SEATTLE — On Tuesday, the Seattle Mariners fell prey to an explosive New York Yankees offense that had the Bronx Bombers’ two star sluggers Aaron Judge and Juan Soto at the forefront of it.
On Wednesday, the Mariners successfully stifled the prolific offense of the Yankees. But it didn’t matter.
Seattle fell 2-1 to New York on Wednesday at T-Mobile Park. The loss dropped the Mariners to 77-75 on the season and kept them 5.0 games behind the Houston Astros for first place in the American League West and 3.0 games out of the AL Wild Card spot. The Detroit Tigers drew further ahead of Seattle in the Wild Card race and were half a game out after Wednesday (2.5 games ahead of the Mariners).
“Really good ball game tonight. Back-and-forth. Both sides pitched very, very well tonight,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson said in a postgame interview Wednesday. ” … Kind of a freak scenario there at the end with the bat coming down there. … This is a tougher one to lose. It was a great ball game on all fronts. And tough one to lose.”
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Mariners starter Bryce Miller had an amazing start and went six innings with eight strikeouts while giving up one earned run off two hits. He gave up five free bases (four walks, one intentional walk). But despite the atypical number of free passes, Miller kept the Yankees offense in check.
Miller got out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the third after he struck out third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. Seattle was down 1-0 at that point after an Anthony Rizzo RBI double in the top of the second.
The Mariners offense continued a poor pattern this season — they wasted their pitcher’s quality start and had several opportunities to tie or take the lead. They left two stranded in the second, two in the fourth, another two in the fifth, two more in the seventh, one in the ninth and one in the 10th. Of those 10 runners left stranded, four were left in scoring position. (two at third, two at second).
Seattle’s 10 left on base on Wednesday brought its total to 21 in the last two games against New York. The Mariners went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
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Justin Turner eventually tied the game up with a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the eighth.
That hit ended up sending the game to extra innings, where Rizzo again made his presence felt with a first-pitch, lead-off RBI double to give the Yankees the eventual final of 2-1.
Seattle still had a chance to win or tie with runners on the corners and no outs in the bottom of the 10th.
Julio Rodriguez was at third with Randy Arozarena at the plate. Rodriguez ran out of the way after Arozarena lost grip of his bat on a swing and sent it flying down the third base line. Arozarena was struck out on the swing. And Rodriguez, way off the bag due to avoiding his teammate’s bat, was picked off at third in a heads-up play between Yankees catcher Austin Wells and Chisholm Jr.
In one play the Mariners went from runners on first and third with no outs, to two outs with a runner on first. Turner struck out swinging the next at-bat after that blunder to give New York the series win.
“Honestly I just saw a bat flying out to my face and I just ran away from it,” Rodriguez said in a postgame interview on Wednesday. “And after that, just kind of a little bit in shock and then I didn’t get back on third base on time. … After I saw the bat, I thought it was going to be a dead play and then they were going to pick up the bat and I was trying to go back to third. But when I got out of the way, I turned my back on the field and I heard (third base coach Manny Acta) yelling ‘Get back to third.’ That’s when I get back to third, honestly. At that moment I wasn’t really thinking about the game. Just trying to get away from the bat coming at me. And yeah, that’s what happened. That was a first for me, for sure.”
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Seattle couldn’t afford the series loss. But it happened. If there’s one positive to be taken away it’s that they didn’t lose any ground with Wednesday’s heartbreaker. Except to Detroit.
Any leeway the Mariners had is gone. They have a 2.9% to make the playoffs after Wednesday’s loss, according to FanGraphs. There’s 10 games left in the season. There’s still a chance. But it’s a small one.
It’s already been said this season, but every game from this point forward really is a must-win. And weather it’s still mathematically possible or not, getting swept might as well be the final nail in the coffin.
Logan Gilbert will try and help Seattle avoid the sweep in the season finale at 1:10 p.m. PT on Thursday. Clarke Schmidt will get the start for the Yankees.
