Mariners' Cole Young, Josh Naylor deliver big hits in extra-innings win

Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on Apr 4, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM, Calif. — The traditional thinking said that bringing a lefty reliever to face the Mariners’ heavy left-handed hitting lineup in the top of the 10th made matchup sense.

Also watching the Seattle Mariners fail to do much against lefty starter Reid Detmers for the first seven innings added to the thinking of Angels’ first-year manager Kurt Suzuki.

But the Mariners’ left-handed hitters, specifically Cole Young, have been their best hitters to start this young season, regardless of matchups. Young’s triple to right field off lefty Brent Suter broke a scoreless tie and Josh Naylor added a two-run single to right-center for some needed insurance as the Mariners pulled out a 3-1 victory over the Angels in their home opener.

With automatic runner Luke Raley on second to start the inning, Young yanked an 86-mph sinker leaking back inside to his back leg to right field. The top spin line drive was knocked down by the swirling wind but still was just out of reach of right fielder Jo Adell.

With two outs and Young at third, the Angels opted to intentionally walk Julio Rodriguez to get the left on left matchup with Suter vs. Naylor. But the move backfired. Rodriguez hustled to second on a ball in the dirt and Naylor sent a line drive into right-center for a two-run single. A large portion of the sellout crowd of 44,931 headed for the exits.

Gabe Speier got the save in the 10th.

The Mariners got a brilliant outing from starter Bryan Woo.

Woo tossed seven scoreless innings, allowing a total of three base runners in the outing with none of them reaching second base. He allowed one hit, hit a batter and walked one.

The first base runner came in the first inning when Woo hit Mike Trout, the second batter he faced, in the shoulder with a 95-mph fastball. Trout was clearly displeased since Woo had run a 95-mph fastball up and in on the previous pitch.

The one hit allowed came with one out in the third inning when Oswald Peraza hit a soft flyball to right field. The swirling winds that ranged from 10-15 mph, knocked the ball down quickly and Victor Robles couldn’t make a difficult diving catch. But Woo erased the base runner quickly, picking off Peraza at first base, aided by a quick tag from first baseman Naylor.

Woo’s one walk came in the fourth when he uncharacteristically issued a four-pitch walk to Trout, who was leading off. When Woo went 2-0 to the next hitter, Nolan Schanuel, catcher Cal Raleigh called timeout and made a quick trip to the mound to talk to his starter.

The conversation worked. Woo came back to strike out Schanuel and followed it up with strikeouts of Yoan Moncada and Jorge Soler to the inning. He retired the final 12 batters of his outing.

It was the third time since the start of last season that Woo had a start of at least seven innings pitched with one or fewer hits allowed. The only other pitcher to do that was Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Detmers was almost as good as Woo. The veteran lefty, who has battled injuries and inconsistency for much of his career, gave the Angels their best start of the young season, pitching 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits while working around four walks and striking out four. It was his longest start since April 22, 2024.