Mariners snatch defeat from jaws of victory, lose walkoff to Padres 7-6

Apr 15, 2026; San Diego, California, USA; San Diego Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill celebrates after hitting a walk-off double during the ninth inning against the Seattle Mariners at Petco Park. All MLB players are wearing number 42 today to honor Jackie Robinson. Mandatory Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images | Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

We’re all still trying to figure out what went wrong in a game that the Mariners were winning handily for eight innings. Emerson Hancock was brilliant, giving up just one two-run homer over six innings of work. Luke Raley had his first ever four-hit game, and made a nifty catch in the outfield to boot. The Mariners did strike out double-digits (12), but also recorded double-digit hits (10) and took seven walks. And all of it didn’t matter, because the bullpen allowed a five-run inning in the ninth and the Padres walked it off, 7-6. The Mariners have now lost seven straight games on the road. They are back to three games below .500 after getting tantalizingly close to a winning record for the first time since March 30th. The good vibes, which roared to life after a four-game sweep against the Astros, are once again on life support.

Seriously, what the heck?

Things started off so well. Emerson Hancock was again fantastic, working through the sixth inning with the only damage against him a two-run homer from the impossibly hot-hitting Xander Bogaerts (also the only Padres hitter who had homered off Hancock previously). Hancock was untouchable over the first half of his outing, no-hitting the Padres the first time through the order before giving up a base hit to Bogaerts, who had two of the four hits the Padres mustered off Hancock. Hancock owned the strike zone tonight, throwing 20 of 23 first-pitch strikes and constantly working ahead of hitters, finishing with six strikeouts to just one walk. There were a couple of those wonky sweepers that strayed too far from the zone, but he also collected three of his six strikeouts on the pitch. He pounded the bottom of the zone with the sinker and sweeper, but also successfully changed hitters’ eye levels with his four-seamer up, staying out of the meaty part of the zone. It was a stellar performance from Hancock on Jackie Robinson Day; the two happen to share a hometown (Cairo, Georgia).

That is the story that should be told about this game – that and the performance of the offense, which scored six runs for Hancock. Dominic Canzone got the Mariners on the board in the second, as the scalding-hot Randy-Raley duo got on base (Arozarena with another walk, Luke with a nice single on a changeup); Canzone then torched the hardest-hit ball the Mariners have had all season, a 114 mph laser line drive that hit the foul pole that’s in play for some reason and rolled away from a bewildered-looking Nick Castellanos.

The Mariners could have gotten more in the third – Cal Raleigh recorded hit #500, a double, and then Jackson Merrill robbed Julio of a home run over the center field wall. Payback for all the homers Julio has robbed, I guess, but it sure feels unfair, especially considering how this game ended.

But the Mariners were only temporarily discouraged. The patience the hitters showed in the Astros series returned with a vengeance in the third; Cole Young and Leo Rivas both worked two-out walks, loading the bases (Randy had led off the inning with a double). The Rivas walk was especially impressive, as Rivas challenged a strike three call on a pitch clearly inside. That set up Brendan Donovan, who got himself into a hitter-friendly 2-0 count before lacing a ball through the right side of the infield for another two runs.

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Cal Raleigh also worked a walk that inning, as the Mariners pushed Padres starter Randy Vásquez to 85 pitches in the fourth. Not that the Padres bullpen is any walk in the park, but after needing to use their leverage arms last night, that set up the Mariners well – something Luke Raley took advantage of against new pitcher Ron Marinaccio in the fifth, walloping this no-doubter two-run homer (scoring Randy, once again on in scoring position thanks to a single and a stolen base, his fifth already of the year).

This would also be a nice story to tell about this game: Luke Raley, risen from the specter of injury that haunted his 2025, hitting a new career milestone, on a night when his buddy Cal Raleigh also hit a career milestone and his other new buddy Brendan Donovan knocked in two runs of his own. A real power of friendship recap.

But unfortunately, it’s not the one we can tell, because the ninth inning happened. Backing up, because again, we’re all still trying to figure out what happened here: Eduard Bazardo pitched a perfect seventh inning, and Gabe Speier handled the eighth. Dan Wilson then called for Andrés Muñoz to come in for the ninth in a non-save situation. Muñoz hasn’t looked right this year, seemingly struggling with his slider command, but has managed to scrape out of some sticky situations. There would be no scraping out tonight, unless it was the scraping out of my eyeballs with a melon baller after watching the bottom of the ninth.

To be fair to Muñoz, he suffered some bad batted-ball luck, although he didn’t help himself out by walking Manny Machado to lead off the inning. Gavin Sheets then snuck a ball past Donovan at third, putting runners on at second and third with no one out. Muñoz was able to get Nick Castellanos swinging after a slider for the first out, but then suffered more bad luck on a Baltimore chop from Ty France that Muñoz couldn’t field cleanly, loading the bases and bringing up the tying run in the form of pinch-hitter Fernando Tatís. Tatís hit a sac fly, bringing in a run.

Okay. Not ideal, but okay. Two outs, still a three-run lead, an out at any base but third, and the nine-hole hitter coming up. But despite getting Luis Campusano in an 0-2 count, Muñoz went back to the slider for a third time and hung it, allowing a hard-hit single and turning over the lineup. It wasn’t a scoring play, but in retrospect, this was probably the breaking point of this game. Ramón Laureano would then hit another single, yanking a good pitch inside for a single because that’s what Laureano does, setting up the wunderkind Jackson Merrill for a walkoff winner off new pitcher Jose Ferrer. We can heap a little fault on Ferrer, even with Muñoz taking the loss, for going to the sinker for a third straight pitch in a 2-2 count and failing to put away his lefty hitter, and maybe to Randy Arozarena for dropping the transfer on Merrill’s double, eliminating any play at the plate (merciful, some might say, the some being recap writers), but this mess was of Muñoz’s doing. It’s the worst solution to a mystery story I didn’t want to write in the first place. Here’s hoping for a happier story next time.