By Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA – There were plenty of emotions pregame for this Friday night baseball showdown between the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks and our Seattle Mariners, as former Mariner Eugenio Suárez returned to face his former team for the first time since being traded this past offseason. While many had their minds on the player that Seattle used to have at the hot corner, the player currently there for the Mariners got the game started with a bang as Josh Rojas blasted the first pitch he saw into the right field seats to give Seattle a lead they’d never look back from. Another solo shot by Mitch Garver doubled the lead, and a Mitch Haniger grand slam put this game on ice as the Mariners got six strong innings out of starter Emerson Hancock and the Seattle bullpen dealt with minimal trouble. It’s another example of the Mariners lineup believing in their approach, which has shown great results since a chilly start to the season that had many worried if it was “just another one of those years” for the franchise.

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon threw out the ceremonial first pitch ahead of the game, as caught by Seattle Mariners reliever Tayler Saucedo. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)

Solo shots and Emerson staying hot

Josh Rojas has been at the leadoff spot before in his career, largely with this Diamondbacks team that the Mariners were facing tonight but not very much with Seattle, and his small sample size of doing so with his current team has shown strong results. After hitting a leadoff triple last game against the Rangers, Rojas got tonight’s game against Arizona kicked off in a big way by taking a first pitch fastball to right field off former teammate Zac Gallen, getting the fans at T-Mobile Park off their feet and giving some early run support to starter Emerson Hancock. The Mariners doubled that run support in the very next inning as designated hitter Mitch Garver clobbered a towering moon shot that just barely tucked itself within the left field foul pole for a solo homer, making it back-to-back games at T-Mobile Park with a homer as he got his first blast of the season in the homestand finale on the 17th against Cincinnati. It wasn’t much, two solo homers really shouldn’t put any team away in today’s MLB, but Seattle starter Emerson Hancock was able to work his way through six innings of one-score ball.

Solo homers by Josh Rojas and Mitch Garver in the first and second innings, respectively, gave the Seattle Mariners an early lead against the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)

Hancock wasn’t locating his pitches in the best way, as you’ll see in the below screenshots of some key examples, but his pitching strategy to get weak contact aided him greatly as he continues to move away from a poor start on the road in Milwaukee earlier this season. Emerson did get into some trouble, tallying four walks in tonight’s outing, but the emphasis must heavily be put on that ability to pitch to weak contact in addition to how much better the Mariners defense has looked as compared to the early mishaps we saw in the first homestand. Two double plays to get out of potential jams in the first few innings were a big boost and a potential confidence booster, and having Julio Rodríguez in centerfield to track down a few tricky fly balls gave Hancock the belief that he could stick to his tempo on the mound and just pitch: everything afterward would be taken care of by the fielders behind him, if the batter wasn’t striking out that is. It could’ve been much worse considering where some of the heaters were located, but at the end of the night Hancock leaves the game allowing just two hits (including a solo homer) through six innings, which is what a team will almost certainly take most of the time.

Get out the Rye Bread and Mustard for the Grand Salami to put the game away

With their lead at just a singular run and starter Emerson Hancock ending his outing, the Mariners needed to give themselves some sort of insurance against a Diamondbacks lineup that’s still drudging through the first few months of the season but can strike at any moment. Continuing his strong game after that leadoff homer to begin the game, Josh Rojas drew a walk of Zac Gallen, whose day ended after he exited the game during the plate appearance by Julio Rodríguez, before JROD singled and Cal Raleigh drew a walk to load the bases for Arizona reliever Scott McGough. That brought right fielder Mitch Haniger to the plate, one of the Seattle batters that has struggled as of late after a strong start to the season in the batter's box, and the fan favorite made a six-pitch plate appearance worth four-runs. Haniger took a fastball away and at the bottom of the zone to right-center field, using just enough power for it to bounce off the top of the outfield fence and into the Seattle bullpen to blow the figurative roof (it was already open at T-Mobile Park) off the place and give the Mariners some much needed insurance to feel comfortable with. Seattle’s two calls to the bullpen, for Trent Thornton and Cody Bolton, yielded positive results outside of potential danger as Arizona loaded the bases in the top of the ninth.

The grand slam in the sixth inning by Seattle Mariners right fielder Mitch Haniger gave the team a much needed insurance boost and got the T-Mobile Park crowd back into the game. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)

The winning formula: better plate approach, and a great pitching staff

It wasn’t the prettiest on either side of things, but the message remains the same: this is how the Mariners are going to win ballgames this season and it’s what they’ve talked about throughout spring training and to now. Their approach has been much better in the past few weeks, they’ve gotten the timely homer to help add to the leads they get or in some cases bring them back in games, and their pitching (starter or reliever) has been just as rock solid as advertised, even with injuries taking a few notable names out of the picture for them to begin the year. With Bryan Woo, Matt Brash, and Gregory Santos all yet to pitch in a major league game so far this season, the rotation and bullpen have been able to pull this Seattle team along despite a rocky first few turns through in the rotation. The offense has bought into the approach, and it sounds like simplifying a few things in said approach at the plate has brought the better results that we’ve seen throughout the lineup. Take that, and imagine when hitters like Jorge Polanco and Mitch Garver start clicking? The Mariners can very well be a team that wins the AL West this year.

