Mariners squander Emerson Hancock's career night in loss to Royals
As Axl Rose's unmistakable voice filled T-Mobile Park as "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns-N-Roses blared at uncomfortable decibels, the crowd of 42,794 fans, many of whom were there to celebrate the Hall of Fame pitcher that made that song his own, rose to their feet for a second time to produce an ovation deserving of Emerson Hancock's stellar effort.
The Mariners' starter delivered the most dominant outing of his career, pitching seven innings while allowing one run on six hits with no walks and career-high 14 strikeouts.
No pitcher in MLB baseball had struck out more than 12 batters in an outing this season.
Hancock had seemingly set the tone for the Mariners to pick up a pitching-dominant victory on a night where they celebrated the retirement of Randy Johnson's number.
Instead, the Mariners wasted Hancock's pitching gem" in a 3-2 loss in 10 innings that featured careless baserunning, sloppy play in the field and a failure to add on runs early and execute in hitting situations late.
"Tough one tonight, really tough," manager Dan Wilson said. "I thought, Emerson, what an incredible outing."
An incredible outing that was relegated by the Mariners failures to do the little things properly.
The easy trope would've been to use Johnson's dominance during his career with the Mariners as a comparison to what Hancock did Saturday night. But it was another former Mariners All-Star pitcher, who could also be inducted to the Hall of Fame in the next few years, that watched from a suite and felt the agonizing flashbacks of these sort of defeats.
If only we could read the mind of Félix Hernández as he watched a brilliant outing from a starting pitcher get tossed aside due to lack of run support and mistakes in the field and on the bases.
He lived it far too many times in his Mariners career. There were 24 times in his career where Hernández pitched seven-plus innings, allowing one run or fewer and struck 10 or more batters. He took no decisions in 10 of those games. The Mariners managed to lose six of those games outright.
Seeing Hancock punch out 14 hitters and the Mariners lose, well, it was the worst kind of déjà vu.
Hancock, who admittedly found himself watching some of Johnson's retirement ceremony while warming up, doesn't have the edge or anger of Johnson, or the explosive stuff. He also isn't as naturally gifted as Hernández. His success this season is a product of work and adjustments over his professional career.
"For me, it was an honor to pitch on a night like this," Hancock said. "Really cool experience. You just want to go out, try to execute the best that you can, and just try to make improvements each week. And then, it's just baseball."
He's delivered five quality starts this seasons of six-plus innings and three runs or fewer allowed and the Mariners have won only two of those games.
The 14 strikeouts shattered his previous career high of nine strikeouts. Even more impressive was that he set a new career high before the fifth inning was finished.
When he struck out Michael Massey with no outs and a runner on first in the fifth, his total reached nine strikeouts. He struck out the next batter, Kyle Isbel, for a new career high. And he added to his career high with a swinging strikeout of Maikel Garcia to end the fifth.
Of course, Hancock didn't get the win for his efforts. With his teammates only providing two runs of support while he was on the mound and self-immolating a major scoring situation with a mental gaffe from Randy Arozarena, there was no room for mistakes for the bullpen.
Eduard Bazardo worked a scoreless eighth inning, getting some help from Arozarena with a diving catch on a low liner to end the inning.
But Andrés Muñoz couldn't close out the potential one-run victory. He allowed a leadoff single to Salvador Perez, who was replaced by pinch runner Lane Thomas. Muñoz was then called for a balk for starting and then pausing to go into the stretch, which moved the runner into scoring position.
"They said his (right) arm moved like it was going to start and then he stopped," Wilson said.
He came back to strike out Carter Jensen. But Jac Caglianone ambushed a first-pitch fastball up in the zone, sending a hard line drive single to left-center that scored Thomas. Julio Rodríguez misplayed a hop on the single, and the ball rolled past him all the way to the wall since Arozarena didn't back up on the play. Muñoz didn't allow the Royals to take the lead, retiring Isaac Collins and Massey to end the inning.
Arozarena's baserunning gaffe came in the fifth inning as the Mariners were trying to add to their 2-1 lead. With two outs and the bases loaded and Cole Young at the plate, Arozarena, who was at first started running toward second base as Seth Lugo went to deliver the pitch. The pitch was a ball, but Arozarena was within about 20 feet of second base and seemed confused why Rodríguez was standing there. Everyone else, including the Royals seemed also confused. Catcher Jensen held on to the ball and moved out in front of the plate, cutting the distance down. He then fired to first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, who caught the ball and started moving toward Arozarena.
J.P. Crawford, who was on third, was trying to watch and gauge what to do. Arozarena didn't stay hung up in a rundown for too long and actually ran into Pasquantino on purpose hoping for an interference call. It didn't happen and it happened fast enough that Crawford couldn't score from third.
"You don't play this game without embarrassing things happening to you at times," Wilson said. "I forgot the count and rolled the ball back and there were base runners on. It happens, but it's tough in that situation, of course, but we've got to learn from it, and we've got to move on. That's all we can do at this point.
BOX SCORE
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This story was originally published May 2, 2026 at 11:39 PM.