Mariners vs Blue Jays: Gilbert shines, Canzone cooks, and Raleigh hits bombs

Mariners fans are all too familiar with the team's slow starts. It's a recurring theme that the team gets people excited during the offseason, lies dormant for the first month or so of the season, and then becomes a serious playoff contender around August. While many fans are still waiting on the superstars of the team to take off, some of the lesser-known faces are holding down the fort.

Mariners' Best Hitter: Dominic Canzone

.429/.600/1.000, 3 H, 2B, HR, 2 R, RBI, 3 BB

Canzone had a monstrous three-game stretch and is overall having a pretty darn good season. While his 1.600 OPS from the Toronto series is clearly buoyed by a small sample size, he's slashing .233/.303/.567 over a slightly larger sample size of 33 plate appearances he's had this season. He's seen action in every game and is proving to be a real candidate for most-improved since 2023.

In addition to striking out just twice while racking up three walks, his power was on display as he notched his first double and third home run of the year. The long ball was a 399-foot no-doubter against a Chris Bassitt sinker that stayed in the strike zone a little too long. His plate discipline is still quite bad (bottom quartile of qualified hitters thus far) but his 90th percentile barrel-rate has helped boost his productivity.

Honorable Mention: Cal Raleigh

.182/.250/.727, 2 H, 2 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB

Cal didn't hit the ball often and he struck out five times over just 12 plate appearances, but when he made contact boy oh boy did he hit it hard, with both of his hits ending up in the seats. His first homer was against a Chad Green slider that was fun but not enough to close the gap in the ninth inning of the first game. His second homer was far more meaningful. After being tied at one-run a piece, the game went into the tenth inning where Raleigh's two-run homer ignited what would eventually become a five-run inning for Seattle.

Raleigh has never hit for an exceptionally-high average but his current mark of .194 is even lower than expected. He's definitely not the only one and the Mariners currently have the third-lowest batting average in MLB at .207, so hopefully the team starts to find their groove sooner rather than later.