Mariners could make franchise history if they don’t stop botching close games

It isn't just the Seattle Mariners offense that has been hard to watch this year. The whole team excels at raining anxiety down on the Pacific Northwest, and the proof is right there in the wreckage of their one-run games. Though they managed to win one on Wednesday, they've lost more one-run games (12) than any team in MLB.

The Mariners are playing against type here. One-run games are notoriously tricky to pin down on the luck/skill spectrum, though Seattle tends to be better than most at winning them. They had winning records in one-run games in 2025, 2022 and 2021.

Yet even if 12 one-run losses through 51 games is neither a franchise (14) nor an MLB (17) record, these still account for 24 percent of the Mariners' games. Average that out over 162 games, and we're talking a pace for 38 one-run losses that would smash the 1978 Mariners' club record of 31.

The Mariners' habit of losing close games isn't all Dan Wilson's fault, if you can believe that

After what happened on Tuesday in the Mariners' 2-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox, it's obviously hard not to talk about Dan Wilson and his in-game decisions as manager.

Wilson's lack of urgency to replace Luis Castillo with Andrés Muñoz is hardly the only datapoint that suggests he has bullpen management issues. That was kind of the whole thing that sunk the club's 2025 playoff run, and it was a story again as soon as Opening Day this year.

There are also the frequently questionable lineup choices. Tuesday once again stands out, specifically in the sense that Wilson is still batting Rob Refsnyder leadoff against lefties. It's a good call according to 2025 scouting reports. But here in 2026, Refsnyder is 7-for-66 overall and 5-for-51 against lefties. He's become more of a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency player.

These are the specifics, anyway. The big picture is a 27-24 Pythagorean record that suggests the Mariners should be doing better than 24-27. The Mariners under Wilson have basically become an anti-fun differential team, and that's not a good look for him.

Then again, are we supposed to just forget the offense's role in all this? More specifically, how painfully unclutch it has been? These splits are as of the start of play on Wednesday:

• With Runners in Scoring Position: .694 OPS, T-21st in MLB
• In High-Leverage: .680 OPS, 25th in MLB
• In Late and Close Games: .642 OPS, 24th in MLB

These obviously aren't the only three scenarios in which teams are free to score runs. And yes, we're aware that "clutch" is an elusive thing, akin to some sort of cryptid wandering the wild.

When it comes down to it, though, it's hard to ask for a more effective recipe for one-run losses than an iffy strategist and an offense with the reliability of a deadbeat dad. That it's hard to watch isn't even the problem. That you can practically set your watch to it is.

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