Bryan Woo might have coined a new mantra for Mariners' 2026 pitching staff

The Mariners have had plenty of mantras/slogans over the years in Seattle, with the most inspiring and catchy being the likes of "Refuse to Lose", "Whatever it Takes" and "Seize the Moment". Now, we might have inadvertently found another one thanks to Bryan Woo and his never-ending quest for greatness: "Keep them down when they're down".

This year has seen Woo further strengthen his position as the M's staff ace, in no small part due to the high expectations he puts on himself, seemingly never satisfied with his performances. The latest example of this came on Sunday when he had another strong outing, but was pissed about letting the Rangers get back into the game in the seventh inning.

A mantra born out of Bryan Woo's frustration with himself

It ended up turning out well as Woo limited the Rangers to two runs in that seventh inning and went on to claim his first "W" of the season, but he hated the fact he even gave them life in the first place. Speaking to the media postgame, he said:

"Hitting Joc (Pederson), stupid. But it's just the concept of keeping teams down when they're down you know, not giving them any life. When we got a lead and I'm going out for whatever it is later in the game. Not letting them have any momentum, not letting them breathe in any way."

Bryan Woo

Allowing for the slight paraphrasing, we love the idea of "Keep them down when they're down" becoming a mantra for the Mariners pitching staff. In fact, it serves as a continued evolution of what started off as "Control the Zone" under former M's manager Scott Servais in 2016, before morphing into "Dominate the Zone" a few years later.

In the case of Woo, he seems to have embraced the whole evolving pitching philosophy, with him committed to staying on the attack at all times. Although even allowing for Sunday's blip during the seventh inning -- hey, even the best have their rough moments -- you probably also trust him more than anyone else to keep an opponent down when they're down.

As good as the Mariners pitching staff is, they can still do even better

As good as the pitching staff is in general, we still also know the others do have their faults. For example, Logan Gilbert can be really inefficient. George Kirby is guilty of letting his frustrations overwhelm him at times, while Andrés Muñoz's control can come and go.

In fairness, the Mariners pitching staff is doing a good job overall in keeping opponents down, with them ranked third in the majors with a team 3.33 ERA, second with a 3.26 FIP, fifth with a 1.19 WHIP and first in fewest walks, with 56. The latter in particular, is in keeping with what Woo is preaching.

All the same, it doesn't mean there isn't still work to do, as evidenced by allowing the Athletics to come back on Monday night and win a game which the M's seemed to have in hand through five innings. As such, it's time to embrace the "Keep them down when they're down" mindset as an official mantra, to help remind the pitching staff of what they should be striving for every night.

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