SEATTLE \u2013 The Mariners play host to their longtime nemesis, the Houston Astros, for a four-game series this weekend, an early-season showdown between two teams expecting to again contend for the American League West title.<\/p>\n
They haven\u2019t looked the part so far.<\/p>\n
Both teams are reeling, and for exact opposite reasons.<\/p>\n
The Astros (6-7), swept by the Rockies in Colorado this week, have lost four games in a row.<\/p>\n
They have lost their staff ace, Hunter Brown, to a shoulder strain, and another starter, Cristian Javier, left Wednesday\u2019s game with shoulder tightness. The Astros\u2019 pitching is depleted enough that they had to turn to Cody Bolton, the former M\u2019s reliever, for a spot start earlier this week.<\/p>\n
The Mariners, meanwhile, have flat-out lost their ability to hit a baseball.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Mariners (4-9) managed just two hits in a 3-0 loss in Texas. It was their fifth straight loss to complete a dreadful 1-5 road trip. They have been shut out three times in their last eight games.<\/p>\n
Among the 30 MLB clubs, the Mariners rank dead last in the three main surface-level statistical categories: batting average (.184), on-base percentage (.280) and slugging percentage (.301). They are averaging a league-worst 3.1 runs per game.<\/p>\n
To perform that poorly, a lot of things have to go wrong. And just about everything is for the Mariners\u2019 offense, save for early-season surges from Cole Young and Brendan Donovan.<\/p>\n
Notably, the Mariners\u2019 2-3-4 hitters \u2013 Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodr\u00edguez and Josh Naylor \u2013 have combined for 19 hits in 146 at-bats, a .130 batting average, with one home run, 45 strikeouts and 16 walks.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, offensively, we\u2019re all looking for different things and trying to find the right approach,\u201d M\u2019s manager Dan Wilson said. \u201c\u2026 We can all look in the mirror and say that we could be doing things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several under-the-hood metrics help to illuminate the offensive issues:<\/p>\n
1. They aren\u2019t hitting the fastball: It\u2019s Hitting 101: Be on time for the fastball. Mariners hitters, simply, are not. And, yes, they are struggling against most types of pitches through 13 games. Sliders, by and large, have proved especially difficult for them. But for a lineup that hit as many home runs as they did last season \u2013 238 in all, third-most in MLB \u2013 it is surprising to see the persistent failings against fastballs. Collectively, the M\u2019s have a minus-5.8 runs above average value against fastballs, per MLB\u2019s Statcast metrics. That ranks 25th in MLB.<\/p>\n
2. The K rate is a concern: The Mariners have a 27.6% strikeout rate, fourth-worst in MLB. After setting the franchise record for strikeouts in 2024, at 26.8%, the M\u2019s made an important improvement in that regard last season, dropping the strikeout rate to 23.3%. Elements of the 2023 and 2024 Mariners offenses have resurfaced \u2013 just too much whiff \u2013 and that\u2019s hardly an encouraging sign early on for a team that talked so loudly about its World Series dreams this year. (Given all that swing and miss, it\u2019s no surprise that Mariners rank 30th out of 30 teams with a 68.9% contact rate so far. Over a full season in 2025, the M\u2019s ranked 28th out of 30 with a 74.6% contact rate.)<\/p>\n
3. A lot of weak contact: The Mariners have an average exit velocity of 87.4 mph that ranks 29th out of 30 clubs (only the White Sox, at 87.2, are lower). In 2025, the M\u2019s exit velocity averaged 89.7 mph over the full season. The obvious conclusion is the Mariners aren\u2019t putting the ball in play enough, and that\u2019s true, And when they do, it\u2019s usually weak contact, which is hardly a winning formula for a team built to hit the ball out of the yard.<\/p>\n
There are glass-half-full figures to lean into, if you\u2019re so inclined.<\/p>\n
1. When they do put the ball in play, they are getting unlucky: The Mariners\u2019 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is .238, which ranks last in MLB by a wide margin. (The Angels are 29th at .261). The Mariners had a .287 BABIP in 2025 and the league average BABIP so far this season is .288. There are always outliers, but over the next 149 games that\u2019s a figure that is bound to right itself for the Mariners. (And their \u201cexpected\u201d batting average of .216 \u2013 while still unseemly \u2013 also suggests they have been a little unlucky.)<\/p>\n
2. The competition matters: The M\u2019s have faced top-of-the-rotation arms in three of the four series. The Guardians and Yankees were playoff teams in 2025; the Rangers\u2019 starting rotation led the majors in ERA. And against the Angels, Jo Adell turned into the greatest right fielder of all time for one day.<\/p>\n
3. Ballparks do matter: It is notable that 10 of the Mariners\u2019 first 13 games were played in MLB\u2019s two most pitcher-friendly ballparks, T-Mobile Park and Texas\u2019 Globe Life Field. The cold weather in Seattle during the opening week was a factor, too. Perhaps the expected warmer weather at home this weekend will help heat up the Mariners\u2019 bats. They can\u2019t get any colder than they\u2019ve been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2013 The Mariners play host to their longtime nemesis, the Houston Astros, for a four-game series this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-574822","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}