Episode thirteen and finally some traction. The boys capped an eight game win streak with a 5-1 homestand and three straight series wins, the first time that's happened all year. Losing 7-1 to end it barely stung. That's what an eight game streak buys you.

Injury news first. Cal Raleigh is targeting rehab games in Everett this weekend, sold out two hours after they announced it, then Tacoma, with a likely June 16 return for the first game back off the road trip. No rush. The point is getting Cal in-game swings he never got in spring while off at the WBC, where the swing and miss was real. Brendan Donovan has no clear timeline, working the anti-gravity treadmill on his groin in Arizona. When he's back the puzzle gets fun. Colt isn't leaving third, JP and Cole stay put for defense, so Donovan slots into a DH or outfield platoon. The dream is parking Randy at DH to hide his glove and his hustle, because if he does his one job everybody wins.

Friday we were there in person. JP Crawford led off with a homer, Julio went deep, and then the wave started with runners on and cursed the whole thing. Brash couldn't locate, a 5-1 lead evaporated. Luke Raleigh tied it with a solo shot that landed near our seats. Naylor booted a barehand play, his defense is not great, but Mooney limited the damage and Cooper Chriswell has been absolute dynamite when called on. Then they walked Naylor to set up the double play and pitch to Randy, who lifted a ground ball pitch into a walk-off two-run blast. JP's first career two-homer game.

Saturday was a four-homer slugfest with no other offense, which is the whole problem. Nearly seventy percent of our runs come from the long ball, and that backfires in October against arms throwing 97. Luke Raleigh, a platoon bat, leads the team in homers. Colt and Dom both went deep, Dom's getting baseballed hard with no luck. Woo went seven, nine K. Julio capped his best month ever, ten bombs and a .357 stretch in May. That's the Julio we've been waiting for.

Sunday in the steelhead unis we survived 3-2 in extras on the last successful piggyback, Bryce and Luis each going five, homers from Cole Young and Canzone, and Victor's first career walk-off infield single. Two tenth-inning walk-off wins in one series. Thin margins, but these are the games we lost all April and May. Then we swept the Diamondbacks.

Mets series, and they're loaded with Soto, Bo Bichette, and Semien hitting seventh, yet they keep metting it up. Monday was four hits and a 2-1 grind win, Hancock dealing, Naylor tying it with a back-tweaking homer, Cole Young walking it off after Randy stole third uncontested. Tuesday was a laser show, Patrick Wisdom and Johnny Pareto tanks. Pareto bat-flips singles and has made himself a real tough demotion when Cal returns, a serviceable backup with great energy. Wednesday the streak ended at eight, Kirby got George'd to death pounding the zone too predictably while Peralta shut us down.

Around the league: the Yankees hung thirteen in a single inning on the A's, eighteen batters, eleven hits. The Rangers and A's won't go away, both within striking distance. The White Sox are somehow chugging, new management and a better locker room going a long way. And yes, the Pope is a Sox fan.

Ten game road trip ahead through Detroit, Baltimore, and Washington. Ryan's high on his own supply at 8-2, the saner take is 7-3. Split Baltimore, handle the Nationals despite James Wood. Just pray it doesn't rain in Camden like it always does.

Show Notes:

The Mariners went on the road and came back 4-2, which sounds fine until you remember how painful the first half was. KC came in on a ten-game losing streak, and naturally, the M's gave them life. Game one was all pitching. Logan Gilbert looked sharp through five and two-thirds, his velo sitting 93-95 now instead of the 96-97 of years past, but the stuff was there. He kept Bobby Witt Jr. quiet. The offense had one productive swing: a Mitch Garver homer in the seventh. Two-nothing.

Saturday was a gut punch. Steven Kolek threw a complete-game shutout. The Mariners were so aggressive at the plate it was almost disrespectful to themselves. JP grounded out on the first pitch. Guys swinging at everything, letting a starter cruise when they should have been driving up pitch counts and getting to a bad bullpen. Kolek should have been out by the seventh. Instead he went the distance.

