Mariners thump Rangers behind Bryan Woo's brilliant outing

Tim Booth, The Seattle Times on Apr 13, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE — It took 15 games, but the Seattle Mariners finally enjoyed a comfortable night at the ballpark.

No nervy high-leverage moments late in the game or extra innings. No walk-offs either for or against.

This win was almost relaxing.

The M’s picked up a second straight series win after a 9-2 thumping of the Texas Rangers on Saturday night thanks to a brilliant pitching performance from Bryan Woo and an offensive outburst at the plate.

Consider that before Saturday, five of the first six wins this season for the M’s ended up being saved by Andrés Muñoz and the other was last Wednesday’s walk-off victory over Houston.

Every win to date was close and tense, as were several of the losses. And while that will likely be the case most of the season a one-sided victory should be enjoyed.

The key offensively was a four-run third inning where the M’s knocked around Texas starter Kumar Rocker with a series of 100 mph-plus hits, three of them going for extra bases.

J.P. Crawford’s single started the big inning and was only 100.5 mph exit velocity. The hits only increased from there. Julio Rodríguez found grass in deep left-center for a triple that left the bat at 100.7 mph and scored Crawford. Jorge Polanco’s sacrifice fly (101.2) was followed by Cal Raleigh’s double (104.7).

Raleigh later scored from second base when Rocker and catcher Jonah Heim were crossed up with Rocker’s pitch hitting the bricks behind home plate and bouncing far enough away for Raleigh to make a 180-foot scamper home with ease.

And the inning was capped when Luke Raley rang the left-field wall with a 108.1 mph double that scored Randy Arozarena.

It was an inning of manufactured run scoring that the M’s replicated again in the seventh inning with another four-run frenzy thanks to a two-run single from Raley and a two-run double from Rowdy Tellez, who unsuccessfully tried stretching it into a triple with an equally unsuccessful slide.

This being the Mariners, though, there still needed to be a home run. And for the second straight night, it came off the torpedo bat of Raleigh with a towering 420-foot shot to center field in the fifth inning on a chilly night.

Ultimately, the M’s only needed a couple of runs on this night because Woo was outstanding.

Woo seemed destined for a similar path that fellow starter Bryce Miller experienced on Friday night when Miller needed 30 pitches to get through the Rangers in the first inning.

Woo faced a troublesome first inning with three singles and a walk before he ever recorded an out. Woo needed 27 pitches to get through the inning and only the strikeouts of Josh Jung and Jake Burger limited the damage to just one run on Josh Smith’s RBI single.

From there on, Woo cruised. He scattered three hits and walked none over the next six innings. Woo was able to get his fastball away from the middle of the plate and the Rangers were unable to make the adjustment.

Woo induced a double play off the bat of Joc Pederson to get out of a jam in the third inning and from there the only base runner to run was Jung leading off the fourth with a single. Woo retired the final 12 batters he faced and 13 of the final 14. He finished with seven strikeouts and needed a mere 64 pitches for the final six innings.

Woo became the third pitcher in the rotation to finish seven innings in a game this season joining Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo and kept manager Dan Wilson from needed to use any of his top bullpen arms.