Mariners on verge of AL West lead after Emerson Hancock's gem vs. Athletics
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Emerson Hancock's breakthrough season carried on Tuesday night, and he's carried the Mariners to the brink of a first-place standing for the first time this season.
In his latest gem, Hancock allowed only one hit over six dominant innings, leading the Mariners to a 4-1 victory and a series win over the AL West-leading Athletics before a crowd of 9,539 at Sutter Health Park.
José A. Ferrer, Gabe Speier and Andrés Muñoz closed it out over the final three innings as the Mariners (27-29) moved a half-game back of the A's (27-28).
We want to come out here again (Wednesday) and sweep this series," M's manager Dan Wilson said. "I think that's been something that we've looked forward to doing here when we got here."
Logan Gilbert will take the mound for the Mariners on Wednesday afternoon to try to close out a series sweep. And given how volatile this season has played out so far, that any sort of seat in first place would mark something of an accomplishment for this M's team.
"There hasn't been any panic all year, as far as how we're playing," M's catcher Mitch Garver said. "We know we're good. It's a matter of time. Things just have to click together. Sometimes the pitching is good; sometimes the offense is poor, and vice versa. So we just need to make sure that we do that as good as we can every game, and I think we're showing that right now."
The M's followed up a clean 9-2 victory Monday night with another convincing performance Tuesday.
"Pitching has been phenomenal; offense has been great," Garver said. "I mean, there's really nothing to critique the past two games."
Hancock was perfect through four innings, extending a rock-solid start to the season that could have him in consideration for his first All-Star selection, a suggestion that would have been ludicrous two months ago.
"He's a stud, man," Garver said.
Hancock allowed his first runner on a leadoff walk in the fifth inning, then surrendered his first hit on a Tyler Soderstrom single. Hancock rebounded by retiring the next three hitters.
He stranded two more runners in the sixth inning to complete his seventh quality start of the season and lower his ERA to 2.78.
Pitching against a quality A's lineup in a hitter-friendly minor-league park, Hancock said, did not alter the tunnel-vision approach he's taken into every start this season.
"The awareness to know where you're at, to be able to dial it back in and say, 'You know what, just one pitch at a time,'" Hancock said. "You don't know how many you're going to get, so just lock in and commit to each pitch."
Coming into Tuesday, the Mariners ranked dead last among MLB teams against left-handers in batting average (.190) and OPS (.594) as a team with a wRC+ of 76 (meaning they're 24% worse than the league average).
So pronounced are the Mariners' struggles against left-handed pitching that the A's made two strategic moves Tuesday, calling up one of their top prospects, 23-year-old lefty Gage Jump, to make his major-league debut Tuesday night.
The A's also pushed back a start for veteran right-hander Luis Severino by at least two days, putting veteran lefty Jeffrey Springs in position to start Wednesday's series finale.
The Mariners' much-maligned right-handed lineup broke through Tuesday, finishing with 11 hits and jumped on Jump for three runs in the second inning.
Garver started it with an RBI double into the left-field corner to drive in Josh Naylor.
Cole Young followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in Rob Refsnyder, and J.P. Crawford added a sac fly later in the inning to drive in Garver and extend the M's lead to 3-0.
Victor Robles, in his second start since returning from a six-week stint on the injured list, was 3 for 3 with a double and a run scored, and Refsnyder reached base three times in his four plate appearances.
Garver and Naylor each had two hits, and Naylor is now 10 for 20 against the A's this season.
"That shows a lot when you face a young arm like we did today that you've never seen before and you're able to string together walks, hits, run the bases aggressively," Garver said. "That was a tough outing for that kid, and we made it tough on him. We made him come into the zone and we punished him when he did.
Soderstrom's one-out home run off Muñoz just over the wall in right field ended the Mariners' shutout bid in the ninth inning.
Nick Kurtz, the A's star first baseman, was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, ending his on-base streak at 48 games and leaving him tied with Mark McGwire (1996) for the longest single-season on-base streak in A's history.
BOX SCORE
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.