SEATTLE (AP) — By the time Emerson Hancock’s first start of the 2025 season ended, he had recorded just two outs.
Once Hancock’s inaugural outing of 2026 concluded, though, a few very different figures lit up the scoreboard at T-Mobile Park.
Six innings.
No runs.
And most impressive — no hits.
Not only did the Seattle Mariners starter pick up his first win of the season Sunday in the team’s 8-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians, Hancock also proved
to himself in a very concrete way that he has made sizable steps forward since the spring of 2025.
After all, Hancock won a spot in the Mariners’ rotation in large part because of a spring training injury to Bryce Miller.
“A year ago, right now, we’re having a completely different conversation. Things went completely different,” Hancock said with a laugh. “But, I think that’s just part of this game. And you’re going to struggle, there’s going to be ups, there’s going to be downs.”
There were no “downs” to speak of Sunday, at least not according to the 30,800 fans on hand who rewarded the sixth overall pick in the 2020 amateur draft with a standing ovation after he worked a 1-2-3 sixth inning.
In the process, Hancock joined Félix Hernández as the only Mariners pitchers to strike out nine or more in a hitless outing of at least six innings. Hernández did so when throwing a perfect game in 2012.
Hancock’s nine strikeouts were a career high, a figure buoyed in large part by a four-seam fastball that generated nine swings-and-misses. Paired with a sweeper that Hancock spent a lot of time refining in the offseason, Hancock’s fastball kept Cleveland’s hitters off balance all evening.
“You’re playing the speed game and the break game,” Hancock said. “It’s something slower, it’s something that is breaking a lot through the zone. And if you can throw it in the zone, it can help a ton. And then the heater for me, I’m just trying to see it as the mask and just kind of rip it.”
Hancock effortlessly maneuvered through Cleveland’s lineup. The only baserunners the 26-year-old right-hander allowed came when he walked José Ramírez in the first inning and hit CJ Kayfus with a fastball in the sixth.
But after six innings and 97 pitches, manager Dan Wilson decided Hancock was done, and there was no consideration to seeing if he could produce the seventh no-hitter in Mariners history.
“What he did today was really good execution,” Wilson said. “Really hard to take a guy out after no hits, six innings. But, pitch count was where it was.”
Guardians rookie Chase DeLauter lined a clean single leading off the seventh against reliever Cooper Criswell to break up Seattle’s bid for a combined no-hitter.
Across the board, Hancock’s velocity was down relative to last season, too. He and Wilson chalked that up in part to it being early in the season. It didn’t help that the temperature hung in the low 40s all game on a chilly late afternoon in the Pacific Northwest
As much as the elements may have shortened Hancock’s start, though, they only added to its brilliance. From the outset, third baseman Brendan Donovan was impressed with Hancock’s willingness to attack hitters, evidenced by the right-hander throwing first-pitch strikes to 12 of the 19 batters he faced, as well as not allowing a batted ball against him to leave the infield.
“I feel like he had confidence in everything that was coming out of his hand,” Donovan said. “Mixing speeds, locations, high levels. Kind of in and out, down, everything seemed to be working for him.”
Such an assessment could not be applied to Hancock’s first start of the 2025 season, one he ultimately finished coming out of the bullpen as Seattle’s starting rotation got healthier. But if Hancock can spin the ball the way he did Sunday more frequently, Wilson will have tougher decisions to make beyond whether he should keep the righty in the game.
“What an incredible performance by Emerson Hancock,” Wilson said. "It was impressive.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb
