Bryan Woo thinks less of himself, strikes out 9 in series win over Atlanta

Q: How many strikeouts did Bryan Woo have against the Atlanta Braves?

Bryan Woo had nine strikeouts against the Atlanta Braves.

Q: What did Bryan Woo credit for his improved performance on the mound?

Bryan Woo credited his improved performance to simplifying his approach and trusting himself rather than overthinking.

Q: What was the significance of the Mariners' win over the Braves?

The Mariners' win marked the Braves' first series loss of the season.

Q: How did Bryan Woo's recent struggles affect his mindset before the game?

Bryan Woo experienced self-doubt due to back-to-back rough starts but managed to regain confidence by focusing on his strengths.

May 6, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryan Woo (22) reacts in the sixth inning against the Atlanta Braves at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Ng-Imagn Images | Kevin Ng-Imagn Images Bryan Woo sat in the Mariners media room a week ago, adrift. Normally thoughtful, eloquent, and precise in postgame interviews, Woo’s responses were disjointed, starting sentences and trailing off, as he searched for answers to questions posed by the media about his back-to-back rough starts – answers he didn’t have. The last thing he said, transcribed verbatim, was: “But…I don’t know. It’s…I got…not a ton of answers.” Somewhere in the past week he found those answers. It was a much different Bryan Woo who sat before the media today, fresh off a series win against the Braves, handing Atlanta their first series loss of the season. Woo pitched six innings, matching his season-high in strikeouts (nine) against Atlanta, the team that strikes out the least in the National League. He credits his performance to thinking…less. “It’s like I was good and I wanted to be great. You try to do more, you try to be perfect, and you lose sight of what makes yourself so good. And for me, that’s simplifying and just competing…It felt like the last two starts, just trying to do too much, think too much, dive into scouting reports too much, just thinking too much, honestly. My best brand of baseball is, do my homework before and talk to catchers and whatnot, but when it’s time to go on the mound, just go be. And I feel like I kind of got away from that the last two starts.” Woo said what got him on track was actually staying on track – creating a plan beforehand, but trusting himself on the mound no matter what. It wasn’t easy for Woo from the start; he had a 24-pitch first inning, battling for nine pitches before eventually walking him. But Woo stuck to his plan, being aggressive in the zone, and he was able to use his slider and sweeper effectively today – he opened the game by striking out reigning NL Rookie of the Year on the slider, and then got Michael Harris to fly out harmlessly on the sweeper to end the inning. Shaking off his last two rough starts, Woo was aggressive in the zone as always, throwing 17 of 21 first-pitch strikes, which the Braves offered at 10 times. For his efforts, he was rewarded with a boatload of weak-contact outs; he allowed just one exit velocity over 100 mph, a first pitch fastball that , who has built an entire career out of ambushing those exact pitches, tagged into right field for a single. As the game wore on and Atlanta batters got choosier with swinging at the first pitch, Woo dialed it in even more; six of his nine strikeouts came in the second half of his outing, finishing off his day with a called strike three to Mariners’ sleep paralysis demon Matt Olson. Having wandered in self-doubt for the past two weeks, Woo was able to find himself again, all while facing the best offense in baseball. “ – obviously, I got whacked, but I felt like I was still pitching like myself. And then with I think I just tried to do too much and think too much and try too hard. And it also didn’t work. So it’s just being honest with yourself about when are you at your best, and what does that look like, and what does that feel like to you? And then getting back to that as soon as you can.” In addition to sticking to himself and not overthinking, Woo said he got a lot out of talking to his teammates—pitchers and hitters—about what it’s like to be in the weeds. “I don’t know what it is about baseball, but it’s like when you’re not committed in yourself, you don’t trust yourself, for some reason the same pitches – whether they’re really, really good, same velocity, same movement – they just don’t work. I don’t know what it is. Baseball is a weird sport like that. You try too hard, you try to be too perfect, and 98 at the top of the zone gets whacked. 93 with conviction and commitment and trust just works. I don’t know what it is. It’ll never show up on a stat sheet but you just have to have a little bit of like, *I don’t really give a shit.