Grading the red-hot Seattle Mariners' emphatic 2-1 series win vs. Toronto Blue Jays

The Seattle Mariners are no longer merely heating up. They are downright hot, having won four series in a row amid an ongoing climb toward the top of the American League West.

As sweet as last week's 5-1 homestand against the Texas teams was for Mariners fans, there's a case that this week's 4-2 romp through Cincinnati and Toronto is even sweeter. Road wins were hard to come by (i.e., 36-45) in 2024, so the Mariners ripping off back-to-back series wins away from T-Mobile Park is an early indication that 2025 will be different.

The Mariners got a quick start to putting away the rubber game against the Blue Jays on Sunday, putting three runs on the board in the first and second innings en route to a 8-3 victory. Dylan Moore led off with a homer and there was palpable "there goes that man again" energy when Cal Raleigh followed with a two-run shot.

The homer was Raleigh's ninth of the year, tying him with Tyler Soderstrom for the major league lead. It was also the second blow he had dealt Toronto since José Berríos accused "Big Dumper" of relaying pitches on Saturday.

The Mariners have now won nine out of 12 and are 1.5 games back in the AL West as of this writing. Without further ado, let's get into our grades for the series.

Mariners vs. Blue Jays Series Results

• Friday, April 18: SEA 1, TOR 3
• Saturday, April 19: SEA 8, TOR 4 (12)
• Sunday, April 20: SEA 8, TOR 3

Grading the Mariners Offense: B

Until further notice, the first question we'll be asking in our reviews of the Mariners offense is how they did with runners in scoring position. It's been a struggle all year, as they went into Sunday's contest with a league-low .161 average in those spots.

It was more of the same in the first two games of the series, across which Seattle went 3-for-17 in RISP spots. Yet two of those hits were proper game-changers in Saturday's contest, with a two-run double by Raleigh erasing a 2-0 deficit and a grand slam by Rowdy Tellez icing the game in the 12th.

Tellez also homered on Friday and Sunday, so he's starting to show signs of life after struggling badly in the first few weeks of the season. There are no guarantees he'll keep it up, but any hope is welcome given how Mariners first basemen have been giving "cold corner" a whole new meaning.

Other highlights from this series include Ben Williamson collecting his first major league homer with a game-tying shot on Saturday and, mercifully, a productive game with runners in scoring position on Sunday. The M's were 3-for-9 in those spots.

They also struck out 18 times on Sunday, however, and Julio Rodríguez is still not helping as much as he needs to be. He's batting .188 for the season, and right now it's way too easy for pitchers to get him to flail at anything with spin off the plate.

All the same, the Mariners are actually rubbing shoulders with some of the better offenses in MLB. As of this writing, their 115 wRC+ is in the top 10.

Grading the Mariners Defense: A

The Mariners still aren't rating well per defensive metrics like Defensive Runs Saved (-14) and Outs Above Average (-9), but they've been cleaning things up.

They were charged with only one error in the Cincinnati series and none in the three games they played in Toronto. This doesn't mean they can't possibly improve in the field, but some of the more notable momentum shifts in the series happened courtesy of various arms and gloves.

As an example, Raleigh ended the eighth inning of Saturday's game by throwing out Ernie Clement on a nifty tag by Dylan Moore. And on Sunday, Randy Arozarena got Luis Castillo out of a bases-loaded jam in the second with a terrific sliding catch on the left field line.

Meanwhile, Williamson is already living up to rave reviews of his defense. He's making it look easy at the hot corner, even when he has to flag down bolts by great hitters. The 120.4 mph grounder by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on Saturday that he turned into an out is the hardest-hit out of the season so far.

Grading the Mariners Pitching: B

Pitching is supposed to be the Mariners' biggest strength, and this series mostly reinforced that.

Albeit in a losing cause, Bryan Woo gave the Mariners a second straight start of at least seven innings on Friday. And while he lasted only 4.2 innings and had an uncommon amount of traffic on the bases, Logan Gilbert still fanned nine batters and gave up only two runs on Saturday. His splitter continues to rise the ranks of MLB's best pitches, as hitters are now 2-for-32 with 21 strikeouts against it.

Even the Mariners' maligned bullpen had a good series. It posted 7.1 innings of one-run ball on Saturday, with Carlos Vargas and Eduard Bazardo coming through in huge spots in the eighth, ninth, and 10th innings. Four scoreless innings followed on Sunday, with Trent Thornton giving up the lone hit allowed by the relief brigade.

As for Luis Castillo, it's not getting easier to watch him take the ball every fifth day. He had a rough one to start the week in Cincinnati, and he was making Mariners fans cram Tums down their throats on Sunday.

He lasted five innings and gave up only three runs, but he served up 10 hits and two walks and let Toronto hitters take 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position. He struck out five, yet allowed eight batted balls of at least 100 mph.

Now 32, this is who Castillo is now. He can grind his way through outings, but the electric fastball and the ability to get batters to swing and miss that were there for so many years simply aren't anymore. It's time for the Mariners to shorten his leash accordingly.

Grading the Mariners Strategy: C

Though the Mariners won the series, they might have swept it if they hadn't run into so many outs on Friday.

It is inexcusable that they allowed Addison Barger to rack up not one, not two, but three outfield assists. There is sense in testing outfielders with weak arms, but he's one of six defenders who averaged 96-plus mph on their throws in 2024.

“We just got to be smart about our aggression,” manager Dan Wilson said after the game in the understatement of the century, via Tim Booth of The Seattle Times.

This isn't even to mention that Rodríguez was thrown out trying to steal on Friday, bringing Seattle's total for outs on the bases to four just in that game. The clash between the Mariners' aggression on the bases and the inherent risk of that strategy was thus pulled into sharp focus, and it can also be seen in how the team's baserunning value is in the red despite its AL-high 32 stolen bases.

For Wilson's part, he pushed his luck with Vargas and Bazardo on Saturday, but we're reluctant to ding him for it. Things worked out, after all, and he frankly should be using this time of the year to run tests for which relievers he can trust besides Andrés Muñoz. Another successful test followed on Sunday, and we were relieved to see him take our advice for how to use Collin Snider and Gabe Speier.

As for Wilson's lineups, why Miles Mastrobuoni was in the leadoff spot on Saturday is fodder for "Unsolved Mysteries." But to give credit where it's due, using Moore in the leadoff spot against a lefty was a huge win last Tuesday and it resulted in more (no pun intended) of the same on Sunday. And even if it was an obvious call, pinch-hitting the lefty-swinging Tellez for the righty-swinging Donovan Solano against a righty in the seventh inning on Sunday got the desired resulted: a two-run homer.

In any case, the Mariners will now head to Boston to conclude this nine-game road swing with three against the Red Sox, starting on Tuesday. They're another tough AL East customer, and they therefore represent another golden opportunity for these Mariners to prove they're for real.