Part of the fun of being a first round draft pick is being paraded around as a local celebrity during the summer. Such is the case for offensive guard Grey Zabel, who was selected by the Seattle Seahawks at No. 18 overall in the 2025 NFL draft. Zabel has gone from the great plains of Fargo, ND to the Emerald City of Seattle. Safe to say his life has changed considerably in these last several weeks, as Zabel will be experiencing plenty of “firsts” in his blossoming NFL career.

Next up on his “firsts” is probably throwing out the first pitch at an MLB game, which he did on Friday night. The Seattle Mariners opened the first of a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins, and the man they picked to ceremoniously kick things off (so to speak) was Grey Zabel, who threw out the first pitch.

Things continued well for the Mariners after Zabel’s opening pitch. Star catcher Cal Raleigh opened things up with a three-run homer in the first inning, which was followed by Randy Arozarena smashing a solo-shot 377 feet to make it a 4-0 to start. The Twins eventually cut the lead to 4-3, but Raleigh struck once again with his second dinger of the night… a 380-foot blast in the eighth to make it a 6-3 ballgame.

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Unfortunately, that’s where the good vibes for the M’s ended. Seattle’s All-Star closer, Andrés Muñoz, laid an uncharacteristic egg in the ninth. Up to this point, Muñoz had not surrendered an earned run all season long, gave up three to make it a 6-6 game. Painfully, the tying-run was scored with two outs for Minnesota. From there, the meltdown was on. Seattle’s relief pitcher, Casey Legumina, gave up six runs in the top of the 10th inning and the Mariners would go on to lose 12-6.

This was the second-straight game for Seattle giving up six or more runs in the tenth inning. Over the last two games, the Mariners have allowed opponents to score 16 runs in the ninth and tenth innings. Yikes. Seattle has lost seven of their last ten games, and ss a result, the Mariners have been knocked from their perch atop the AL West

This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: Seahawks OG Grey Zabel threw the first pitch at Mariners vs Twins game