Mariners fall flat again vs. Rays as 50th season festivities kick off

Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on Aug 8, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE — The setup for success was in place even hours before Friday night’s first pitch at T-Mobile Park.

MLB Network did a live show from just in front of the first-base dugout in the afternoon, featuring former players like Ken Griffey Jr., Bret Boone, Jay Buhner and Alvin Davis. They later roamed the field and talked with players during batting practice.

Felix Hernandez had the crowd going early, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch with his typical King Felix aura.

The game production had all the accouterments that fans enjoy — video-board appearances from former players here for the 50th anniversary celebration, the salmon race, hydroplanes on the video board, hot dogs from heaven and even new colorful blinking LED lights in every row.

And who could forget the over-promoted alumni home run derby awaiting postgame.

Given all of that and more, the Seattle Mariners, of course, delivered another dismal performance on a celebratory night in a 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. Never has a one-run game felt so lopsided.

The Mariners were one out away from being shut out in back-to-back games, something that hasn’t happened since 2002.

But Julio Rodríguez saved them from such dubious downer, smashing a solo homer off Rays closer Ryan Baker with two outs in the bottom of ninth.

Otherwise, the Mariners’ offense produced four singles on the night and really looked lost … again.

Frustrated with watching the Mariners struggle to do anything offensively and failing to come through in the few opportunities they had, the crowd of 39,468 went from cheering hopefully for success to booing lustily at failure. The boos were even louder when Josh Naylor watched a called third strike to end the game.

The Rays, specifically right-hander Drew Rasmussen, played a large factor in the Mariners’ struggles.

Rasmussen, who was born in Mead and grew up in Spokane, continued what has been a dominant All-Star season

Using a nasty mixture of pitches that seemingly all moved off hitters’ barrels, Rasmussen tossed seven scoreless innings, allowing only two hits with two walks and eight strikeouts.

Logan Gilbert gave the Mariners a workable quality, giving up two runs over 6 2/3 innings. Both runs allowed came on solo homers.