SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners earned their first win of the season on Friday night by beating the Cleveland Guardians 5-1 at T-Mobile Park. The M’s are now 1-1 on the season while Cleveland owns the same record.

Once again, the Mariners utilized the longball to their advantage, getting home runs from Cole Young and Luke Raley.

Advertisement

Here’s everything you need to know from the win, in no particular order.

The righty went six innings to earn his first win of the season. He surrendered just one run on two hits, walking two and striking out six.

He was in command most of the night, throwing 57 of 90 pitches for strikes. He did get into a hairy situation in the top of the fifth, walking the first two batters and hitting one, but he was aided by a solid defensive play to get out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam.

Advertisement

It was a quietly productive day for the M’s left fielder, who was 0-for-1 at the plate, but delivered three walks and a stolen base. He also helped Kirby out of that jam by turning in a 7-2 double play to end the inning.

Yes, it’s just two games and yes, everyone will be fine, but still: Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez and Josh Naylor were 0-for-11 with six strikeouts. Raleigh struck out four times, making him 0-for-7 with seven Ks (and a walk) on the season.

Advertisement

Not only is Raleigh not getting hits, he’s also not swinging at the right pitches, continually chasing the high fastball.

The Mariners have nine runs this season, all of which have come via the home run. Having power is good, but being power dependent isn’t great. The M’s will still want to find new ways to score, but they’ll take the win.

Kudos to Cole Young, who hit a three-run homer with two outs on an 0-2 count in the fourth inning. He said afterwards that he wouldn’t have been able to turn around that 97 mph fastball last year and credited his offseason work and his pregame routines.

Advertisement

I’ll be the first one to admit that I’ve talked about Munoz’s declining velocities, specifically on his slider over the last few months. Well, his slider was hitting the high-86 mph range and the low 87-mph range. He averaged 86.1 last year, but we saw several 83s at times, especially at the end of the season.

If he stays in this range? He’s very, very hard to hit.

A lot of the talk is about Young’s offense and his hot spring training with the bat, but his defense has been stellar through two games. He said he worked on his mobility this offseason and it certainly showed.

Advertisement

The M’s have struck out 24 times in two games, which is not good. However, the M’s worked seven walks in this game, including six off starter Gavin Williams. The Mariners aren’t hitting yet, but they did generate some more traffic.

The Mariners brought out all the Olympians from the PWHL’s Seattle Torrent. Each member of the group got a large ovation, but Hilary Knight, the captain of Team USA, received the biggest.

Advertisement

The Mariners and Guardians will be back on the field on Saturday night at 6:40 p.m. PT. Bryan Woo will pitch for Seattle and the first 40,000 fans will receive a Cal Raleigh commemorative ’60 home run’ bobblehead.

Remember to join our MARINERS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Mariners fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that’s free too!