There’s been a big development in Dom Canzone’s game

The past week would have looked like a more disastrous stretch for the Seattle Mariners if weren’t for the efforts of Dominic Canzone.

The M’s have won just two games over the past seven days. They have Canzone to thank for both of those wins.

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On Sunday, Canzone cranked a go-ahead three-run homer in the seventh inning that ignited what looked like a lifeless Mariners squad in a 6-4 win over the Rangers.

And on Tuesday, he belted the game-tying blast and followed it with a go-ahead two-run shot in his next at-bat in the eighth inning to help Seattle pull out a 7-6 win over the defending World Series champion Dodgers.

It continued what’s been another strong season at the plate for Canzone after his breakout 2025. Yahoo Sports’ Jordan Shusterman recently shared a stat that illustrated just how good the Ohio State product has been the past two seasons. Among players with at least 250 plate appearances over each of the past two seasons, Canzone is among six players who have posted a 140 wRC+ both years. The others are Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Nick Kurtz and Kyle Schwarber. That’s a pretty good list to be a part of.

Canzone’s big development

While Canzone has had a number of big games this year, his two homers on Tuesday stood out in particular because they both came against left-handed pitching, which are situations he likely would not have found himself in when he started this season in a platoon role.

“He has just swung bat. Right-handed, left-handed – it doesn’t matter who’s out of the mound,” manager Dan Wilson said following Tuesday’s win in Los Angeles. “He’s put up some good at-bats, he’s driven the ball. The big home run in Texas to give us the W there and tonight with a couple homers, the one that put us ahead. He just continues to put good swings on the ball and hasn’t missed them.”

Canzone, who leads the Mariners with 18 homers and 49 RBIs this season, has made some huge strides against southpaws in a limited sample size this season.

In 45 plate appearances against lefties, Canzone is batting .286 with an eye-popping 1.101 OPS and four homers. It’s a huge jump from the .221 average and .607 OPS he had in 109 plate appearances against lefties in his three previous big-league seasons.

"For him to show he can do damage against left-handed pitching is a huge deal."@j_shusterman_ on how Dominic Canzone's breakout season has been a crucial development for the #Mariners offense on w/@michaelbumpus5 & @StacyRost. pic.twitter.com/K0wNmZoH7k

— Seattle Sports (@SeattleSports) July 29, 2026

Canzone’s improved batting against same-handed pitching has also feature hard-hit and walk rates that are nearly double his previous career marks. He has a 44% hard-contact rate and 20% walk rate against lefties in 2026, up from 23.9% and 11%, respectively, over the three prior seasons.

If the Mariners are going to overcome their struggles against left-handed pitching and make a run over the season’s final months, they’ll need more from players like Cal Raleigh and Rob Refsnyder – two bats the club expected to mash southpaws but haven’t. But if Canzone can continue this development in his game, that will certainly help, too.

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