MARINERS MANAGER TALKS ABOUT LIVE PREGAME BATTING PRACTICE: Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson spoke on bringing up Everett AquaSox pitchers for a live batting practice session before a game on Wednesday against the New York Yankees. CLICK HERE
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ROBLES TO MISS GAME 2 AGAINST YANKEES: The Seattle Mariners will be without one of their best players for a critical Game 2 against the new York Yankees on Wednesday. CLICK HERE
JUDGE, SOTO GET TO WOO, MARINERS: Seattle Mariners starter Bryan Woo let up seven earned runs off nine hits and New York Yankees sluggers Juan Soto and Aaron Judge combined for four hits and six RBIs in an 11-2 New York win on Tuesday. CLICK HERE
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Thanks to Susan for the photo. She called to tell us about a dog stuck on the rocks off Beach Drive near Harbor West (the condos on pilings), and a crowd gathering to figure out how to rescue it from the rising tide. We were away from the desk at the time but after returning a little while later, we heard the situation mentioned on police radio, with word the dog had been rescued, so we didn’t head that way. Then late tonight Susan sent photos, explaining that the dog apparently is known to swim to those rocks and back, but for some reason got stuck this time, “until a paddle boarder and kayaker paddled out to it to coax it off the rocks and back to the shore.”
As Seattle’s month-long role as a host city for the Fifa Men’s World Cup draws to a close with a knockout match between the United States and Belgium, local match-day scenes, business boosters and media dispatches have projected an image of a sports-fueled boom town.
On match days, hordes of locals and visitors have packed the city’s waterfront and official watch parties, shattering public-transit records and buoying nearby beer sales. Local soccer-focused mainstays like the George & Dragon Pub have reported “incredible” increases in business. And, pointing to positive reporting by the Guardian and other international newspapers, Seattle’s business lobby says the city has “performed very, very well on the world stage”.
But the effects – and extent – of Seattle’s Fifa-fueled boom are murky. Some preliminary reports claim tourism volumes to the city are down year over year, struggling to outmatch the volume of visitors Seattle typically sees during its summer high season. Travel costs have spiked after the US-Israeli war on Iran, exacerbated by Fifa’s booking large tranches of hotel rooms, which created artificial scarcity for lodgings and raised prices. Many international visitors, including the city’s once-reliable base of Canadian tourists, have steered clear of Seattle since early 2025, after violent, draconian immigration enforcement and threats by Donald Trump against Canada. And, prior to today’s match, Seattle’s schedule featured many countries whose fans couldn’t attend the World Cup because of the Trump administration’s travel bans, including supporters from Iran and Senegal.
Soccer fans protesting against Iran’s current regime wave the country’s Pahlavi dynasty flag outside a bar near Seattle Stadium on 26 June. Photograph: Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images
Pointing to these factors and confronting local economic challenges such as an ongoing wave of tech layoffs, some business owners have reported declining sales and question the cheery forecasts shared by tournament organizers prior to the World Cup. They await a final tally of the tourist volumes and benefits Fifa did or did not bring to Seattle, and wonder how the city’s economy might fare once the alleged boom subsides.
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‘They had hyped us up so much’
In early 2025, Vince Vu, owner of Anh Ơi Bake Shop, a Vietnamese American bakery, began receiving flyers and messages from consultants associated with the World Cup and city government. Seattle’s soccer stadium directly adjoins the city’s downtown core, as well as the Chinatown-International District, and draws large crowds to the area on match days. The consultants explained to Vu and other businesses in the area how they should prepare for a Fifa-induced flux of customers.
“They had hyped us up so much,” Vu said. “We had weekly meetings telling us, ‘Hey … make sure you’re going to double your staff and … double your inventory and do all this stuff, because [the World Cup is] going to be this great thing for the city.’”
The regional tourism board Visit Seattle initially forecast in 2024 that Seattle’s status as a World Cup host city would generate $929m in local economic activity; citing downturns in international travel to the US following Trump’s return to the presidency, Visit Seattle later revised its estimate to $845.6m, projecting a total count of 750,000 visitors over the course of the World Cup.
In the tournament’s opening days, Bloomberg reported that Seattle may be the only US host city to have seen a year-over-year decline in flight bookings, citing data from travel marketing platform Sojern. More recent data complicates that conclusion; Perry Cooper, a spokesperson for Seattle’s primary airport, said that Seattle has been “up in travelers” since the start of the World Cup by at least 3%, including a 4% year-over-year increase in international visitors.
Fans gather at bars before the Fifa World Cup 2026 Group D match between USA and Australia at Seattle Stadium 19 June. Photograph: Jane Gershovich/ISI Photos/Getty Images
Siddhant Bahadur, who manages more than 40 short-term rentals in Seattle, said business has been fairly flat compared with last year’s summer high season for tourism. He thinks the city’s marginal increases in travel volumes during the World Cup are a “telling sign” that tourism to the city is otherwise down due to economic and geopolitical challenges.
