Big-Time Bryan Woo Bounce-Back Outing Gives Mariners Series Win vs. Atlanta
It might have seemed that the Atlanta Braves were the worst possible team for a struggling Bryan Woo to face. Woo, whose arsenal depends almost entirely on two zippy fastballs thrown over the plate, was set to face an aggressive squad that feasted on fastballs. That ability to jump on the heater has been the lynchpin of Atlanta’s stellar opening salvo of the 2026 campaign, and Woo had to stare them down as the M’s tried to be the very first team to hand the Braves a series defeat.
On the other side of the ball, the Mariners needed to produce more with the stick, having logged quite a few uncompetitive innings on offense in both previous games in the series, with a pair of well-timed homers providing just enough runs on Monday but not on Tuesday. The hitting took a bit of an improvement overall on Wednesday, and though the sequencing didn’t do them many favors, the runs they scraped across were enough for a 3-1 victory.
There were banner days for several involved. For Julio Rodríguez, who came about 20 feet from denting the newly-unveiled Randy Johnson plaque with a mammoth homer; for Cole Young, who put together a three-hit outing; and for Josh Naylor, who showed up with the glove, the bat, and the well-renowned mind to find stolen bases.
But it all started with the guy on the mound, who gave his team an excellent chance to win the game.
Bryan Woo effectively countered Atlanta’s hot hitters and put a pair of bad starts behind him.
If there was any pitcher who badly needed a quality start on Wednesday afternoon, it was Woo. Facing two aggressive teams in his previous two starts, he had found his fastball ambushed and his earned runs totals exploding on the backs of home runs and hard hit balls aplenty.
Storm Nearing Final Roster After Waiving 2 Players
One day after re-signing rookie No. 14 overall pick Taina Mair to a developmental contract, the Seattle Storm waived guards Jaelyn Brown and Rennia Davis, the team announced. They are now one player away from finalizing their 12-player roster.
Davis and Brown were battling tough odds to try to make the Storm’s roster, but Davis looked like she might have a legitimate chance to be a surprise retention after a pair of strong preseason performances. Instead, it’s down to Mackenzie Holmes and rookie No. 39 pick Grace VanSlooten for the final spot.
Analysis: How Did Seahawks Fare Replacing Boye Mafe, Departed Free Agent Talent?
Teams that win the Super Bowl typically have to pay the toll that comes with such success when free agency opens at the start of a new NFL league year, and while the Seattle Seahawks only lost five players off of the Lombardi Trophy-winning squad, they weren’t an exception to that rule as several key starters departed for greener pastures this offseason.
With the start of OTAs just around the corner and the 2026 NFL Draft in the books, the Seahawks have made a concerted effort to plug those newly-created holes through their own free agency signings as well as adding an eight-player draft class. More moves may be yet to come, but at this stage of the offseason, the projected replacements for the likes of Ken Walker III and Riq Woolen among others likely are already under contract for 2026.
How did Seattle fare finding short and/or long-term replacements for their free agent losses? Here’s a look at all five departures, their projected successors, and an early verdict on whether the team upgraded or downgraded at the position.
Kraken Receive No. 7 Pick in 2026 NHL Draft Lottery: What Now?
The NHL lottery for draft picks 1 through 16 took place on Tuesday night, ahead of the draft on June 26 and 27. The Seattle Kraken entered the lottery sixth in line, with a 7.5% chance at getting the No. 1 overall pick with an average projected draft position of 5.9.
For yet another season, Seattle got the short end of the lottery. The Toronto Maple Leafs nabbed the top pick, followed by the Sharks getting second overall. Seattle did not hear their name called until No. 7. They will pick seventh, which is one spot higher than their slot last year when they selected Jake O'Brien.
Picking seventh means for another season, they are picking lower than their initial position in the final standings. However, this will actually be Seattle’s highest draft pick since taking Shane Wright fourth overall in 2022.
