Ah, the Atlanta Braves and the West Coast. It’s truly a match made in the underworld as far as the Braves are concerned, as the games always just feel like they go one of two ways: Miserable slogs that have you like “I stayed up all night for this?” or miserable slogs that result in the Braves snatching and clawing their way to a close victory. Either way, it’s rarely ever a fun little ol’ romp for the Braves out West and this series was another example of that.
The Mariners weren’t coming into this
series playing with their hair on fire or anything like that after they had gotten swept by the Royals (at home, no less) over the course of the weekend. Still, when it comes to games in this part of the country for the Braves, you always have to take it one day at the time and each game provides its own unique (and likely dreadful) set of challenges. So how did this series end up going? Let’s get into it.
Monday, May 4
Mariners 5, Braves 4
The force was with the Braves’ bats on this particular day but as it turned out, this ended up being a matter of picking spots rather than quantity of homers. Atlanta had no trouble dealing with Logan Gilbert while he was out there, as the Braves teed off on him for four home runs during the six innings that he spent on the mound. Matt Olson’s homer in particular was a big one, as that was his 300th career homer. Drake Baldwin, Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley each homered as well, with Riley’s homer making it a 4-0 game in the top of the sixth — which is when Atlanta hit three homers in that inning, alone.
Then the problems started for the Braves. JR Ritchie was doing fine through five innings and that maybe should’ve been all he got because he went out there for the sixth inning and immediately got in trouble. Two of Ritchie’s six walks came in this frame and they both cost him dearly once Luke Raley hit a dinger that brought Seattle to within one run. Tyler Kinley entered the game after that and got into a situation where there was a man on with two outs and J.P. Crawford at the plate. Unfortunately for us, Seattle’s empire struck back as Crawford lifted off on Kinley and hit one deep to right field that gave the Mariners the lead. Atlanta was unable to wake up their bats again and this one ended in a series-opening loss for the Braves.
Tuesday, May 5
Braves 3, Mariners 2
J.P. Crawford got the Mariners started on the good foot once again, as he hit a two-run dinger off of Bryce Elder to give Seattle a 2-0 lead in the third inning. The good news is that this was the extent of the damage that Elder allowed in this one, as he delivered another fine start on the mound. Elder went six innings and only gave up two hits with three walks while striking out nine batters. It’s starting to feel like 2023 up in here, y’all.
George Kirby was equally tough for the Braves to deal with but it wasn’t a perfectly clean outing for Kirby, though. Atlanta was able to get to Kirby in the fourth inning after Mauricio Dubón delivered another big hit during the early portion of his tenure with the Braves. His RBI double brought both Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson home to score and just like that, it was a tie ballgame.
It stayed tied all the way until the ninth inning, which is when a big hit could’ve turned the tide at any given moment. As it turned out, it was none other than the man who has consistently been coming up big for the Braves so far this season; Matt Olson got a pitch that he liked from Andrés Muñoz and crushed it for a go-ahead solo shot that put Atlanta ahead. Raisel Iglesias returned to action and made the save that evened up the series for the Braves.
Wednesday, May 6
Mariners 3, Braves 1
This was another close game and another one where the home team did just enough to get across the finish line and hand the Braves their first series loss of 2026. This time, the big hero (or villain, from our perspective) of the game for the Mariners was Bryan Woo. Woo bounced back from two rough starts in a row to look more like the guy who Seattle has expected to see over the past couple of years. Woo completely held the Braves in check while he was out there as he threw six scoreless innings and only surrendered a single hit and a pair of walks while striking out nine batters.
Martín Pérez made it into the sixth inning but he gave up a two-run dinger to Julio Rodríguez with one out in that sixth inning in order to break what was a scoreless deadlock. Didier Fuentes pitched two innings in this one but he gave up an RBI double to Cole Young in the ninth inning that gave Seattle a two-run lead that felt like double that amount with the way the Mariners were pitching in this one. The only reason why the Braves avoided getting shut out is because they were able to get something going in the eighth inning that led to a sacrifice fly from Dominic Smith to put them on the board. It also didn’t help matters that right after the sacrifice fly, pinch runner Jorge Mateo got thrown out for being a bit too casual getting back to first base on a pickoff attempt. Base runners were at a premium all day and that was a very frustrating way to lose an out to play with.
Outside of that, Atlanta was completely unable to get any real momentum going in this one and the first series loss of the season finally happened for the Braves. With that being said, losing a baseball game pales in comparison to losing a life, as Wednesday was certainly a somber day in Braves Country as the franchise mourned the loss of former owner Ted Turner.
Welp! If it takes until early-May to finally drop a series, then you’re doing pretty well, right? It also seemed like if this streak was going to come to an end at any point soon, it was going to happen while the Braves were in the Pacific Time Zone since it sure feels like this region has been a house of horrors for the Braves over the course of recent history. Still, credit has to go to the Mariners who were persistently hanging with the Braves and seemingly beating them upside the head with a club every time they got a good chance to do so. Seattle had timely hitting and their pitching was mostly good throughout the three games, so they certainly earned the series win.
As far as the Braves are concerned, this is one of those rare times where I’m actually not all that perturbed with a series loss. Atlanta still has a healthy buffer between themselves at the top of the division and the rest of their foes in the NL East and they also avoided a sweep. As long as they can avoid any extended losing streaks or dips in form, they’ll be fine going forward. Plus, seeing Matt Olson continue to rake is definitely a major positive as it’s becoming clearer and clearer that he could be in line to have a really big season here in 2026.
So, who knows? Maybe with the top arms in Atlanta’s rotation going for the series at Dodger Stadium, the pressure of keeping the series winning streak will be off and the Braves can actually go out and play confident baseball against a Dodgers team that will always be tough to deal with — especially in LA’s own stadium. All good things have to come to an end eventually and maybe ending it in Seattle was the perfect time for it to happen. Now granted, I think we’d all prefer to see this streak last forever but again, what did I just say about all good things? It’s now time to hope that Chris Sale, Spencer Strider and Bryce Elder can get the job done and that the bats can wake up in Los Angeles in order to end the road trip on a high note. Let’s see what happens!
