What is the story about?
Happy Tuesday! The Mariners fell just short in a 1-2 walkoff loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday, but starter Bryan Woo impressed through four innings with three hits, no walks, and four strikeouts. The Mariners will face the Kansas City Royals at 1:10 PM this afternoon as RHP Cooper Criswell takes the mound.
With another exciting day of World Baseball Classic play, commenter Sam206 posted a great question in yesterday’s Moose Tracks comments that deserves a larger discussion: “How do you guys
feel about Julio’s performance in the WBC so far? Optimistic for him to have a faster start this season? Or is it just a good WBC performance against inconsistent national team pitching?”
In Mariners news…
- With George Kirby now calling some of his own pitches, Ryan Divish at The Seattle Times wrote that Logan Gilbert has followed suit. Could it be a new trend for the starting rotation, or just some fun while Cal is away?
- Our own Ryan Blake took a fascinating deep dive into RHP Kade Anderson’s fastball movement.
- Mariners top infield prospect Michael Arroyo was highlighted as one of the WBC’s top performers so far as he leads Colombia in runs and steals.
In the World Baseball Classic…
- Korea’s emphatic 7-2 win over Australia has advanced them to the second round of the WBC for the first time in 17 years. The win created a three-way tie in Pool C for second place that was decided by the number of runs each team scored in pool play, and Australia was eliminated after falling just one run short.
- Colombia defeated Panama 4-3 to both get their first win of the tournament and eliminate Panama from contention.
- Another dominant Dominican Republic game featured a 10-1 win over Israel. The scoring was started by a monster Fernando Tatis Jr. grand slam, and Israel was eliminated from contention in the process.
- In a battle of two eliminated teams, Great Britain finished strong with an 8-1 win over Brazil.
- Venezuela has already clinched a spot in the WBC quarterfinals but remains undefeated after a 4-0 win over Nicaragua.
- Puerto Rico won the battle of unbeaten teams against Cuba 4-1 and clinched a quarterfinal spot in front of their home crowd.
- In perhaps the most anticipated game of the night, Team USA defeated Mexico 5-3 in an electric showcase of some of the leagues biggest stars.
Around the league…
- RHP Jesus Luzardo has agreed to a five-year/$135 million extension with the Philadelphia Phillies.
- Atlanta Braves LHP Joey Wentz has torn his ACL in his right knee and will miss the entire 2026 season.
- Colorado Rockies RHP RJ Petit has been diagnosed with a UCL sprain and will undergo further evaluation.
- The San Francisco Giants have re-signed LHP Joey Lucchesi to a minor league deal that will earn him $1.15 million if he makes the big league roster.
