Seattle Mariners Edge Out Oakland Athletics in Packed T-Mobile Park
SEATTLE — There's not a whole lot that can make up for the disappointment of missing the playoffs.
But winning Game 1 of the final series of the season is as good as it's going to get.
The Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 2-0 on Friday at T-Mobile Park. The Mariners got a five-inning, eight-strikeout night from Bryan Woo to improve to 83-77 on the season. It was Seattle's 15th shutout of the year — the most in the American League.
Both of the Mariners' runs came off solo home runs from its catchers Mitch Garver and Cal Raleigh. The latter was batting second in the order at designated hitter on Friday.
"Really great ball game tonight," Seattle manager Dan Wilson said in a postgame interview Friday. "I thought Bryan Woo pitched five really strong innings today. Looked very, very strong. What a really incredible season for another one of our young starters. ... And then the solo homers. (Garver) really crushed it. Cal crushed it. Those were big knocks and gave us what we really needed a night our pitching was really, really strong."
Garver, who was batting clean-up, hit his home run first. It was solo shot to left-center field in the bottom of the second that put the Mariners up 1-0.
Garv goes yard 👊 pic.twitter.com/lIpNVVVsan
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) September 28, 2024
Raleigh hoisted the trident next with a solo home run of his own, also to left-center field. That hit came in the bottom of the third and gave Seattle the eventual final of 2-0.
Cal dumps it into The 'Pen 💣 pic.twitter.com/ColJBn6B0e
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) September 28, 2024
Before, between and after Raleigh and Garver's yard-clearing knocks, Woo put up a masterclass in front of a packed house of 41,429 fans.
Woo's five innings of work totaled 76 pitches. He probably could have gone another inning to guarantee a quality start. But there was no need to risk it considering his injury history and the Mariners being eliminated from playoff contention.
In his last start of the season, Woo allowed just three hits and walked one batter to go with his eight strikeouts in five innings of work. He finished out the season with a 2.89 ERA in 22 starts.
Woo, a native of Oakland, Calif., pitched the last game Seattle will ever play against the Athletics at Oakland Coliseum on Sept. 5 and earned the win in that one, as well.
"(It's been) kind of a weird 24 hours of knowing you're out of (the playoffs)," Woo said in a postgame interview Friday. "But you still want to finish strong. For yourself, for your team, for the fans, for everybody. Everybody else deserves that out of you. So you got to find it within yourself to give it everything you got."
Bryan Woo's 3Ks in the 2nd. pic.twitter.com/GH0sn5pRLa
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 5, 2024
It was unlikely Seattle would use relievers Andres Munoz or Collin Snider despite the game being close. The task of preserving the win fell on relievers Gabe Speier, Gregory Santos, Tayler Saucedo and Troy Taylor (in that order).
Speier, Santos and Saucedo preserved the shutout and Taylor came in the ninth. It was Santos' first appearance since he was placed on the injured list on Aug. 1 with right biceps inflammation. He was activated on Monday.
Taylor gave up a lead-off double but retired the side after that, including two strikeouts. The rookie earned the first save of his career in the process.
The Mariners rested many of their usual starters on Friday. But even without key contributors like Victor Robles, Luke Raley and Justin Turner, the team competed and won. Much to the delight of the devoted Seattle fans.
It's just unfortunate that the game didn't have playoff implications.
Emerson Hancock will start for Seattle in Game 2 against the Athletics at 6:40 p.m. PT on Saturday.
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MARINERS ELIMINATED FROM PLAYOFF CONTENTION: The Seattle Mariners saw their postseason dreams came to an end with come-from-behind wins by the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers on Thursday. CLICK HERE
MARINERS MANAGER COMMENTS ON MISSING THE PLAYOFFS: Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson took some time before a game against the Oakland Athletics on Friday to talk about the team being eliminated from postseason contention. CLICK HERE
MARINERS MANAGER PRAISES TEAM'S BBWAA AWARD WINNERS: Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson offered some compliments for the team's Baseball Writers' Association of America award winners. CLICK HERE
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