By Charles Hamaker

Seattle, WA – It may only temporarily wipe away some concerns about the way that their offense has performed out of the gate, but the Seattle Mariners picking up a series opening victory against the Cleveland Guardians will feel good after a disappointing four-run loss to the Boston Red Sox just a day ago. While the ballclub still has areas to improve upon, with four of their five runs into tonight’s win coming in the second inning, the Mariners got their series started against a Guardians team built similarly to them on the right foot as Emerson Hancock did well considering the circumstances that he was pitching under and Seattle’s bullpen was able to do just enough in order to pick up their third victory on the season and put them back over the .500 mark, just five games into the 2024 campaign. With the rotation as impressive as it currently is for the Mariners and with steadily improving offensive approaches, Seattle can be as good as they’re hoping this year, but adjustments must be made throughout the course of the season.

Now-retired Seattle Times columnist Larry Stone threw out the ceremonial first pitch ahead of this game. (Photos by Chris Lu)

Offensive awakening

With the struggles at the plate over the past few games for the Mariners, there was growing concern outside the clubhouse while those within it held the belief that changes were coming and that overreactions after just four-games of the season were silly. While the latter is true, there can still be some concern from the outside considering just how poorly the offense looked throughout the course of the last year. With Emerson Hancock on the mound, a pitcher that doesn’t particularly thrive in getting hitters to whiff, there was a bit of extra stress on the Seattle bats to get some production in this contest and not just try to win the game by scoring one run and shutting their opponent out. The Mariners were able to get some of that thump from their lineup, as a four-run second inning propelled them forward.

A Mitch Haniger fly out to left field starting things off slowly but walks from Mitch Garver and Cal Raleigh got the ball rolling for Seattle. Mariners first baseman Ty France roped a single into center field to score Garver and keep traffic on the bases in the form of runners on the corners with just the one out. With the pressure on Guardians starting pitcher Tristan McKenzie, left fielder Dominic Canzone made him pay by taking a fastball at the top rail of the strike zone and depositing it into The Pen for a three-run homer, hanging four-runs in the inning on McKenzie and giving Hancock some breathing room on the other side of things.

Seattle Mariners designated hitter rounds third as he was driven in by a Ty France single, then left fielder Dominic Canzone rounds the bases after his three-run homer to complete a four-run second inning. (Photos by Chris Lu)

Hancock solid, bullpen holds on despite scare

With the strong injection of four-runs onto the scoreboard from his offense, Emerson Hancock got some nice insurance behind him early into his outing and that only helped his early momentum considering that the former Georgia Bulldog only needed six pitches to get through the first inning. An efficient second helped move Hancock’s night forward, aided by a leaping catch in centerfield from Julio Rodriguez, but the third inning saw some issues arise for young Emerson. Cleveland outfielder Ramon Laureano swung at a pitch that caught him around the hands, and it made enough of an impact to roll back to Emerson. It was initially not ruled as a hit-by-pitch, but after a challenge from former Mariners coach and now Guardians manager Stephen Vogt, an official review from New York determined that it did in fact hit Laureano. That long review process was enough to somewhat throw Hancock off his game and spur some life from the Cleveland bats. Singles from Bo Naylor and Brayan Rocchio loaded the bases, before a fielder's choice from Steven Kwan and an Andres Gimenez sacrifice fly drove in two runs for the Guardians. The only other trouble that Hancock faced on the night was a deep fly ball that was nearly reeled back in by Julio Rodriguez, just in front of the no Fly Zone, but as JROD came back down from his leap, his arm caught the outfield wall and the ball squirted out of his glove and over the wall to result in a solo homer for Tyler Freeman.

Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Emerson Hancock was solid in his 2024 debut, only facing issues after a delayed review process. (Photos by Chris Lu)

Tayler Saucedo took the mound in immediate relief of Hancock, getting David Fry and Ramon Laureano to line out to end the inning. Later in the eighth inning, Andres Munoz pitched well outside of a slider he left on the top rail of the strike zone for Josh Naylor to hammer into right-center field, and Ryne Stanek was able to shut things down in the top of the ninth inning to preserve that close one-run lead that the Mariners had. Stanek’s fifth career save resulted in Emerson Hancock’s first career win at the MLB level, and Seattle had taken an early series lead against Cleveland to get back into the win column after Sunday’s frustrating result.