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“I think we lost a lot of Canadians, and I think people are worried about the economy and about what’s going on in Washington, and, oh, by the way, we’re at war,” echoed short-term rental owner Marlow Harris, who said she’s seen a 30% hit to business.
In an emailed statement, Visit Seattle’s chief business officer, Kelly Saling, said declines in international tourism since 2024 have been “partially offset” by an increase in domestic tourism, meaning the city has not seen a “drop in forecasted visitors, just a change in the mix”. Local hotels have reported mixed results, with lower occupancy rates than projected, but with large increases in revenue; Fifa booked large blocks of hotel rooms before the World Cup and released them in the weeks leading up to the tournament, generating artificial scarcity and raising prices, according to local business leaders. Saling said hotel booking data has shown “peaks and valleys” around match days, which included a new revenue record on the night preceding the 19 June match between the US and Australia.
To Vu, the World Cup’s peaks have coincided with Anh Ơi Bake Shop’s lowest sales. When the US squared off against the Socceroos, Vu’s business saw just a quarter of its normal sales. Vu said other neighborhood businesses have reported similarly disappointing results: Regular patrons have avoided the neighborhood on match days to avoid traffic, he noted, adding that sports tourists may not be interested in “culturally specific businesses”.
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Soccer fans crowd in to watch the Iran and Egypt match on a giant screen on 26 June. Photograph: Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images
The Seattle aquarium has also reported a downturn, despite its location on Seattle’s currently sports fan-saturated waterfront. Emily Malone, a spokesperson for the aquarium, noted a “decrease in attendance” during the tournament, “particularly on match days”. The aquarium has offered promotions for visitors wearing soccer gear, as well as free programs on the waterfront. Overlook Walk, a public park situated on the roof of Seattle Aquarium’s recently constructed pavilion, has drawn large crowds during World Cup watch parties.
A mixed financial picture, but optimism that visitors will return
Scott Stulen, director and CEO of the Seattle Art Museum, began planning for the World Cup in 2024, and expected an uneven increase in footfall across its three locations. The museum’s free sculpture garden along the waterfront received new signage before the World Cup, and currently features a temporary mini-golf course designed by local artists. The sculpture garden has seen its foot traffic more than double, while visitor numbers to its downtown museum have stayed “basically flat”, as Stulen anticipated.
Some variables could not be planned in advance. Seattle’s group-stage matchups “weren’t ideal”, Stulen said, as the city missed out on fanbases that “stay a little bit longer” in host cities. Some World Cup organizers see a handful of teams – Argentina, England and France, among others – as special catalysts of economic activity, featuring dedicated fanbases with the financial means to stay longer in host cities.
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Seattle’s organizers also expected World Cup activity to “spread into the city a little bit more than it has”, though bars and restaurants are “killing it” if they’re located “in the right place”, Stulen said, framing the “positive activity” in downtown Seattle as “a win”.
US fans march together to the Seattle Stadium before the Fifa World Cup 2026 Group D match between USA and Australia on 19 June. Photograph: Jane Gershovich/ISI Photos/Getty Images
Even marginal increases in sales can make a meaningful difference for local businesses preparing to weather future economic volatility, according to Daniel Pagard, who owns the George & Dragon Pub, a local British bar known for screening Premier League games and other international matches. Recent tech layoffs have affected some locals’ finances, and businesses are beginning to note the downstream effects.
“You definitely see a lot of it when people come out,” Pagard said. “Instead of maybe getting two half English breakfasts, they’re splitting one full English, because it saves them a few bucks, and [they’re] turning down that one extra pint before they leave.”
Seattle’s business lobby hopes visitors – and major tournaments – will come back. According to Joe Nguyễn, a former lawmaker who now leads the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Seattle’s business lobby hosted a trade delegation from Australia during the 19 June match, and expects some foreign direct investment to arise from that initiative. More broadly, he said Seattle has shown it is capable of hosting large-scale sports programming, and can efficiently deploy resources to accommodate large influxes of visitors.
Today’s match against Belgium may be the “craziest sporting event that Seattle’s probably ever seen”, he said. Nguyễn hopes the World Cup will bring the city closer to some of its ambitious goals.
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“Because of our remoteness in the north-west corner, people oftentimes will skip over us on their tours. Now they’ll think twice … I think the NFL will look to here to see if they should have some games, [and] I think this is helpful for us bringing back a basketball team,” he said.
