Mariners' Bryan Woo roughed up early in loss to Royals

One clunker is an outlier, particularly given the consistency he has displayed since about the middle of the 2024 season.

But back-to-back outings where opponents are hitting lasers and long balls all over the park off him?

If it's not a concern, it's certainly a curiosity.

It's probably a little too soon to ask, "What's wrong with Bryan Woo?"

But seeing their best pitcher from 2025 put up back-to-back run-filled outings isn't ideal for the Mariners.

The Royals, who are far from an offensive juggernaut, roughed up Woo for six runs, including four in the first inning, and picked up another run off Seattle's bullpen to eke out a 7-6 win over the Mariners, Friday night at T-Mobile Park.

Tough, tough loss tonight," manager Dan Wilson said. "The one thing that stands out to me is how our guys really bounced back in this ballgame today, starting with Bryan Woo. He gave up the four in the first there, but really settled in after that. I thought he threw the ball well and gave us a chance to catch up."

Woo didn't see many positives in his outing.

"The process might have been all right, but I still got my ass kicked," he said. "There's a balance to it. So try to take the good and learn from bad. It sucks. It's never a good feeling, just putting your team in a hole like that, and especially in back-to-back starts. That sucks."

Similar to Woo's last outing, the Mariners tried to pick him up with homers of their own. Julio Rodríguez smashed a pair of two-run homers - one in the bottom of the first to cut the Royals' early lead in half and a game-tying blast to dead center in the seventh inning. Connor Joe and Randy Arozarena also added solo homers.

When Rodríguez tied the game in the seventh and the 36,384 fans in attendance exploded in jubilation, another late-inning one-run win seemed likely.

But with Matt Brash placed on the injured list before the game, the Mariners plan to cover the late-inning leverage situation shifted slightly.

Wilson turned to lefty Jose A. Ferrer to start the eighth. He gave up a leadoff double to Salvador Perez. A ground ball off the bat of Carter Jensen moved Perez to third. Instead of having left-handed slugger Jac Caglianone, who homered earlier off Woo, face Ferrer, Royals manager Matt Quatraro brought in right-handed swinging Lane Thomas to pinch hit. Thomas delivered with a sinking liner to right-center to score Perez and put the Royals up 7-6.

The Mariners couldn't scratch out another in their final innings of at-bats.

The Royals jumped on Woo immediately, scoring four in the first inning. KC's first three hitters - Maikel Garcia, Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino - all singled for a 1-0 lead. Perez followed with a ringing double down the left-field line to score two more runs.

Woo came back to retire the next two batters he faced, but gave up another run when Isaac Collins hit a bloop double into shallow left-center, scoring the lumbering Perez.

The first inning finally ended when No. 8 hitter Michael Massey grounded out.

"There were more mistakes on my end in the first inning," Woo said.

Would this be a repeat of Woo's short showing in his previous outing where he pitched just three innings vs. the Cardinals?

Nope, he came back to put up 1-2-3 frames over the next four innings. He used his off-speed heavily, trying to keep Royals hitters from cheating too much on his two fastball variations.

"After the last outing, where I gave up a lot of damage on the fastball, we know the off-speeds are there," he said. "They're much better. You don't want to handcuff yourself to just stay with the heaters, you have to keep using the off-speeds."

His teammates rallied immediately against Royals starter Cole Ragans. Rodríguez smashed a two-run homer into the upper deck in left field in the first inning. Joe homered off Ragans in the fifth and Arozarena ended Ragans' outing with an opposite field homer in the sixth.

Woo's string of 13 consecutive Royals retired came to an end three pitches into the sixth inning when Pasquantino took advantage of a 2-0 fastball over the heart of the plate, sending a mammoth blast to right field.

With two outs, a misplaced first-pitch sweeper to Caglianone resulted in a towering fly ball just over the wall in right field for a solo homer and a 6-4 lead.

"We threw him a lot of early spin," Woo said. "It's an 0-0 homer, good on him for making the adjustment. But it doesn't make it any easier."

Woo finished the sixth inning, but his night was done at 84 pitches.

His final line: six innings, allowing six runs on seven hits - including two homers. The Royals put 11 in balls in play off him with exit velocities over 95 mph, including eight on his fastballs. There were seven balls hit with exit velocities over 104 mph, six coming on fastballs.

Over his last two outings, he's pitched a total of nine innings, allowing 13 runs on 16 hits with no walks, three strikeouts and six homers allowed.

What will he do to correct it before his next outing?

"Try not to search too much in situations like this, where you're not just bad, but you really get your ass kicked," Woo said. "We'll dive into it a little bit. Try to make some adjustments. I don't want to change the core of who I am and what I do. There's a lot of baseball left. You have to pick yourself up off the mat. Keep fighting.

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