Mariners Bats Give Kirby Vintage King Félix Treatment, M’s Drop Winnable Contest to Braves
The names and faces change but the general concept remains the same. Gone are the days when a pitcher like Steve Carlton could win 27 games for a team that only won 59 games total; in modern baseball, such pitchers get saddled with no-decisions, a concept pioneered by a 13-12 Félix Hernández in 2010 who won the Cy Young Award on the back of his league-leading 2.27 ERA.
That was still 21.3% of that awful Mariners team’s wins. They weren’t quite as bad as Carlton’s old side. They may have given 702 plate appearances to Chone Figgins and 278 more to Milton Bradley, but there are few teams who were ever as bad as the ‘72 Not-Really-Phightin’ Phils.
Arisen during the career of that selfsame Hernández was the term “Félix Quality Start”, based on the definition of quality start (six innings or more, three earned runs or less) but narrowed in scope to seven innings or more and two earned runs or less. Hernández got plenty of those in his career.
Another Mariner got such a start on Tuesday night, and like a lot of those “King Félix” outings of old, his team lost 3-2. Whether it is an aberration or a harbinger, it is still too soon to tell. But the hour of judgment is drawing nearer than those in T-Mobile Park might like to admit.
George Kirby put together a “Félix Quality Start” against one of the best teams in baseball.
With a direly stretched bullpen, the Mariners needed their starter to go deep into the game. And with an offense once again struggling to put anything together, he needed to keep the Braves to a low score.
Gonzaga Baseball Treads Water, Splits Four Games at Home
The response from Gonzaga baseball (29-17, 16-5 WCC) after its 14-game winning streak was snapped was always going to be something to watch, and the early returns are somewhat of a mixed bag.
Facing the second-worst team in the conference in Santa Clara for a three-game set on their home turf and then matching up with Washington State for the third time this season, the Zags split the four games as they saw performance drop-offs from two areas that have otherwise boosted them over the last month. Now with just two series left in the regular season, including a big one on the road against San Francisco this weekend, GU will need to get back to playing the brand of baseball that led to their impressive run.
What are the current concerning trends in the Bulldogs’ play?
Bumpy Stretch For Rotation Blocking Mariners’ Breakthrough
One of the clear strengths of the Seattle Mariners at the beginning of the 2026 season was their starting rotation. Last season, they ranked fourth in Major League Baseball in innings pitched as a starting rotation and 11th in FIP (which is ERA but factoring out fielding luck).
Bryan Woo and Luis Castillo eclipsed 180 innings pitched. Two of their starters had an ERA better than 3.50. Three of them exceeded 160 strikeouts. Four of their starters made at least 23 starts last season. Eight different players needed to make at least two starts. For context, the World Series champion Dodgers had 14 different players make multiple starts. The American League champion Blue Jays needed 11 such starters.
They had one of the strongest, most reliable rotations in baseball last year. With the same cast of characters coming into 2026, the consensus was the Mariners would be able to lean on their starting pitchers to another postseason run. However, over the last few weeks, the starting pitching has not been the strength, but the weakness of this Mariners club.
Seahawks Fill Last Major Need, Ink Dante Fowler Jr. to One-Year Deal
Despite doubling their draft picks from four to eight during the 2026 NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks surprisingly didn’t use a single one of those selections on an EDGE defender, which many pundits viewed as one of their most significant needs coming out of free agency. Now, they’ve rectified that concern with an anticipated post-draft free agent signing that should be a win for team and player.
After visiting with the team last month weeks before the draft, the Seahawks have reportedly agreed to terms with veteran pass rusher Dante Fowler Jr. on a one-year deal. Per multiple sources, the deal could earn the former top-five pick up to $5 million in 2026 and since the signing occurred after the first Monday following the draft, it will not impact the compensatory pick formula.
Starring at Florida, Fowler emerged as one of the top prospects in the 2015 NFL Draft, and the Jaguars selected him third overall with hopes of him emerging as a superstar quarterback hunter, only for him to miss his entire rookie season with a torn ACL suffered in rookie minicamp. After two and a half inconsistent seasons following the injury, Jacksonville traded him to the Los Angeles Rams at the deadline for a pair of draft picks, and he enjoyed a long-awaited breakout season in 2019 with a career-high 11.5 sacks, turning that production into a three-year, $45 million deal with Atlanta.
