Emerson Hancock gave up a home run to Zach Neto on the first batter he faced Saturday. It was the only run of the game.
The home run was the first hit Hancock allowed in 2026. He threw six no-hit innings with nine strikeouts last week against the Guardians in his season debut. He looked sharp in that outing, showing a lower arm slot and better “stuff” than he’d ever shown before. That made Saturday’s start against the Angels a surprisingly anticipated event: Could he look good in twice in a row?
The
answer, as it turns out, was yes. Hancock pounded the zone with fastballs early and finished the day without a walk. He always seemed to be ahead, even as he expanded the zone with each turn through the order. The Angels matched Hancock’s aggression with aggression of their own, swinging at about 60% of his pitches. But they couldn’t quite figure him out, whiffing 28% of the time and striking out five times. They did tag a few balls here and there, but most of their contact was too low or too high to matter.
The game nearly unraveled on Hancock early. Neto lead off with the homer. Nolan Schanuel then shot a sinking liner into the left-center gap that Julio Rodríguez missed with a tumbling dive for a double. Schanuel advanced to third on a hard single from Jorge Soler. With two outs, Hancock threw a wild pitch that looked like it should score Schanuel, but Cal Raleigh made a nice play to scramble for the ball and fired to Hancock for the tag at home.
From there, Hancock settled in. He faced the minimum in four of the next five innings. He nearly made it through seven before a two out squibber from Jo Adell snuck through the infield; at 82 pitches, Dan Wilson turned to the pen. Perhaps most importantly, Hancock’s fastball velocity sort of held up: It was 96.1 mph in the first inning and 96.4 mph in the fourth inning. Now, it was 93.3 mph in the seventh when he exited, but given that dip used to happen in the second (or even midway through the first), I’d call that progress.
Hancock’s final line was 6 2/3 innings, six hits, five strikeouts, no walks, 28% whiff rate, and a 31% hard hit rate. That’s not quite as good as his last outing, but if anything, I think it’s a better representation of what the good version of Hancock could potentially look like — unspectacular, efficient, solid.
None of that really mattered. Here’s highlight number one:
And highlight number two:
And highlight number three:
Cal Raleigh in the first inning, Josh Naylor in the eighth, and J.P. Crawford in the ninth each hit home runs that Adell, arguably the worst defensive outfielder in baseball, brought back from over the fence. The Mariners offense wasn’t great, striking out 10 times with a lot of weak contact. But those plays, in addition to two other nice plays from Josh Lowe and Oswald Peraza, kept them from scoring, or even really threatening.
And so there it is: A game recap about… Emerson Hancock pitching well and Jo Adell playing good defense. Whodathunk.
