Salk: Will first series win set Mariners off in right direction?

You’ve heard it said many times, but baseball really is unique. It truly is different from the other sports. It’s played over a significantly longer season, with more travel, more downtime, and more individual failures.

But for everything that makes it different, nothing factors in more than the lack of a clock.

Yeah, I know there’s now a pitch clock, but games still don’t end according to time; they end when that final out is recorded and not until then.

So when the Seattle Mariners came back from 5-0 and 6-4 deficits on Wednesday to beat the hated Astros and win their first series of the season, it was the type of story that’s been written many times through baseball history. All it takes is one good swing at the right moment, one errant pitch, or even an iffy call to change an outcome. And this win had a little of all of that.

But the weird thing is, we have no way of knowing whether it will change anything moving forward.

Three things stand out from the Mariners’ start

Randy Arozarena’s grand slam might have been the moment the ice cracked and the drowning offense broke through and started to breathe again. Julio Rodríguez’s 0-2, opposite-field double might have convinced him to simplify his approach in big moments, and maybe that unlocks the immense talent inside of him.

Maybe Houston relievers just inexplicably walked six batters in less than three innings despite being granted a five-run lead that should have been insurmountable to this Seattle offense.

Obviously, only time will tell us the answer to this one. Maybe it was a wake-up call that allows this team to find itself. Maybe it was one gift from a lousy bullpen that will be forgotten about by May.

As you know, the 2025 Mariners roster is effectively a massive wager. The organization is betting that coaching styles and philosophical changes will produce different results with largely the same group of players. Through the first 12 games and seven innings, that bet looked lost.

The team that wanted fewer strikeouts was once again in the top 10, averaging roughly nine per game.

The team that wanted to score in more varied ways was driving in roughly half its runs via the long ball.

The team that wanted to improve its situational hitting was even worse in those situations, dead last in the league in hitting with runners in scoring position.

The roster that was supposed to allow its manager to maximize its chances in close games through athleticism and aggressiveness has looked clunky and flawed, forcing decisions that defy baseball logic (at least on paper).

None of those problems disappeared when Julio trotted home with the winning run on Wednesday afternoon. But it did, at least, show a vision for what this is supposed to look like.

Baseball games are won through consistency, not through the occasional glimpse of success. It’s up to the players to internalize why that success occurred and repeat it. It’s up to the coaching staff to help. And it’s up to the front office to provide a roster that allows its manager to make sound decisions late in games.

For the first time this year, we have a roadmap. Hopefully they can follow that path.

More on the Seattle Mariners

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• Rangers lose slugger to IL ahead of series vs Mariners
• Passan on Seattle Mariners’ division: The AL West ‘stinks’
• Why Passan says concerning Seattle Mariners stat should improve
• Seattle Mariners share injury updates on Farmelo, other prospects

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