Sunday started with a Julio homer two batters in, but Bryan Woo couldn't hold it. The Royals broke through in the fifth and kept piling on. Colt Emerson went 4-for-4 with three doubles, becoming just the 18th player aged 20 or younger in MLB history with four-plus hits and three extra-base hits in a game. The kid has an OBP north of .360 and barely strikes out. Down 8-3 in the ninth, the M's rallied for three and brought the tying run to the plate. Too little, too late, but Ryan saw a spark. He was right.

Oakland was the biggest series of the first quarter, and the Mariners delivered a sweep. Game one was Piggyback 2.0. Luis Castillo had his best stuff of the year: four shutout innings, two hits, six K's. Ryan thought he deserved another inning instead of handing it to Bryce Miller. The transition still feels clunky. It didn't matter because the offense hung seven runs on the A's starter with four homers from Raley, Canzone, Crawford, and one more. Nine-two.

Game two, the A's called up a lefty throwing 95 with a funky delivery to exploit Seattle being dead last against left-handed pitching. The M's settled in and manufactured all four runs without a homer. Refsnyder and Robles got hits. Emerson Hancock was locked in for seven shutout innings. The only blemish: Andres Munoz giving up a solo shot on that slider he can't bury. It sits around 85, doesn't get down, and lefties are sitting on it. That pitch is becoming a real problem.

Game three, another lefty in Jeffrey Springs, and Refsnyder cracked it open with a three-run homer. Emerson drove in three. Julio hit his tenth of the year, eighth in May, off a 97-mph fastball. Gilbert threw six shutout frames. Nine-one. The three starters combined for zero runs allowed across the series. Twenty-two runs scored, 28 in the last four games. First place in the AL West at 28-29, half a game up on Oakland.

Around the league, the Astros threw the first no-hitter since 2024 with rookie Alimber Santa finishing two innings in his MLB debut. Jordan Alvarez hit four homers in two games to reach 20. The Cubs remain the most confusing team in baseball: two ten-game winning streaks and a twelve-game losing streak, all before game sixty. Tampa Bay is building around speed, contact, and platoons, doing the opposite of everyone else, and it's working. D-backs and Mets come to Seattle next.

The Padre series was the low point of the season so far, and there's no dressing it up. All 27 innings played from behind, sloppy defense, and a Sunday performance on Peacock that the rest of the country got to watch up close: one hit, off a Lucas Giolito who tops out at 90 and made the M's look completely overmatched. Game one, Emerson Hancock was solid and the offense was dog turd. Game two, Logan Gilbert had a good two innings before San Diego got on the heater and the whole outing fell apart in the third. Gavin Sheets went absolutely nuclear on the whole weekend, hitting three home runs in two games. Brutal home stand.

Then Tuesday happened. Bryce Miller was supposed to start and hand off to Castillo in a piggyback setup, but Miller went no-hit into the sixth and the plan unraveled. Dan Wilson doubled back to the mound, which you can't do, which let runners on base turn into a double steal, which meant the infield had to come in, which meant soft contact bleeders won the game. Mooney gets a clean inning and it's a different story. The offense left everyone stranded again late, with Rayleigh and Kenzone sitting until the ninth before getting one at bat with the bases cleared against the closer. The debate on how much is Dan and how much is front office direction is alive and well. It's probably both.

Monday was a reset. Brian Woo dealt: six innings, one run, eight strikeouts, back to the guy he was before the Missouri teams had their way with him. And the Colt Emerson story is already a good one. Called up that afternoon while suited up for Tacoma, he drove to Seattle and made the Sunday game. His parents missed it, went back to Ohio, and then made it back Monday to watch him hit his first career homer, a three-run shot in the eighth that broke the game open. It barely stayed fair, but it landed in the seats, and that's all that mattered. Wednesday, Hancock got out of a bases loaded jam with nobody out, Pareto hit his first MLB homer, Randy went deep to left center, and Rafe closed it out after working three straight. Series win over the White Sox. Two of the last three series taken.

JP Crawford has told the team he's willing to move to third if it means keeping Emerson at short, and that says everything about Crawford's character. He credits the mentality to Kyle Seager and D Gordon. Whether the arm holds up on cross-diamond throws is an open question, but the leadership isn't. On deck: three in Kansas City, then three at Sacramento in what amounts to a minor league ballpark. Ryan is calling five and one. Travis's at two and four. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, and the Royals being one-win-in-forever is exactly the kind of thing that makes Kaufman dangerous.