Jon Morosi sees a clear turning point in Mariners’ season

Aug 8, 2025, 9:24 AM | Updated: 12:11 pm

Seattle Sports

The Seattle Mariners appear to be hitting their stride with just under two months left in the regular season.

Where the Mariners’ playoff odds stand after latest sweep

After a big series win against the division-rival Texas Rangers and three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox, the Mariners have crept within 1 1/2 games of the Houston Astros for first place in the American League West at 63-53. They’re already in playoff position, holding the second AL wild card berth and sitting only one game behind the Boston Red Sox for the top wild card.

To get to the spot they are in now, Seattle had to deal with some turbulence along the way. And there may not have been a more deflating moment this season than what happened when the M’s took a trip to Yankee Stadium a month ago.

After dropping the first two games of the series, the Mariners appeared to be coasting to win up 5-0 against the Yankees with Bryan Woo taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning. But Woo exited after his bid was broken up in the eighth, high-leverage arm Matt Brash allowed rare home run, and closer Andrés Muñoz had a ninth-inning meltdown (while tipping pitches) as the Yankees forced extra innings. New York then pulled out a 6-5 win by literal inches on an acrobatic slide at home plate from Anthony Volpe on a flyball to center field.

With a road series against the MLB-leading Detroit Tigers next, Seattle was at danger of heading into the All-Star Break reeling. However, the M’s responded with a massive three-game sweep in Detroit.

MLB Network insider Jon Morosi pointed to that sequence as the turning point for the Mariners during his weekly conversation with Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob.

“If the Mariners end up winning the division, if they end up winning a couple rounds of the postseason, if they end up going to the World Series for the first time in franchise history, I’m going to go back to that game they lost in New York when Woo was pitching a no-hitter and they somehow lost it,” Morosi said. “What a completely deflating game that was. And then they go to Detroit, they win the series in Detroit.”

It wasn’t just the deflating loss the Mariners dealt with on the road trip either. Going to extra innings in the final game of the Yankees series caused the team to not get into Detroit until 2 a.m. local time on Friday, the same day they were set to face reigning AL Cy Young-winner Tarik Skubal. And then the fire alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. at the team hotel before the series finale against the Tigers.

The Mariners are 15-8 since the start of that series in Detroit, which also included a series win over the Astros.

“It seemed like the way they responded to that defeat has become the new true north of their year, and I’m just really impressed by that,” Morosi said. “… That was a gut-check moment of gut-check moments, and they have been one of the better teams in the American League since then.”

The J-Rod factor

The Mariners have had plenty of players step up during their recent run of success, which includes trade deadline acquisitions Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suárez. But it’s what center fielder Julio Rodríguez has done since the Yankees series that has caught the attention of Morosi.

If the @Mariners win the AL West, the turning point will be their response to the July 10 walk-off loss in which Bryan Woo had no-hit NYY into the 8th.

The next night, they beat Skubal in Detroit to begin a 14-8 stretch in which @JRODshow44 has an OPS near 1.000. @MLBNetwork

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) August 7, 2025

Since the beginning of the series in Detroit, Rodríguez was slashing .297/.347/.670 with a 1.017 OPS and 10 home runs in 22 games entering Wednesday. He was tied for second in the majors in home runs and is ninth with a 183 wRC+ during the stretch. He also led the Mariners in home runs, extra-base hits, RBIs and runs scored since the start of the Detroit series.

“The biggest reason why (the Mariners are surging) from where I sit is that Julio Rodríguez is playing the way that we expect him to play,” Morosi said. “… This is very early times here (for Rodríguez). If (his career) was a four-quarter-long football game, we’re still like in the late stages of the first quarter, but this is what the first chapter of a Hall of Fame career can look like. And it’s important to see that, even as you talk about the high standard that we hold him to.

“And we should (hold him to a high standard). He’s got a contract that says he should have a high standard, but it can also be true that the man’s put together the first chapter of what could be a Hall of Fame career.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Tune in to Wyman and Bob weekdays from 2-7 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.