Two Electric Homers Give Mariners Comeback Win against White-Hot Braves
Home runs are thrown, not hit. That is an adage that holds up among the best and most consistent hitters in the game, who take what is given to them and do the most they can with it, whether that means lining one the other way or launching it in the air. When a hitter tries to force a home run on a pitch that won’t allow it, there are a whole lot of outcomes like strikeouts and rolled-over grounders that end up much worse for the hitter.
Paradoxically, this also means that home runs are determined by the hitter. Pitchers who allow fly balls will allow home runs, but it’s up to the hitter to put that swing on it when it comes.
A lot of hitters tried to hit homers on Monday night in Seattle as the Braves took on the Mariners, the visitors white-hot and the home crew struggling. While nobody could get it done with the bases loaded, six hits left the yard: four for Atlanta and two for Seattle, but the M’s got theirs with men on base and won 5-4.
Logan Gilbert got through six innings by the skin of his teeth, with three solo shots coming in the last frame.
Gilbert’s efficiency issues over the past two seasons are well documented. After throwing a combined 3.8 pitches per plate appearance from 2022 through 2024, Gilbert threw 5.2 per plate appearance from May 2025 through the end of 2025. Batters’ adjusted to his style of pitching, laying off the splitter thanks to the predictability of its usage, but they still had issues squaring up the pitches, jacking up his pitch counts thanks to tons of foul balls and good takes.
Huskies Land Commitment From Coveted 2027 Offensive Line Target Reis Russell
The Washington Huskies football team received its first offensive lineman commitment from the Class of 2027 on Monday.
Reis Russell, a three-star interior line prospect from Valor Christian (Littleton, Colo.) chose UW over Georgia, Miami and USC. With recent additions of Russell and Glacier Peak (Snohomish, Wash.) tight end Zach Albright, Washington head coach Jedd Fisch’s 2027 class stands at No. 10 in the 247Sports composite rankings.
Stock Watch: Examining Seahawks Post-Draft Winners, Losers
Now more than a week removed from the 2026 NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks have gotten a first look at their newest draft class via rookie minicamp, and the offseason program will soon kick into full overdrive with Phase 2 opening next week.
At this point, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald and general manager John Schneider haven’t gotten to see first-round pick Jadarian Price and the rest of the 2026 class on the field with returning veterans from their Super Bowl LX-winning squad. But that will soon change as on-field workouts ramp up to the next step and Organized Team Activities (OTAs) eventually open on May 26, providing the rookies with a chance to start gunning for starting jobs and roster spots.
With rookies soon to be thrown into the fire battling against seasoned veterans, which returning players and coaches stood out as the biggest winners coming out of the NFL Draft for the Seahawks? And who needs to keep a focused eye on their rearview mirror with objects being closer than they appear?
Highs, Lows, and Other Notes from Mariners’ Three Losses to Royals
If there is to be a moment when the 2026 Seattle Mariners finally put early woes behind them, it will not be for quite some time. The team got swept for the third time in the season, this go around by a Kansas City Royals team that had been 12-19 with a -22 run differential. The first two games were thin margins, winnable for the Mariners, but they weren’t at all able to salvage the third game as hitting and defense broke down once more, a Groundhog Day-like occurrence even as April has turned to May and numbers are piling up in the wins and losses column.
As befits a set of bad losses, the M’s went right up to the edge of victory multiple times, but ultimately let it slip through their fingers. Let’s go over the highs and lows of the series, from mistakes that would be bad in grade school T-ball to a pitching performance worthy of Randy Johnson.
Very High: Emerson Hancock struck out 14 in a seven-inning masterpiece on the night the M’s retired the Big Unit’s number.
Things in this sport can change on a dime, but for now, Emerson Hancock has vanquished all doubts of him being an MLB-worthy starter. He precisely used his four-seamer, sweeper, cutter, and even sinker to fold one Royals hitter after another like his opponents were cheap lawn chairs. By the time he exited the stage at the end of the seventh, 103 pitches to his name and his team nursing a one-run lead, a near-sellout crowd in T-Mobile Park gave him the a roaring ovation.
