The Mariners dominated these 10 pitchers in 2023 hitting incredibly well against them

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Continuing with the trend of looking at the good after looking at the bad, I wanted to see which pitchers the Mariners absolutely lit up in 2023. There are some really fun names on this list, but shelling a reliever one game doesn't hold the wait as lighting up a starter (unless it's to win a game).

I think I am going to break this one down a little different than I have done with the other articles. This time around, I'm going to apply a filter to each slide, and give you some of the "best" ones that fit that criteria. Who did the Mariners absolutely light up? Who did they have constant success against? Who did they get a ton of baserunners against?

I think those are the categories we are going to look at, as they each tell a story. Let's start with the pitchers that the Mariners did the best against, regardless of innings thrown.

Blue Jays: Nate Pearson: 0.1 IP, 108.00 ERA, 3 H, 1 HBP, 4 ER

It makes it so much better that this happened in relief of a Kevin Gausman start. After six solid innings by Gausman, not pitching great but handing off a 7-4 lead, here is what Pearson did. HBP, pop out, double, single, double, and it's 7-7. Pearson would be pulled, and Yimi Garcia would give up a 2-run double to give the Mariners the 9-7 lead and eventual win.

Orioles: Keegan Akin: 0.2 IP, 81.00 ERA, 6 H, 1 BB, 6 ER, 7 R

Easily his worst outing, and actually 33% of all runs he gave up on the season came in this one outing. He takes over in the top of the 8th, down 6-1. It starts off fine with a double, then a groundout and a lineout. It looks like Akin is about to get out of the inning. Then this happened.
- Walk
- Wild Pitch
- single
- single
- single
- single
- single

Far and away his worst outing of the year and led to the Mariners second largest margin of victory of the season in a 13-1 win.

Cubs: Hayden Wesneski: 1.1 IP, 33.75 ERA, 6 H, 4 BB, 5 ER, 7 R

While you would think this is great, the Mariners would have a pitcher show up from this game in a list made by the Cubs (if they did one). The Mariners had a 7-0 heading to the bottom of the second, and I remember thinking that this was going to be a nice early statement win by the Mariners. Darn you Chris Flexen. By the end of the 3rd inning, the Mariners were down 9-7, and would end up losing the game. To get 10 baserunners in two innings and lose the game hurts. Still does.

Astros: Framber Valdez: 3 starts, 15 IP, 6.60 ERA, 20 H, 9 BB, 1.93 WHIP, 11 ER

I feel so much better now. Just fantastic to see an Astros player show up on the list, and spoiler, he won't be the last one. Valdez still had one good start but gave up 3 in 4 innings and 6 in 5 innings in his other two starts. They were responsible for his second-worst start of the season, and it warms my heart to see them putting nearly two runners on per inning across the 15 innings they faced him.

Blue Jays: Alek Manoah: 2 starts, 10.1 IP, 4.35 ERA, 9 H, 8 BB, 5 ER, 1.65 WHIP

Manoah was a wierd dude this year to face. The Mariners didn't score a ton on him, but they sure had a lot of opportunities, and that's why I wanted to list him on here. Add in the 2 HBP, and that's 19 baserunners in 10.1 innings, and you only plated five of them. I'll think about the good over the bad on this one.

Rays: Taj Bradley: 2 starts, 9.2 IP, 8.38 ERA, 15 H, 3 BB, 4 HR, 9 ER, 1.86 WHIP

It makes me feel better to see Bradley on here after listing Littell on the domination list. His second start was better than his first, so let's focus on the bad one. He went just 3.1 innings, allowing ten baserunners and five ER as the Mariners would hold on to win a 7-6 game. He gave up 4 in the good outing, but the bullpen shut the Mariners down. Still nice to see them hit the talented prospect hard both games.

Yankees: Domingo German: 2 starts, 9.2 IP, 11.17 ERA, 15 H, 5 BB, 5 HR, 12 ER, 2.07 WHIP

Now we get to the fun stuff. These are the guys that the Mariners absolutely hammered this season, and starting off with German seems like a good spot. His fifth-worst start of the year saw the Mariners score 4 in 6.1 innings, with 10 baserunners and just 4 Ks. His worst start though saw the Mariners absolutely tee off, hitting four HRs in 3.1 innings, scoring eight in a 10-2 win.

Royals: Jordan Lyles: 2 starts, 8.0 IP, 14.63 ERA, 15 H, 4 BB, 7 HR, 13 ER, 2.38 WHIP

The Mariners were responsible for the worst and 4th-worst start of Lyles's season. They would score six in five innings against him, tallying nine hits and blasting four homers in a 10-8 win. Just under two weeks later, they would hit three homers for seven runs in just three innings in a devastating 15-3 victory over the Royals.

Orioles: Kyle Gibson: 2 starts, 8.1 IP, 15.2 ERA, 19 H, 5 BB, 4 HR, 14 ER, 2.88 WHIP

Very similar here to Lyles. Worst and 4th-worst starts of the season came against the Mariners. The first was the aforementioned game with Keegan Akin in relief. It started with Gibson giving up five runs in just three innings while allowing ten baserunners. Six weeks later, he would give up 12 hits, two walks, and nine runs across 5.1 innings for his worst outing of the season in a 9-2 Mariners win.

Astros: Hunter Brown: 2 starts, 5.2 IP, 17.47 ERA, 16 H, 5 BB, 11 ER, 3.71 WHIP

Perfection. His worst and 3rd-worst start of the season came against the Mariners. On July 7th, the Mariners scored five in three innings, notching eight hits and walking three times while somehow striking out eight times as well. Then, about six weeks later, they had eight hits once again while walking twice, this time scoring six in just 2.2 innings against Brown.

I feel like I'm in a happy place after this article. remembering all those good times of the Mariners absolutely rocking opposing pitching puts me in a good mindset. I hope it did for you, too!

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The Mariners dominated these 10 pitchers in 2023, hitting incredibly well against them