Bryan Woo injury update: The latest on Mariners pitcher’s status

HOUSTON – At the very least, the Mariners appear to have avoided the worst-case scenario with Bryan Woo.

Medical images taken Saturday revealed “minor inflammation” in Woo’s pectoral muscle, manager Dan Wilson said Saturday afternoon, a day after the Mariners ace exited his outing early against the rival Astros.

Wilson said the team’s training staff was still formulating next-step plans, but Woo is not expected to need a stint on the injured list.

“We’ll let the trainers figure out the best course of action at this point,” Wilson said. “But I think today was, in a lot of ways, good news, and we’ll just continue to assess it.”

Woo’s availability for his next turn in the rotation – against the Colorado Rockies back at T-Mobile Park – will depend on how he responds to treatment in the next couple days.

“It’s fluid,” Wilson said. “… We’ll know a little bit more in the next 24 to 48 hours, depending on how he responds. He’ll obviously want to get out as soon as possible, but that’s what we know at this point, and we’ll just continue to assess it as we go.”

Woo, 25, spent part of the afternoon in the training room with an ice wrap around his right side and arm. He threw five dominant innings in the Mariners’ 4-0 victory Friday, allowing only one hit to improve to 15-7 on the season and lower his ERA to 2.94.

“I felt great all game until the end,” Woo said late Friday. “I just felt it at the end and I felt it was smart to not try to push it.”

The Mariners, again, are optimistic Woo won’t need an IL stint. It’s worth noting that, per MLB rules, any player who lands on the IL must serve the full stint (15 days for pitchers; 10 days for position players), even if the team’s season extends into the postseason.

Woo has been the most dominant and most durable pitcher the Mariners have had this season, and in an ideal scenario, he’d be the guy they would turn to to open a playoff series.

The Mariners are idle on Monday, then begin their final regular-season push with a six-game homestand starting Tuesday against the Rockies.

The club could potentially use the off day to re-slot the rotation, if Woo is either unable to make his next scheduled start or needs to be pushed back a day or two. Those decisions will be based, at least in part, on where the Mariners stand in the American League playoff picture.

M’s take over No. 2 seed

A dozen or so Mariners players were lounging in the Daikin Park visitors’ clubhouse Saturday afternoon watching the end of the Tigers-Braves game being shown on a TV in one corner of the room.

When Atlanta closed out its 6-5 victory, Julio Rodríguez popped up from a couch and snapped his fingers together, a subtle acknowledgment of the Mariners’ takeover of the No. 2 seed in the AL.

Detroit has lost five games in a row to fall to 85-70, dropping a half-game back of the Mariners for the No. 2 seed entering the second game of the M’s-Astros series Saturday night. The Mariners also own the tiebreaker over the Tigers.

Under the MLB playoff format that began in 2022, the two division winners with the best records in each league are awarded byes (and home-field advantage) into the Division Series. That could be especially meaningful for the Mariners, who are 20-3 at home since July 31, the best 23-game home stretch in franchise history.

Chance to clinch at home

While the Mariners can’t clinch a postseason spot this weekend in Houston, there is a chance that they can secure a spot during the opening series of the upcoming homestand.

Seattle will host the lowly Rockies in a three-game series starting on Tuesday before wrapping up the regular season with a three-game series vs. the Dodgers.

In an effort to get more fans to come out to T-Mobile Park to see the Mariners take on the worst team in MLB, all three of the games against Colorado have been made “value games.”

It means that tickets start as low as $11 for general admission and there will be value prices on certain concession items, including some brands of beer.

There are still tickets remaining for the weekend series vs. the Dodgers, though they are growing more limited with each passing day.