Ex-Iowa Starter Ladji Dembele Commits to Washington State
Washington State has made it clear this offseason: the roster rebuild will run through the transfer portal.
The latest addition, Ladji Dembele, fits that approach perfectly—a player with Power Five experience who brings both size and a developing skill set to a Cougars roster still taking shape.
Dembele began his college career at Iowa, where he carved out a consistent role in the frontcourt before transferring to UNLV for his junior season. While his time in Las Vegas was limited to just five games due to injury, he still managed to average 5.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in roughly 20 minutes per game. That small sample size makes it difficult to fully evaluate his impact there, but it does offer a glimpse into a player who remained productive in limited opportunities. Dembele got a medical redshirt from last season and will have two years of eligibility remaining.
Pipeline of NBA Talent Continues to Drive Gonzaga's Impressive Recruiting
Ever since the NIL (name, image, and likeness) policy was enacted in the NCAA on July 1, 2021, timelines for college basketball players have noticeably shifted. Needing at least a year gap between their final year of high school and when they can begin their NBA careers, athletes traditionally tried to fast-track their way to the most competitive league in the world, seeing little benefit to the collegiate hoops experience.
Now with NIL, these young adults are making life-changing money while enrolled in university classes, allowing them to better pace their development to ensure they are properly prepared when their names called on NBA Draft night. In some cases, players are maximizing their opportunities to be paid as they stretch out their years of eligibility to the max. But for those who have the potential, they are seeking the programs that can best hone their skills to carve out lengthy NBA careers, while being paid handsomely.
Despite not being a blue blood or in a power conference, the Gonzaga Bulldogs have still found ways to acquire and develop top-tier talent in this era. The proof is in their current roster, recent graduates from the program, and young prospects still down the pipeline. Head coach Mark Few and his staff have a track record of getting players ready for the leap to the pros, and with that, it will be tough to slow the lengthy run the Zags are on.
Seawolves Bounce Back Against Free Jacks, Become All-Time Winningest MLR Team
Sometimes, as it turns out, the fifth time is the charm. While the Seawolves had gotten a grand total of six points over their first four games, a Coffee Cup match against the Free Jacks in New England. But despite being down 11-5 at half, Seattle roared back for 22 unanswered points in the final 40 minutes to take a 27-11 victory and get back into the playoff hunt. And with the 73rd win in franchise history, they officially passed the San Diego Legion with the most in the history of the MLR.
While the Seawolves went into Quincy, Massachusetts off a brutal defeat to the MLR-leading Chicago Hounds, the need for a bounce back game was shared by a set of opponents who also entered the match in a rough rut of early form. Both teams were 1-3 over their first four games. Though New England had a worse -52 point differential as opposed to Seattle’s -36, the Free Jacks had managed one extra bonus point, though both sides sat in the cellar.
Seattle had to mix and match their lineup going into the game, with flyhalf Davy Coetzer out of commission, loosehead prop Ezekiel Lindenmuth suspended following a red card against the Hounds, and injuries in the forwards meant that plenty of the pack would have to go deep into the game while André Warner took up the flyhalf duties on the field and Divan Rossouw took the conversions.
Storm Waive No. 14 Pick Taina Mair
The Seattle Storm have waived rookie No. 14 overall pick Taina Mair, per the WNBA transaction wire. Mair is the first 2026 draft pick that the Storm has waived.
Waiving Mair brings the Storm down to 15 players, which still puts them three away from reaching the final 12-player roster limit. The deadline for cutting to 12 players is on Thursday, May 7, before the team’s season opener the next day.
Mair is somewhat of a surprising cut, though it’s still possible the Storm are planning to try and bring her back in a developmental roster spot. Seattle will have to wait and see if Mair clears waivers before they can try and re-sign her.
Sounders Draw with Struggling Kansas City Despite Wealth of Chances
The Seattle Sounders went into their Saturday matchup with Sporting Kansas City in great form.
Seattle was 6-1-1, in the thick of the Supporters Shield race, going to play the bottom-ranked team in the Western Conference, fresh off six straight losses at 1-7-1.
