Mariners see causes for optimism heading into sequence in opposition to Giants

Leave it to Jerry Dipoto to look on the bright side.

“If the season ended today, somehow, magically, we’re in the playoffs,” said Dipoto, the Seattle Mariners’ president of baseball operations.

For as much hand-wringing there has been in the Pacific Northwest about the Mariners’ dreary season, Dipoto is correct.

The defending American League West champions return to play after the All-Star break with a three-game interleague series against the visiting San Francisco Giants beginning Friday.

The underperforming Mariners (48-49) open the unofficial second half of the season 1 1/2 games behind Texas in the division and tied with Minnesota for the league’s third and final wild-card berth.

“In general, I think the pitching staff continues to do the things that are required to play into the postseason, and that makes us feel really confident that eventually we will figure ourselves out,” Dipoto said. “But you know the rest of our group — our decision-making, our roster composition, it all needs to be better than it’s been. And that’s for me, that’s for the staff, that’s for the players to figure out.

“I don’t think there’s a single one of us who doesn’t share in the responsibility of finding the answers to how we got here.”

The Mariners snapped a five-game losing streak on the eve of the break, beating host Tampa Bay 8-2 on Sunday.

“It was a tough road trip from beginning to end, but a good way to end it,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Our guys continued to push, and they understood how important it was to continue to fight. … They executed, they took good at-bats and drove in the runs when we needed to drive them in. That’s something that we haven’t been able to do.”

The Mariners could get a boost Friday from the return of center fielder Julio Rodriguez, who has been out since July 3 because of a concussion he sustained when hit by a thrown ball in the back of the helmet while sliding into second base.

Despite winning their final two games before the break against visiting Colorado, the Giants (41-55) are 19 1/2 games behind in the National League West and 10 1/2 back in the NL wild-card race.

“A learning experience, for sure,” rookie Giants manager Tony Vitello said of the first half. “You look at the personnel, it doesn’t make sense. You look at the way we played some days, it doesn’t make sense, but it’s baseball. We haven’t found that winning formula day in and day out.”

The Giants’ erratic offense is tied for 24th in MLB in runs scored (395) and the pitching staff’s 4.46 ERA ranks 22nd.

“We haven’t put ourselves in a good position,” All-Star right-hander Logan Webb said. “That’s pretty truthful, right? It’s not like we’ve played very well. I think we all just have to take a step back, look in the mirror and say, ‘What do we want to be? What do we want to be as a team? How do we want teams to view us when we come to town or they come to town?'”

The series opener is set to feature a pair of right-handers in the Giants’ Landen Roupp (6-8, 4.27 ERA) against the Mariners’ Bryce Miller (4-3, 2.18).

Roupp is coming off the longest start of his career as he beat visiting Toronto 10-1 on July 6 when he allowed one run on three hits over eight innings, with five strikeouts. He’s 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA in one career appearance against Seattle, pitching one inning on Aug. 23, 2024.

Miller had his worst start of the season July 9 in Miami when he gave up six runs (four earned) over five innings of an 8-4 defeat. He’d allowed as many as three earned runs in only one of his previous nine appearances this season. Miller is 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in one previous start against San Francisco in April 2025.

–Field Level Media