Mariners continue up-and-down season with big series win vs. Braves

Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on May 6, 2026

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

SEATTLE — Can’t figure these Seattle Mariners out? You aren’t alone.

They went 5-1 on the previous road trip coming into this homestand, seemingly having righted many of the wrongs in the suboptimal start to their season.

Then they got swept by a middling-Kansas City Royals team in a three-game series over the weekend at a packed T-Mobile Park, including a loss where their starting pitcher struck out 14 batters in seven innings of work.

Over that span, they put their two best set-up relievers on the injured list and played without their All-Star catcher for three games.

Panic? Yep.

Anger? Always.

A familiar fatalism? Snowballing.

So of course, the Mariners closed out the homestand by taking two out of three games against the Atlanta Braves — the team with the best record in baseball.

Pitching for a third consecutive day as the anchor of a bullpen that’s being held together with duct tape and bubble gum and manned by a handful of pitchers that even ardent fans have never heard of, Jose A. Ferrer pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning, retiring the Braves 3-4-5 hitters — Matt Olson, Michael Harris and Mauricio Dubon to close out a 3-1 victory on Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Park.

The Mariners have Thursday off and then open a three-game series in Chicago vs. the White Sox at Rate Field on Friday.

After struggling in his previous two outings, allowing a combined 13 runs on 16 hits, Bryan Woo delivered an outing more commensurate with his expectations.

He worked six scoreless innings, allowing just one hit with two walks while striking out nine.

Dating back to the start of last season, it was the fifth time that Woo had pitched six-plus innings and allowed one or fewer hits in an outing — the most of any MLB pitcher.

The only real trouble that Woo found himself in came in the fourth inning. He issued a leadoff walk to Ozzie Albies that had him shaking his head in disgust. But he came back to strike out Olson and Harris. Dubon dumped a single into right field to allow Albies to race to third.

Woo was able to work out of the minor jam, getting Austin Riley to ground out to end the inning.

Julio Rodriguez crushed a solo homer in the sixth inning off Braves starter Martin Perez and Cole Young provided a big insurance run in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI double.

____