Mariners suffer brutal ninth-inning meltdown in loss to Padres

SAN DIEGO – Just three weeks into a 2026 season filled with serious expectations, the Mariners’ inconsistent performances have been frustrating at times, maddening at others and completely perplexing.

But in their 19th game of this young season, the Mariners suffered a stunning 7-6 loss in what is and likely will be their worst loss in the 162-game schedule.

Going into the bottom of the ninth, they held a four-run lead over the Padres with their closer Andrés Muñoz on the mound.

Yes, it wasn’t a save situation, but Muñoz needed some time on the mound. He has been a little shaky in his last few outings.

The struggles continued.

Muñoz could not get three outs and Jose A. Ferrer gave up a walkoff double to Jackson Merrill that scored the tying and go-ahead run.

Seattle wasted a solid start from Emerson Hancock and eight innings of quality baseball with the failures in the ninth.

Hancock pitched six innings, allowing two runs on four hits with a walk and six strikeouts but didn’t get a decision. He worked the first five innings scoreless and didn’t allow a runner to reach base until two outs in the fourth inning, retiring the first 11 hitters in a row. Xander Bogaerts singled to left to break up the potential perfect game.

Meanwhile, his teammates provided requisite run support against Padres starter Randy Vazquez, who came into the game with a 1-0 record and 1.02 ERA in three starts this season. In 172/3 innings pitched, Vazquez had struck out 19 batters and walked just four.

The Mariners scored four runs off Vazquez in his four innings of work, grinding out at-bats, working four walks and coming up with key hits.

In the second, Randy Arozarena worked a one-out walk and Luke Raley followed with a single to center. They both would score moments later when Dom Canzone laced a 114.1 mph line drive off the wall in right field.

Seattle made it 4-0 in the fourth inning. Arozarena led off with a double, but appeared he might be stranded there when Vazquez struck out Raley and got Canzone to fly out to center. But Cole Young worked a walk and Leo Rivas loaded the bases with a walk that included challenging a called third strike on a 3-2 count. The review showed that home plate umpire Bill Miller’s call was incorrect. Rivas jogged to first to load the bases.

Brendan Donovan made the extra out beneficial, bouncing a single through the right side to score two more runs for a 4-0 lead.

When Julio Rodriguez couldn’t make a difficult catch on a deep drive to right-center off the bat of Gavin Sheets to start the fifth inning, it looked like Hancock might yield a run. But he came back to retire Nic Castellanos and Ty France quickly. He walked Jake Cronenworth with first base open and got Luis Campusano to fly out to short left to end the inning.

The Mariners continued to add to their lead, scoring two runs against Vazquez’s replacement – right-hander Ron Marinaccio – in the fifth inning. Arozarena bounced a one-out single through the right side and got to jog home when Raley crushed a 3-2 fastball over the wall in deep right-center for his fourth homer of the year. Raley would finish with his first four-hit game of his career, adding another single and a double.

The Padres finally got to Hancock with one out in the sixth. Jackson Merrill singled and Bogaerts followed with a two-run homer to left. Hancock shook off the initial irritation of allowing the homer and finished off the inning, getting Machado to ground out to shortstop and Sheets to pop out to third.

Hancock threw 98 pitches with 68 strikes. He threw first-pitch strikes to 20 of the 23 batters he faced, including 11 in a row at one point. He had just one three-ball count in the outing and had 10 whiffs.

Naylor’s connection with fans grows

Josh Naylor started the season with more than 80 pairs of custom cleats. He has one less pair following Monday’s game vs. the Astros.

Prior to the game, Naylor gave a fan a pair of his custom cleats that were made out of the Air Jordan I High OG Top 3” sneakers as a wedding present.

“I think I wore those in the first series,” Naylor said.

A Mariners fan reached out to Naylor’s wife that one of his friends from Canada, who is also a big Naylor fan, was getting married and having a bachelor party in Toronto this summer and hoped to meet Naylor.

Since the fan was at Monday’s game, Naylor decided to autograph the shoes and wish the fan good luck on his wedding.

“I signed a pair of cleats for him and wished him good luck in his marriage, and congratulations and all that,” Naylor said. “It’s just a little gesture. I think I’ve talked about this before, like those little acts of kindness, like you kind of change the world with it. You can make someone’s day, which, if you make their day, they can make someone else’s day. It’s a trickle-down effect, like a pay-it-forward type of thing.”