After the New York Yankees defeated the Chicago White Sox tonight, all the Seattle Mariners needed to punch their own ticket to the postseason was to defeat the worst team in baseball, the Colorado Rockies.

For most of the game, it looked like the champagne might need to stay on ice for another day. The Rockies were good through seven innings.

And then there weren’t.

The Mariners’ clubhouse was thumping as the Rockies dropped the opener, 4-3.

The Rockies offense: Small ball

The Rockies were largely successful in manufacturing runs.

They got on board first after a Jordan Beck lead-off double led to a Kyle Karros RBI single.

Brown followed that by striking out the side in a pretty nice showing.

The Mariners got on the board in the fifth when Dominic Canzone hit a home run.

Mickey Moniak led off with a double in the sixth followed by a Blaine Crim walk. At that point, there was enough traffic to knock starting pitcher Bryce Miller out of the game. He finished having pitched. 5.2 innings, giving up one run (earned) on five hits. Miller struck out four and walked one.

Eduard Bazardo entered the game and allowed Ezequiel Tovar to hit a single, which scored two runs (Moniak and Crim).

The Mariners were unable to answer in the bottom of the inning.

Things got dicey in the eighth then Juan Mejia entered in relief. He first hit Victor Robles with a pitch and the walked J.P. Crawford. After that, the Mariners’ lineup turned over. Mejia struck out two — Randy Arozarena and Cal Raleigh — and got two strikes from Julio Rodríguez before hitting him with a pitch to load the bases.

Interim manager Warren Schaeffer had seen enough and went to Victor Vodnik for the final out of the inning.

Vodnik gave up a three-run double to Naylor, and the Rockies found themselves down by one.

The free passes — two HBPs and a walk — came back to haunt the Rockies.

Seattle managed only three hits, but since Rockies pitchers issued too many free passes, it was enough for the win.

The Rockies were unable to score in the ninth while the Mariners got the party started.

McCade Brown: Cooking with gas

In the midst of the disappointment, don’t over look McCade Brown’s stellar night.

Brown got off to a rough start. In the first inning, he hit Cal Raleigh with a pitch and then walked Julio Rodríguez. The game felt like it was speeding up on Brown until a double play ended the inning, and Brown found his footing. He struck out seven of the next eight batters he faced before surrendering the first hit of the evening, a single, to Josh Naylor.

Although he would give up that homer to Canzone in the fifth, Brown struck out 10 batters over five innings in what was easily his most dominant MLB start. He’s the fourth Rockies pitcher to induce 15 swing-an—misses this year with 10 of them coming on the fastball.

Reader, prepare to be awed:

Brown’s final line was 5.0 IP, giving up one run (earned) on two hits. He walked two, hit one batter (sorry, Cal Raleigh!), and struck out 10 on 81 pitches. He also brought his ERA down to 7.54.

The bullpen was good — until it wasn’t

Tonight, half of the Rockies bullpen was absolute nails.

Jaden Hill struck out one in the sixth, and Jimmy Herget added two Ks in the seventh.

However, it wasn’t Juan Mejia’s night. He finished with 0.2 innings pitched, giving up three runs (earned) on no hits. He struck out one and earned the loss.

As for Victor Vodnik, he allowed one hit, but it was fatal.

The Mariners are now 88-69 while the Rockies fall to 43-112.

Join us tomorrow at 7:40 pm for Game 2 when Tanner Gordon will face Luis Castillo.

As for me, this is my last game recap of the 2025 season. Thanks for following along.

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