* Excuse my language.” Unfortunately, as Woo retired Atlanta on a lot of weak contact, and as retired Atlanta on a ton of weak-contact groundballs last night, today it was the Mariners’ turn to suffer at the hands of former Texas Ranger and known Lefty Martin Pérez, making a start in place of scheduled starter , playing the handedness-matchup-game. The Mariners loaded the bases in the third thanks to some production from the bottom of the lineup. led off with a line-drive single and then got some of that BABIP devil magic Mateo had last night with a double down the left field line of his own, pushing runners into scoring position with no outs. walked to load the bases but reached after a changeup on the outer part of the plate for an easy double play, which scored the run but also burned away future scoring opportunities, as chased after that same changeup for an easy inning-ending groundball out. So, a run, but a deflating one. Still, Woo made that run hold up, turning away Atlanta’s hitters again and again. After Woo’s strong finish, Julio decided to give him a little extra breathing room in the bottom of the sixth, to the tune of 110.4 mph: The Mariners had a chance to add more after exited for : singled through the five-six hole and doubled into the right-field corner – but might have actually hit the ball too hard, at 107.3 mph, so Randy couldn’t quite scoot home. couldn’t push across the extra insurance with two outs. Woo gave way to in the seventh, who hung a zero in a tidy 1-2-3 inning. It seemed like he might be back out to face the bottom of the lineup in the eighth, but Dan Wilson went to the higher-leverage . Given the tight score and the off-day tomorrow, the move made sense in theory, but Bazardo was shaky, going to a full count before surrendering back-to-back singles to his first two hitters to put runners on the corners with no outs. Pinch-hitter brought in the Braves’ first run of the day with a sacrifice fly, turning the lineup over for Drake Baldwin. The Mariners caught a break, . Postgame, Dan Wilson offered credit on what could have been a game-changing challenge to Mariners replay coordinator Jake Kuruc, and also , who applied the tag. “I got to give Naylz some credit. I think the temptation a lot of times is to go get that ball and then go back to tag. He let that ball travel really well and got right to his hip, and that’s what made the difference.” That pickoff turned out to be significant as Baldwin laced the first pitch he saw—a sinker three apples below the zone—for a single. Bazardo then got swinging after the same sinker Baldwin chased for an inning-ending strikeout, saving the Mariners’ bacon. The Mariners were able to get that run back in the bottom of the inning against , working for his second inning. Josh Naylor singled with one out and then stole second because he is Perfect, and then Cole Young followed with his second double of the day, again wearing out that right field corner. This was an especially nice at-bat by Cole, who had a three-hit day. Fuentes worked him away that whole at-bat with a variety of pitches, and, in a full count, when Cole got a slider in the exact same location he’d just seen a 98 mph fastball, he was ready to hit it. With that little bit of extra breathing room, José A. Ferrer made his third straight appearance of the series, filling in for Andrés Muñoz, who had pitched in back-to-back nights. Ferrer was anxious to get the ball and said he wanted the opportunity to try to get a save, saying the pitching coach initially told him before the game he was down to which he replied, essentially, *no I’m not!* “I felt super good when I woke up this morning,” he said through translator Freddy Llanos. “I was ready to go. My arm felt great. So when they told me I was in, I was excited.” Ferrer gave up some hard contact on a first-pitch sinker to Matt Olson, but the park held it; he then got Michael A. Harris to ground out on a sinker. Mauricio Dubón worked the count full but was called out on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, a 99.5 mph sinker right on the inner edge. Dubón immediately challenged, and the call was upheld. Was Ferrer sure it was a strike? “I had faith that it was,” he smiled. It was a great series win for the Mariners, but also a great win for Bryan Woo, who had been struggling for the past two weeks. “Sometimes you’re good, and you want to be great, and you just kind of do too much. But I’m human. It sucks when you suck. It sucks to sit on it for two weeks. Those thoughts still creep into my head just as much as anybody else, after a bad game, after two really bad games, it’s not easy to do. But to get back to my brand of pitching, my brand of baseball, was the first thing that I looked at, and that’s what I felt I did today.”

Bryan Woo thinks less of himself, strikes out 9 in series win over Atlanta

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