Bryan Woo shines again as Mariners open road trip with sweep of Padres

SAN DIEGO – It’s a long, long season, this marathon of 162 games. That’s been a consistent message from these Seattle Mariners through the first quarter of the year, whether their results have been good or bad, whether they’re trending up or down.

A week ago, the Mariners were at a low point, swept at home by a middling Toronto Blue Jays team.

Seven days later, the Mariners have hit a high after wrapping up their most impressive series of the season with a 6-1 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday, completing a convincing sweep in front of three straight sellout crowds at Petco Park.

Bryan Woo threw seven dominant innings to put the finishing touches on the best weekend of the year for the Mariners, who outscored the Padres 15-3 in the first formal edition of the Vedder Cup series.

“They’re happy,” manager Dan Wilson said. “And they should be.”

A lot can and will change through the season. The persistent theme from Wilson to his players: Don’t let any of that change you or what you’re trying to do.

“These guys know who they are,” he said. “There wasn’t any panic (last week). They knew they were just going to go out execute.”

He makes it sound so easy, doesn’t he?

The Mariners (26-19) did make it easy at times in San Diego. Absent of three blowouts, they played about as crisp and clean a brand of baseball as a manager could ask for. The starting pitching was elite. The bullpen was effective. The hitting was solid (and timely), and the defense was spectacular at times.

Of course, it is easier when you can run out a starter as good as Woo has been early on this season.

Woo allowed only a leadoff homer to Fernando Tatis Jr., a hanging slider on an 0-2 pitch. From there, Woo needed just 87 pitches to match his career high with seven innings pitched.

“You’ve got to create, like, storylines in your head, finding new motivation and reasons to create an edge when you’re going out there,” Woo said. “Before the game, obviously we won the first two, and you can choose to be like, ‘All right, we won two,’ and you’re happy with that. Or you can create something in your head where it’s like, ‘Oh, screw it. We’re gonna go take the third game.’”

The 25-year-old Woo scattered five hits with no walks and five strikeouts. He’s the only pitcher in MLB to throw at least six innings in every start this season.

Woo retired the final 11 batters he faced, lowering his ERA to 2.65 and strengthening his case to be a first-time All-Star this summer.

The M’s starting pitchers – Logan Evans, Emerson Hancock and Woo – combined to allow just two runs over 17.2 innings against the Padres, with an 11 strikeouts and two walks.

With Logan Gilbert, George Kirby and Bryce Miller on the injured list, Woo said it’s been a collective effort from the staff to press forward.

“Emerson and Logan going out and doing what they did and the bullpen being unbelievable these last couple of games, yeah, I just wanted to piggyback off what they’ve been doing,” Woo said. “I think everyone’s taking pride and showing like, hey, no matter who’s going out there, it’s next guy up and go do your job. I’m really proud of the staff and the bullpen.”

Randy Arozarena ripped a line-drive home run to spark a three-run fourth inning off Michael King, and the Mariners improved to 12-3 in their last 15 games vs. the Padres.

Arozarena’s 107.1 mph blast was his sixth homer of the season, and it was the first of five consecutive two-out hits for the Mariners against King.

Rowdy Tellez followed Arozarena with an opposite-field double off the top of the wall in left field. Mitch Garver reached on an infield single, and Leody Taveras doubled to right field to drive in Tellez for the go-ahead run.

Miles Mastrobuoni then singled on a line drive that deflected off King’s glove to score Garver from third base, pushing the Mariners’ lead to 3-1.

Garver, after falling behind 0-2, worked a 3-2 count against King in the sixth inning and then singled just fair inside the third-base bag, scoring Arozarena from third to make it 4-1.

That ended the day for King, one of the NL’s best starting pitchers. He allowed a season-high four runs.

The Padres finished 0 for 18 in the series with runners in scoring position.

The Mariners added two insurance runs in the ninth inning on a Cal Raleigh sac fly and a Julio Rodriguez bloop single.

The Mariners are 17-4 when they score at least five runs.

They continue a 10-game road trip against the White Sox in Chicago starting Monday.