It was Bryan Woo’s world and we were all living in it Thursday afternoon. He spun an absolute gem as the M’s take both the rubber game and the season series from the Orioles, 3-0.
Woo faltered against the same team in Baltimore last Thursday, allowing seven runs over five innings. This time, though, he frustrated Orioles hitters all afternoon — he went seven-plus innings, striking out nine and allowing only three hits and a walk.
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“Conditions were different, didn’t have a great feel for the ball in Baltimore, just fell into a lot of hitters counts,” Woo said when asked about adjustments between last week and now. “So I wanted to make sure that I came out and got ahead, was in the spots that I wanted to be in, and do what I wanted to do from there.”
Woo got ahead in the count early and often Thursday. He threw first pitch strikes to 16 of the 25 hitters he faced. He was also incredibly efficient despite nearly touching double digits in strikeouts — through seven innings, he was at only 80 pitches.
Though some other factors were likely at play, the last week further encapsulates a Tale of Two Seasons for Woo that has shown a major divergence between his home and road splits. Entering today, Woo was posting a 2.07 FIP at home, a much more productive figure than his 4.28 on the road. That discrepancy only figures to get larger after you factor in today’s outing.
The Mariners mounted a two-out rally to take the lead in the bottom of the first. Josh Naylor drove a single into right-center and was able to advance to second on an ill-fated decision by Leody Taveras to field the ball with his bare hand. After Dominic Canzone drew a walk, Cole Young scored Naylor with an opposite-field double down the left field line.
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That wasn’t all for the M’s in the first. With both Canzone and Young in scoring position, Colt Emerson snuck a base hit through the right side to score two more runs and give Woo a comfortable lead in the early going.
Woo said he’s been impressed by both Emerson and Young’s consistency. “But they’re still kids. They’re still goofballs, they’re still idiots in the clubhouse.”
In the bottom of the second, the Mariners got the first two runners aboard, but couldn’t push across any runs. After getting tagged a bit in the early going, Orioles righty Shane Baz settled in. Neither team got much of anything going after the Mariners jumped out in front. Over the course of the afternoon, Baz also racked up nine strikeouts of his own over seven innings.
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It wasn’t until the top of the eighth that a true threat materialized for the Orioles. Woo allowed a Taveras single to center field, then walked Colton Cowser to put two runners on with nobody out. With Woo at 89 pitches, manager Dan Wilson didn’t take any chances and brought in Eduard Bazardo to put out the fire.
Bazardo got the job done. After inducing a ground-ball fielder’s choice and a flyout that nearly gave me a heart attack, he froze Taylor Ward with a 97-mph sinker on the corner to end the threat.
The Mariners weren’t able to add any insurance in the bottom of the eighth, so Andrés Muñoz was called upon for a save opportunity in the ninth. Though he’d allow a couple of baserunners, including a walk to Gunnar Henderson to lead off the inning, Muñoz was able to shut the door. Taveras, representing the tying run with two outs, struck out on a quality slider to end it.
The win marks the Mariners’ first series win over the Orioles since 2022, and today was also Baltimore’s first time being shut out all season — the final team in the majors to be shut out for the first time.
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At the end of the day, much like their climb through the farm system, it was Colt following in Cole’s footsteps in the first inning that’d ultimately be the difference in the game. Their combined three RBI were the only runs on the afternoon for either team.
“He’s another guy I look up to,” Emerson said on Young, his middle-infield counterpart. “He’s been here a year before me. He was my comp out of high school. He’s always been somebody that’s been ahead of me, that I look up to, and as even-keeled as he is, I know that he’s had a lot of success. So I know to have success, you gotta do the same thing.”
The Mariners will begin a three-game set against the Red Sox tomorrow at T-Mobile Park.
