Mariners suffer brutal ninth-inning meltdown in loss to Padres

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

In their 19th game of this young season, the Mariners suffered a stunning 7-6 walkoff loss to the Padres on Wednesday night in what is and likely could remain their worst defeat of the 162-game regular season schedule.

Going into the bottom of the ninth, they held a 6-2 lead over San Diego with their closer Andrés Muñoz on the mound.

Yes, it wasn't a save situation, but the Mariners wanted to get Muñoz some time on the mound. Given their erratic outcomes of wins and losses, Seattle's closer hadn't pitched since Saturday. And his previous two outings had been shaky and somewhat concerning.

We know that is a good club," manager Dan Wilson said. "This was a situation where we wanted to get him out there, and this was a situation where we wanted him to pitch against this team and in that spot. But it just didn't go our way."

It went completely sideways.

Muñoz struggled to find feel or command with his pitches. His misses were noncompetitive to the point where Padres hitters recognized them as balls out of his hand. It put him behind in counts. And there was a little bad luck as well.

Here's how the bottom of the ninth inning unfolded:

* A leadoff walk to Manny Machado to start the problems.

* Left-handed hitting Gavin Sheets hits a slow slider off the end of the bat that produces a soft ground ball (exit velocity 55 mph) to third just past the shifted over infield for a double putting runners on second and third.

* Muñoz strikes out Nick Castellanos swinging for the first out of the inning.

* Ty France hits a high chopper back up the middle on a first pitch sinker (79 mph exit velocity). Muñoz tries to make a leaping grab, but can't secure it. France has an infield single (that's not a typo) to load the bases.

* Pinch-hitter Fernando Tatis Jr. falls behind 1-2 but won't chase out of the zone, pushing the count full. He hits a line drive to right field that allows Machado to tag up and score, cutting the lead to 6-3.

* After getting Luis Campusano to chase two sliders out of the zone, Muñoz throws a third slider down the middle. The pitch is lined to left-center, scoring Sheets from second and allowing France to reach third.

* Down two runs, Ramón Laureano tried to ambush a first-pitch sinker that is so far inside, he lifts a fly ball to shallow left field. Playing deep, Randy Arozarena can only watch it drop in for a run-scoring single that cut the lead 6-5.

* With left-handed hitting Jackson Merrill coming to the plate and Muñoz at 26 pitches, Wilson, who had already used Gabe Speier to pitch the eighth, called on lefty Jose A. Ferrer for the left-on-left matchup.

* After falling behind 2-0, Ferrer evens the count at 2-2. He fired a third consecutive sinker away. Merrill had fouled off the previous two sinkers, but was on-time for the third one lacing a line drive down the right-field line. The ball landed just inside of the chalk. The tying run scored with ease. But any chance of throwing out Laureano at the plate disappeared when Arozarena dropped the ball as he went to throw it.

"Those are extremely tough (losses)," Wilson said. "In the ninth they were able to get some runners on and a couple of balls that were not hit hard and were able finish that one off. Those are just tough innings."

For eight innings, the Mariners played their best baseball of the season and it all was erased with the ninth.

"There are a ton of positives that we had for our team," Wilson said. "Sometimes that's baseball. It's a tough one. This is a team that's resilient and a team that bounces back, and tomorrow, we have that opportunity.

The Mariners wasted another quality start from Emerson Hancock, who pitched six innings, allowing two runs on four hits with a walk and six strikeouts. 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 Vasquez, who came into the game with a 1-0 record and 1.02 ERA in three starts this season. In 17 2/3 innings pitched, Vasquez had struck out 19 batters and walked just four.

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

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

The Mariners continued to add to their lead, scoring two runs against Vasquez'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 the 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. 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.

BOX SCORE

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This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 11:43 PM.