***Seattle Mariners centerfielder Julio Rodriguez has a catch pop back out of his glove that would result in a solo home run by Cleveland Guardians outfielder Tyler Freeman. (**Photos by Chris Lu***)

Improvements made, even if it’s a small sample size

This is a nice win, yet another one that the Mariners will need to be able to learn from going forward throughout the long and winding journey that is the 162-game MLB season. It’s great to see Seattle figure things out enough to get that four-run inning that ended up being so big for them in this win, but you’ve got to be able to add runs on in the innings after just the second so that you have that breathing room, especially with a pitcher like Hancock on the mound that generally can’t generate the whiffs that can be so vital to avoiding trouble on the bases. It’s nice to see guys like Ty France and Cal Raleigh contributing to the offense in games such as these, while noting that the Guardians do have a strong pitching staff, but you will need more from guys like Urias and J.P. Crawford, if we’re singling guys out from this game. When you look at the bullpen, it’s hard to complain much at all about the relievers in this game and even when looking at the lone run for Cleveland that came against the Mariners bullpen, it’s just the third homer that Andres Munoz has allowed over the past two seasons.

Seattle Mariners infielder/outfielder Dylan Moore was ejected in the second inning following the review on the hit-by-pitch call. (Photos by Chris Lu)

Quick Mariners notes

Attendance at T-Mobile Park for this game between the Guardians and Mariners was 21,322
- That’s 44% capacity of T-Mobile Park (47,943)
The Mariners won 5-4 in the series opener against Cleveland to improve to 3-2 on the season.
Dominic Canzone clubbed his first home run this season in the 2nd inning…the 3-run homer traveled 411 feet to center field with an exit velocity of 107.8 MPH.
Julio Rodríguez’s running catch into the center field wall on a line drive by Will Brennan in the 2nd inning had a 25% catch probability, per Statcast.
- Rodríguez followed up with a diving catch on a fly ball that had a 15% catch probability in Brennan’s next at-bat in the 4th inning.
  - Brennan’s line drive in the 5th was the second hardest hit ball of the game at 104.4 MPH.
- Rodríguez stole his second base of the season in the 5th and also had a single in 7th.
Ty France extended his hitting streak to 4 games with an RBI-single in the 2nd inning…he went 2-for-3 with a walk, making it back-to-back games with multiple hits.
- France is 6-for-14 in his last 4 games with a walk.
  - France has reached base 3+ times in a game 78 times since the start of 2021, the most among Mariners hitters during that span.
Mitch Haniger has now reached base safely in 3-consecutive games and 4 of the first 5 with his single in the 7th inning.
Cal Raleigh went 1-for-4 at the plate with a single in the 4th inning.
- His single was the hardest hit ball of the game with an exit velocity of 108.6 MPH.
Emerson Hancock pitched 5.1 innings in his season debut…he allowed 3 runs (all earned) on 4 hits, 1 walk, 1 strikeout and 1 home run against 23 batters…he landed 55 strikes among his 81 pitches thrown…he also hit a batter twice.
- The win marks Hancock’s first career win in his 4th career start…he debuted on 8/9/23 against San Diego.
  - He is the 345th different pitcher in franchise history to earn a win.
The Seattle bullpen (Tayler Saucedo, Gabe Speier, Andrés Muñoz, Ryne Stanek) accounted for 3.2 relief innings…they combined for 2 hits, 1 run (earned), 0 walks and 4 strikeouts.
Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt challenged the call on the field of Ramón Laureano grounding out…the call was overturned and Laureno was awarded first base with a hit by the pitch.
The Red Oberto boat won tonight’s Mariners Hydro Challenge!
- 2024 Hydro Challenge leaderboard through 5 games
  - Green boat: 2 wins
  - Yellow boat: 2 wins
  - Red boat: 1 win
Sockeye the Grunge Salmon won tonight’s Salmon run
- 2024 Salmon Run leaderboard through 5 games
  - Sockeye: 4 wins
  - King: 1 win
  - Techy: 0 wins
  - Humpy: 0 wins

What’s next?

Following tonight’s Seattle Mariners series opening win over the Cleveland Guardians, the series will continue, and the M’s have a chance to get the series win tomorrow in the second to last game of this current seven-game homestand. The Tuesday, April 2nd contest against this Cleveland Guardians team has a first pitch time of 6:40PM PDT at T-Mobile Park, while being broadcast on Root Sports Northwest within their market (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska) and on ESPN+/NHLPP nationwide. That matchup between the Guardians and Mariners will be a fun one, pitching wise, as Cleveland starter Shane Bieber looks to build off his win that has him sitting at a 0.00 ERA while Seattle starter Luis Castillo looks to bounce back from a tough first outing of the season that came back on Opening Day. This game is the second of three consecutive contests at T-Mobile Park where the first 10,000 fans through the gates can walk away with a Julio Rodriguez “No Fly Zone” bobblehead.

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Cover photo and photos in this article by Chris Lu.

Guarding homefield: Mariners take series opener over Cleveland behind strong start from Emerson Hancock and early offense