After Paul Rothrock scored his team-leading sixth goal in all competitions just two minutes in, it looked like the Sounders were about to repeat the 5-0 drubbing the Chicago Fire had subjected Kansas City to the week before.
But 16 minutes later, USMNT hopeful and Sounders legend Cristian Roldan made a lackadaisical pass deep in Seattle territory to let KC striker Dejan Joveljic strike a first-time shot past Andrew Thomas for what was the final goal of the game.
Yes. Seattle had scored just two minutes into the game on a fortuitous bounce forced by Jesús Ferreira to find a waiting Paul Rothrock in close, only to be held scoreless for the remainder despite 26 shots and three expected goals generated.
Ranking Seahawks Draft Picks By Readiness to Contribute Early in 2026
With the Seattle Seahawks selecting eight players in the 2026 NFL Draft, not all of them will be ready to make an immediate impact. Patience will be required for a few prospects at least. Some might impress in training camp and earn early playing time on special teams, rather than their traditional offensive or defensive positions.
Let’s rank the eight draft picks of the Seahawks’ 2026 class by their readiness to make an early impact during the 2026 season.
8. Michael Dansby, CB, Arizona
First off, the defensive back group is now absolutely stacked with three cornerbacks being selected out of eight picks. Breaking through will be extremely difficult for Dansby as the last pick of Seattle’s draft, late in the seventh round. He is a man-coverage specialist but not as physically gifted as Julian Neal or Andre Fuller. He likely will need to fight for a special teams role, but in all likelihood, he’s headed to the practice squad in the fall.
Takeaways From Day 2 of Seahawks’ 2026 Rookie Minicamp
Wrapping up Phase 1 of their offseason program, the Seattle Seahawks conducted the second of two rookie minicamp sessions at the VMAC on Saturday, providing another opportunity for Mike Macdonald and the coaching staff to take a close look at their new incoming draft class, signed undrafted free agents, and a host of tryout players.
As is always the case this time of year with more than half of the participants not being under contract and trying to earn a contract with an NFL team, the vast majority of those who wore helmets over the past two days won’t be back with the Seahawks. But as Macdonald pointed out moments after the practice wrapped up, that doesn’t always mark the end of the journey either, as those who put their best foot forward could be on speed dial when injuries and/or personnel changes on the 90-man roster strike in coming weeks and months.
“Definitely. Everyone's on a different timeline,” Macdonald remarked. “I think they understand that, and that's part of the messaging too. We've had several guys that have come back in camp or even after camp or after the season. We've had a couple of examples of that too. Jalan Gaines is a guy that comes to mind that's with us now after not being with us at the end of the season. Just keep plugging away, trying your best. Don't worry about the count or timing or all that, but trust the process.”
Mariners Suffer Second Straight Bryan Woo Beating, Drop Randy Johnson Series Opener to Royals
The Mariners and Royals spent most of Friday evening locked in a back-and-forth batter’s duel, with the Royals eventually coming out in front. In all the action of the game - from the Royals knocking four first inning runs off Bryan Woo to Julio Rodríguez’ two homers to a late Kansas City rally off Jose A. Ferrer to Alex Hoppe blowing down the Royals’ best hitters in the ninth only for the Mariners to go down with a whimper in the bottom half by a 7-6 score - there were a lot of moments that made the difference.
But among those, there is one that is perhaps most instructive in two concepts: one, that baseball is a game of inches where defense matters (you already knew that), and two, that a run in the first is worth as much as a run in the ninth. This isn’t about ABS, but based on how ABS strategy is often discussed, a reminder is perhaps in order.
Bryan Woo’s two bad bookends fell in two separate but similar buckets.
Woo came into his start against the Cardinals as a potential clear Mariners ace. He left the sixth inning of his start against the Royals having given up 13 runs in his last nine innings and carrying a 4.61 ERA.
The story of how he got rocked for seven runs in three innings against the Redbirds has already been told, though that game was not defined by the bad start thanks to a big-time offensive showing. The M’s got four homers to power six runs at home, but it wasn’t enough this time.
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