I don’t want to get way too ahead of myself, as Seattle still has 136 games to play in this 2024 campaign, but this is the blueprint that the Mariners can use to at minimum become a playoff team this year and return to the postseason after missing it by a singular game last October. The pitching should only improve with Luis Castillo, Emerson Hancock, and George Kirby returning to form after tough turns through the rotation and it sounds as though Bryan Woo can make a return sometime in the month of May if it all goes right. Take that, look at how strong the bullpen has been to begin the season, and consider that Matt Brash and Gregory Santos still need to make their season debuts at some point. The plate approach has been improving, and that’s without J.P. Crawford the past two games who has been struggling to begin the season. Getting continued strong performance at the plate from guys like Mitch Garver and Jorge Polanco will make it even better. It’s going to be stated time and time again this year if the Mariners are to reach their full potential: they must continue to adapt and learn, whether it’s from their wins or losses, to become a playoff baseball team. You can’t get stuck in your old ways, you must evolve, and we’re seeing the beginning of that for Seattle.

Following the 6-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, Seattle Mariners infielder Josh Rojas was interviewed postgame and was splashed with water by teammate Ty France. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo)

Quick Mariners notes

Attendance at tonight’s Arizona Diamondbacks vs Seattle Mariners game at T-Mobile Park was 33,997
- That’s 70% capacity of T-Mobile Park (47,943)
Tonight’s winner of the “Salmon Run” was Silver the Salmon
- 2024 leaderboard, so far
  - King the Salmon: 6 wins
  - Sockeye the Salmon: 4 wins
  - Silver the Salmon: 4 wins
  - Humpy: 0 wins
Tonight’s winner of the “Hydro Challenge” was the Red Oberto Boat
- 2024 leaderboard, so far
  - Green boat: 5 wins
  - Yellow boat: 5 wins
  - Red boat: 4 wins
The Mariners open their 6-game homestand with a 6-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks to improve to 14-12 on the season and maintain their 0.5 game lead for first place in the AL West.
- The Mariners are 10-4 in their last 14 games, the best record in the American League over that span.
- Seattle improved to 3-0 this season in their Nike City Connect uniforms.
Defensively Seattle turned 3 double plays, the first time doing so since 8/28/23 vs. Oakland (3).
Josh Rojas led off for the Mariners with a home run on a 0-0 count…it was his 5th career leadoff home run and his 2nd leadoff home run to come on a 0-0 count…it was his 3rd straight game with an extra-base hit.
- His last leadoff home run came on 9/6/22 at San Diego with Arizona, it also was on a 0-0 count.
  - The last Mariner to hit a leadoff home run was J.P. Crawford on 9/27/23 vs. Houston.
Mitch Haniger hit his 3rd career grand slam in the 6th inning, his 4th home run of the year…his last grand slam came on 7/9/21 vs. LAA.
- It was the first Seattle grand slam since Crawford on 9/29/23 vs. TEX.
Mitch Garver hit his 2nd home run of the season…he has now homered in back-to-back games at T-Mobile Park (also: 4/15 vs. CIN).
- Mitch Garver & Mitch Haniger: first Mariners with SAME first name to homer in same game since Kyle Seager & Kyle Lewis on May 4, 2021. Last time it happened with a grand slam? Also Seager (GS) & Lewis, on Aug. 10, 2020. Lewis HR came off KYLE Gibson.
Emerson Hancock tossed 6.0 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits (1 home run), 2 walks, 1 hit-by-pitch with 4 strikeouts…has recorded a quality start in each of his last 3 outings (4/13-c)…he faced the minimum through his first 3.0 innings of work
- Hancock is the first Mariners pitcher to induce 3+ double plays since Matt Brash on 4/17/22 vs. Houston.
- Matched his career-high of 6.0 innings pitched (also: 4/13 vs. CHC and 4/21 (2) at COL).
  - Mariners starting pitchers have now gone a franchise-record 14 consecutive starts without allowing 2 or more earned runs…the previous record was 13 starts from 8/7/14 to 8/20/14 per Elias Sports Bureau.
  - It is the 11th time in franchise history that Seattle pitchers have allowed 3 or less hits in back-to-back games at home (last: 9/28-29/23).
The Seattle bullpen (Trent Thornton and Cody Bolton) combined for 3.0 scoreless innings of relief with 1 hit, 2 walks and 3 strikeouts.
- Thornton extended his scoreless streak to 10.0 innings dating back to March 31…during that span, he has allowed just 6 total baserunners (4 H, 1 BB and 1 HB) with 10 strikeouts.

What’s next?

Following tonight’s series opening win for the Seattle Mariners, taking game one over the Arizona Diamondbacks to begin a six-game homestand, the team will look to lock up their fourth series win in a row when these two teams meet again tomorrow. Their next matchup on Saturday, April 26th has a first pitch time of 6:40PM PDT just like tonight’s game, which will be broadcast on Root Sports Northwest within their market (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska) and on the radio at 710 AM. The first 10,000 fans into the ballpark will receive a '90s Night - Mariners Neon blue Hat and will watch as Seattle has George Kirby on the mound to duel against Arizona’s Slade Cecconi. Despite some struggling hitters in the Diamondbacks lineup, Arizona has plenty of talent and getting a series win won’t be an easy task, but the Mariners should feel good about their chances if George Kirby is on his game.

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Photos in this article by Rio Giancarlo.

Mashing their way to victory: Mariners use great starting pitching and the long ball to take series opener against Diamondbacks