Mariners slug 3 homers to support Bryan Woo's strong outing vs. Rangers

Maybe summer might arrive a little earlier for the Mariners and their warm-weather loving hitters.

On a perfect sun-drenched and unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon at T-Mobile Park, the Mariners secured their second series win of the season and looked quite strong in doing it.

Riding another strong outing from Bryan Woo and getting homers from Rob Refsnyder, J.P. Crawford and Randy Arozarena, Seattle performed more like the team expected for so much success this season in a 5-2 victory over the Texas Rangers.

For the second straight day, Andrés Muñoz recorded the final out of the game, picking up the save and setting up a victorious postgame handshake line.

Happy Sunday," manager Dan Wilson said as he wrapped up his postgame remarks.

He'll have more of them if the Mariners play that sort of baseball in the days ahead. Seattle's run against division foes continues with a three-game series vs. the A's starting Monday night.

Facing hard-throwing lefty MacKenzie Gore, who has dominated them in his young career, for the second time in 10 days, the Mariners put a run on him immediately.

Refsnyder, who came into the game hitless in 21 plate appearances (18 at-bats), ambushed Gore's first pitch - a 95-mph fastball - and sent it over the wall in left field.

"That set the tone for the afternoon," Wilson said. "Really good swing on that pitch. It had to feel good for Ref."

The decision to be aggressive on a pitcher's first pitch of the game isn't simple.

"It's a crazy trade-off when you don't have a batting average," Refsnyder said. "It's like, 'Man, if I pop up right here, everyone's like, why are you swinging first pitch since you don't have a batting average?' But I think sometimes these arms are so elite that you can't really give MacKenzie Gore an easy strike because he can get you out a lot of different ways. So you try to do your homework as much as possible, hunt a pitch and trust your work and your preparation. You can't play this game scared or timid."

It was just the second run that Gore allowed against the Mariners in four starts. His last run allowed against Seattle was also a leadoff homer to start a game. Back on May 24, 2024 when Gore was with the Nationals, he gave up a homer to J.P. Crawford on his second pitch of the game. The next 65 Seattle hitters to face Gore didn't drive in a run until Refsnyder's homer.

Crawford got Gore again in the second inning with Mitch Garver on first base, taking advantage of an 0-2 curveball left over the plate and sending it into the right field seats for his first homer of the year.

Arozarena made it 5-0 in the fifth inning. With two outs, Julio Rodríguez singled to left and Arozarena followed with a fly ball off the foul pole for a two-run homer.

It was more than enough run support for Woo, who continued his recent dominance against the Rangers, working seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits with a walk and six strikeouts. It was his fourth quality start of the season, but his first win.

"He threw a lot of fastballs," Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. "He just kind of beat us in the zone. We had some good at-bats, some hard hits, but nothing really to show for it. He was just on the attack and we couldn't move the ball forward like we wanted to."

But Woo felt it could've been even more dominant. After holding the Rangers scoreless over the first six innings, including 15 straight hitters following a leadoff single from Brandon Nimmo to start the game, Woo allowed two runs in his final inning of work.

He issued a leadoff walk to Corey Seager, which included two pitches that probably could've been challenged. Wyatt Langford followed with a single to right field, giving the Rangers their first runner in scoring position on the day. Woo came back to strike out Jake Burger, but he hit Joc Pederson with a 1-1 fastball to load the bases.

Josh Jung drove in the Rangers' first run with a sac fly to right field and Evan Carter followed with a double into the right field corner to score Langford.

When Woo finally ended the inning, getting Josh Smith to ground out to second, he stalked off the mound and screamed his frustrations into his glove while the crowd of 35,474 gave him a standing ovation.

"Just the leadoff walk, number one and then hitting Joc was stupid," he said. "But it's just the concept of keeping teams down when they're down, not giving them any life when we've got a lead and I'm going out for whatever it is later in the game. It's not letting them have any momentum, not letting them breathe in any way, just keeping your foot on the gas."

There is logic in his thinking.

"If you give up the two runs there, then at-bats for the next inning for Gabe (Speier) are just more stressful," Woo said. "There's no need for that if I just do my job.

In his last five starts vs. the Rangers, Woo is 3-1 with a 1.15 ERA, having allowed four earned runs in 31 ⅓ innings pitched along with 32 strikeouts and six walks.

Even with a smaller lead, Speier worked a scoreless eighth and then turned the ball over to Muñoz for the ninth.

He had a chance at getting four strikeouts in an inning when his third strike to Burger got past pitch Garver for a wild pitch, allowing Burger to reach first. Muñoz came back to strike out Pederson and Jung. But Carter spoiled the bid for the statistical anomaly with a ground out to second.

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This story was originally published April 19, 2026 at 4:51 PM.