Hancock the latest Seattle pitcher to debut in style

SEATTLE — Emerson Hancock stood in the home dugout at T-Mobile Park in the middle of the fifth inning and weaved his pitching hand through his hair while making a massive exhale.

Mariners pitching coach Pete Woodworth then wrapped his right arm around the 6-foot-4 right-hander and used his left hand to tap the pitcher’s chest, a gesture of a job well done.

Hancock threw five strong innings in the Mariners’ 6-1 victory over the Padres on Wednesday night, precisely the barometer that manager Scott Servais had hoped. In his MLB debut, Hancock surrendered just one run, via the leadoff walk to his very first batter that came around to score. Other than that, Seattle’s No. 4 prospect in the MLB Pipeline rankings gave up just two additional free passes and two singles while striking out three to put the Mariners in a strong enough position to reach the finish line.

Hancock, who departed his debut with the game tied, 1-1, was the Mariners’ first-round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft. He joined Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo as starting pitchers to reach The Show this season. But Hancock showed more jitters than the previous two, characteristic for the soft-spoken former Georgia Bulldog, who is as affable as he is competitive.

There was the leadoff walk to Ha-Seong Kim, then the two stolen bases from the Padres’ on-base machine immediately after, which were manufactured by great jumps but also astute awareness of when Hancock wasn’t holding him. Kim then raced home on a groundout.

There was the mound visit from catcher Cal Raleigh and shortstop J.P. Crawford when Kim stole his third bag in the third inning to reach scoring position for Juan Soto — an attempt of two team leaders to reassure the righty to trust himself. 

There were some visible frustrations from Hancock when he unleashed a few non-competitive misses led to him reaching deep counts.

But there were also the jams that Hancock escaped that probably defined his debut more than anything.

After that mound visit with Crawford and Raleigh, Hancock induced a groundout by Soto to escape the third. Then in the fourth, he worked around a leadoff walk by Manny Machado by retiring his next three in order. And he punctuated his night in the fifth, when he worked around a leadoff single by Luis Campusano by striking out Trent Grisham and Kim then generating a groundout from Fernando Tatis Jr.