Woo you gonna call? Mariners snap skid behind gem from ace

SEATTLE -- With the Mariners badly needing a stopper to help halt a skid that was on the cusp of being their worst of the season, Bryan Woo emphatically lifted the club to a 3-2 win over the A’s on Friday night and further elevated his status as Seattle’s staff ace.

Woo wowed with seven brilliant innings of one-run ball in front of a raucous crowd at T-Mobile Park and was aided by solo homers from Eugenio Suárez, Josh Naylor and Jorge Polanco to help snap the Mariners’ losing streak at five, which was tied for their longest of the season.

“I felt it was important to come in and set the tone after such a bad road trip,” Woo said, referencing Seattle’s 2-7 stretch on the East Coast. “If you get off to a bad start today, it just kind of leaks a little bit. And I just wanted to make sure I came out with good energy and flip the page, turn the page, make sure the road trip is over.”

A first-time All-Star in 2025, Woo looked every bit the part while carrying his velocity in the 97 mph range deep into the outing, paving the way for seven strikeouts and just one hit allowed -- a solo homer to Brent Rooker in the first inning with two outs and in a 2-2 count.

In the process, Woo lowered his ERA to 2.94, which is the 16th-best in MLB and paces Seattle’s rotation. He’s also now 25-for-25 this season in clearing the sixth inning with two walks allowed or fewer, the longest streak to begin a season since Cy Young’s 30 in 1905. His stretch of 25 six-inning starts is tied for the second-longest in a single season in Mariners history with Randy Johnson (1995), trailing only Félix Hernández’s 27 in 2010.

“It makes for a tough at-bat when a guy's got plus stuff and knows how to use it and knows where it's going,” said Rooker, who is now 3-for-22 in his career vs. Woo with three homers. “The few times I have connected, I just happened to catch mistakes and put good swings on them. .... But he was really, really good tonight. Obviously, he's really, really good a lot.”

Yet for all the feel-good vibes that Friday night ended with, it wasn’t exactly shaping up as such for most of the evening.

And they nearly squandered the lead in the ninth, when Andrés Muñoz worked into a bases-loaded jam, beginning the frame with a K to Shea Langeliers before surrendering three straight singles and a walk that let one run in and put the tying run on third base.

He then induced a shallow flyout that at first led Tyler Soderstrom to break home before ultimately returning in the face of a 93.6 mph one-hop seed from Julio Rodríguez in center field. After that, Muñoz mowed down JJ Bleday for his 30th save.

“He gave up some hits, but really made some tough pitches when he had to,” manager Dan Wilson said of Muñoz.

The crisis averted underscored that the Mariners did just enough at the plate to eke out a victory despite shortcomings that were prevalent throughout their East Coast swoon.

They didn’t record a hit until their 14th batter, when Suárez went deep off A’s rookie Luis Morales for a 113.8 mph blast that represented the hardest-hit ball of his career tracked by Statcast (since 2015). And they didn’t move ahead for good until Naylor ambushed reliever Elvis Alvarado for a solo shot with one in the seventh, marking the first time that they’d had a lead since last Friday’s win over the Mets. Polanco then added some much-needed insurance two batters later.

As for Woo, the blossoming confidence continued to grow.

The A’s (59-71) aren’t a postseason contender, but their .811 OPS and 52 homers since the All-Star break are each third-best in MLB. Woo had also allowed 10 runs over 12 1/3 innings in his previous two starts against them earlier this season.

“I've got to do a better job of coming out and not just being OK with giving up runs early,” Woo said. “I know it's going to happen, but it's just a discipline thing.”

On a broader level, Seattle (69-60) has now won eight straight games at home dating back to Aug. 3, marking its longest such winning streak at T-Mobile Park since 2020. But over a larger sample, the Mariners are 16-4 at home dating back to July 4, the second-best record in their own backyard to only the Brewers (16-3), who walked off the Giants earlier on Friday.