Logan Gilbert's pitching, clutch homers turn Mariners 2025 Opening Day into a classic

For seven innings, the Seattle Mariners teased that their 2025 season opener would go into the books as one of those frustrating, pull-your-darn-hair out losses. Yet when the dust cleared, there they were with a 4-2 win over the Athletics.

It really is amazing what clutch home runs in support of excellent pitching can do, isn't it?

Distilled down to its essence, the story of how the Mariners are now 1-0 really is that simple. The principal characters are naturally to be commended, so here are some official props to Logan Gilbert for his seven brilliant innings and for Randy Arozarena and Jorge Polanco for using home run power to snatch victory from the proverbial jaws of defeat.

The Mariners hopefully learned a valuable offensive lesson

There are reasons that the Mariners were held to just one run through the first seven innings of Thursday's showdown at T-Mobile Park, and one of them deserves his due credit: A's ace Luis Severino absolutely shoved for six innings.

The erstwhile New York Yankee and New York Met did walk four batters, but he allowed only three hits and struck out six in his six scoreless innings. The last of those strikeouts was particularly painful for the 42,871 packed into T-Mobile Park, as Severino caught Rowdy Tellez looking at a dandy of a sweeper to strand runners at second and third.

There were also, however, some questionable decisions on the Mariners' side.

Namely, a call for Polanco (who was 2-for-2 at the time) to sacrifice bunt with men on first and second and one out in the sixth. That didn't work, and a subsequent bunt call with Victor Robles up with nobody out and runners on first and second similarly led to calamity, albeit more indirectly via a funky play that resulted in Ryan Bliss going from safe to out at home after a replay review.

Hence the aforementioned frustration, but all that was relieved when Arozarena went yard off José Leclerc to tie the game 2-2 in the eighth inning. When Polanco followed with a go-ahead two-run homer off Leclerc, what frustration there had been was entirely exorcised.

All's well that ends well, but there's still cause for a simple plea for the Mariners and manager Dan Wilson, specifically: Please cool it with the bunts.

The pitching tone was set by...Ichiro Suzuki?

The first pitch of Thursday's game was a beauty, uncorked by a living legend that had fans at T-Mobile Park buzzing over the reading on the radar gun.

It was the ceremonial first pitch, delivered by none other than Ichiro Suzuki in full uniform. The 51-year-old Hall of Famer's offering was clocked at 84 mph because [gestures in the direction of a million highlight-worthy throws from the outfield] of course it did.

Perhaps it's silly to think that Ichiro's instantly iconic first pitch set the tone for Gilbert, but there's no harm in it either. And the story ultimately has the same ending either way, as the 27-year-old more than lived up to the hype of his first Opening Day start.

Gilbert went seven innings and allowed one run on two hits, with no walks and eight strikeouts. The only damage off him was the first of two solo home runs by A's first baseman Tyler Soderstrom — unless, of course, you count the 111 mph Lawrence Butler line drive that hit the righty in his backside.

There to clean things up at the end was Andrés Muñoz, who easily shook off a leadoff walk to Butler. He fanned Brent Rooker swinging and got JJ Bleday to ground into a 6-3 double play, and that was that.

Not a bad way to start a new season, all things considered. And it's doubly satisfying knowing that the Mariners are now just a little more legendary for winning on Opening Day. They're now 30-19 all-time in openers.

All they have to do now is use their remaining 161 games to turn this strong start into a strong middle and, hopefully, an even stronger finish.