mitch Garver to throw out a runner at the plate.

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