This season has turned ugly for the Seattle Mariners.
The players seem to know it, too, based on the decision they made after Saturday night’s loss to the Athletics.
Not a single Mariners hitter remained in the clubhouse after the game for postgame media availability.
“No Mariners hitters were available for postgame interviews,” Adam Jude of The Seattle Times wrote on X. “All had hustled out of the clubhouse before reporters were allowed in.”
Generally, MLB clubhouses are open after games for reporters to come in and talk to players. There are various nooks and crannies that players can go to to avoid reporters, but if they’re at their lockers, reporters can walk up and ask to talk.
A player can always turn down an interview request, but in this case, it seems the Mariners didn’t even want to bother with that. They just got out of dodge.
It prevents an opportunity for a leader to step up and face the music. Instead, they just shied away from yet another rough night at the ballpark.
What Happened In The Game?
The A’s handled the Mariners, 6-2.
The Athletics scored 1 in the second, 1 in the third, 2 in the fourth and 2 in the eighth to go up 6-0.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Mariners scored a run but couldn’t get more.
They already had a disappointing seventh inning when a bobbled ball still turned into a double play that seemed like Josh Naylor couldn’t have been running all that hard out of the box.
“I was watching the ball; I didn’t see what happened,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson told Jude after the game.
The Mariners did get one more run in the bottom of the ninth, but that was it.
They’re now 66-77 and pretty much in free fall.
A Night to Forget in a Season to Forget
The Mariners simply haven’t followed up their special 2025 with anything resembling that.
Ironically, Cal Raleigh has finally heated up — he was 3-for-4 on Saturday — but the rest of the roster seems pretty close to mailing it in.
“Mariners have had more crushing losses this season, certainly,” Jude wrote on X. “But here’s a strong contender for their most inexplicable/most lethargic performance of the season.”
The Mariners are now 6.0-games behind the final Wild Card spot in the American League, which is held by the 72-71 Toronto Blue Jays entering action on Sunday.
Seattle also has four other teams with better records than them trying to chase down the Blue Jays: the Guardians, Rangers, Orioles and Twins.
The Mariners aren’t mathematically eliminated and won’t be for a while. But unless they find a way to turn their entire vibe around, it’s going to be tough for them to do anything other than end this season with a disappointing whisper.
Mariners’ Players All Make Same Disappointing Decision