Mariners homestand highs and lows - Opening homestand
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The Seattle Mariners began their 2023 campaign with a seven game homestand, hosting the Cleveland Guardians and Los Angeles Angels respectively. Following the teams 2022 season that saw some add big names and bust their 21-year postseason drought, there are high expectations for this Seattle ballclub while many feel that the team still hasn’t done enough offensively to be considered as true contenders. Through the first seven games, two things are obvious: it really is the early part of the season for almost everyone, and the Mariners still likely need another established bat to be considered ready to go head-to-head with divisional rival Houston.
Pre-game festivities on Opening Day included player introductions, Shaina Shepherd singing the National Anthem, ceremonial first pitches by Seattle Sports legends, and more (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Mariners can’t guard Seattle, Cleveland takes three of four games on Opening Weekend
Opening Day is always a spectacle in Seattle, regularly selling out the ballpark and seemingly reinvigorating the city's love for the game of baseball. Those things were no different this year, a full T-Mobile Park cheered on as Luis Castillo dominated on the mound and Ty France hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Mariners struggled to find consistent offense in the three games that followed and could not keep up with the Guardians. Pitchers Robbie Ray and Marco Gonzales failed to give their teams the best chance to win when it was their turn in the rotation, and Ray ended up on the injured list with a left flexor strain. Seattle displayed flashes of the team that won 90 games the last two seasons, but they continued develop into more than just that shortened flash, and they dropped three in a row after winning on Opening Day.
The Mariners drop game three of the series in tough fashion, as Josh Naylor’s solo homer was the only stain on Logan Gilbert’s outing (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Angels don’t bring any blessings, Seattle can’t win first divisional series of season
Following the series loss to Cleveland on Opening weekend, the Mariners shifted their attention over to their first division opponent of the season in the Angels. It was the first test against their rivals from Anaheim, in what could be a hotly competitive division this year, and Seattle wasn’t up to the task when they came to town. Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout did their damage, which every team around MLB has become accustomed too, but Seattle failed to handle the rest of the Angels lineup in addition to the two megastars. The Mariners were able to thump Los Angeles in game two, as Teoscar Hernandez and AJ Pollock both hammered two homers each, but couldn’t take the series in a tight game three loss. Again, Seattle’s issue of failing to fully get their offense going appeared as they plucked a run off of Ohtani in the first inning but couldn’t get anything else across until the seventh when it was already too late. The Mariners homestand ended with a 2-7 record.
Pictures from games one and two of the Angels at Mariners series, captured by Bryan Saldana
Final report before they set sail
It’s a tough homestand to begin the season with considering what we saw, but taking too much stock into the first seven games of the year is just silly. This team has played in some close games, including the Wednesday matinee loss to the Angels, and have made some uncharacteristic mistakes that should be fine-tuned within a week or two. Granted that usually Spring Training solves that sort of thing, real games that matter are a different beast. The general overreaction about every little decision, whether it be pitching to Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, putting certain players into the game at certain times etc. Everything hyper analyzed and criticized to the point of blasphemy. Sure, you can get upset at the team for only winning two of seven. Yes, they need to improve in some areas. The bullpen may be seeing some regression, as is normal. I’d try to not freak out too much, a lot of folks did when the team was ten games under .500 in June of last season and were calling for Scott Servais’ head. I’d say that the season ended up being alright.
The Mariners game three loss to the Angels, captured by photographer Liz Wolter
On to the next
Following the Opening homestand, and those two series losses to the Guardians and Angels, Seattle heads out on their first road trip of the 2023 campaign. The Mariners begin that trip out to the mid-West with a rematch against the Guardians from April 7th-9th, with all those games getting started during the day. Following their rematch with Cleveland, Seattle heads to a little Northwest to take on the Chicago Cubs at historic Wrigley field.
What is “Mariners homestand highs and lows”
We wanted to create a way to get the general idea of what had taken place in the past homestand or road trip (those will be titled “Road trip recap”) for our Mariners, considering how many games are in the MLB regular season and how some may not want to read the whole game recap for each contest. There will be additions to it going forward, but the goal is to give a quick recap of what took place over the course of a homestand or road trip for our Mariners so that fans can get the general gist of what just took place while not getting into the deeper storylines.