Mariners Walk Off Yankees 2–1 in Game 4

Mariners Walk Off Yankees 2–1 in Game 4

By John Nielsen

March 31, 2026

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SEATTLE — On a cold, blustery night at T-Mobile Park, the Mariners edged the Yankees 2–1 in Game 4 before 27,291 fans. Matt Brash (1–0) got the win for Seattle while Paul Blackburn of the Yankees (0–1) took the loss. The margin came on a bottom-of-the-9th walk-off single by Cal Raleigh, capping a game dominated by strong pitching.

Seattle struck first in the second inning. Cole Young flared a shattered-bat bloop single to right field, scoring Randy Arozarena for the game’s first run. Young would finish 3-for-4 with a double and Seattle’s only RBI prior to the ninth.

The Yankees tied it in the seventh on a sac fly by Amed Rosario to center, sending Ben Rice home. The run was unearned after an error by Brandon Donovan extended the inning.

On the mound, Luis Castillo made his season debut for Seattle, working 6.0 innings and allowing 2 hits, 0 earned runs, 7 strikeouts, 2 walks, on 95 pitches—a heavy workload so early in the campaign, but highly effective.

Ryan Weathers pitched well for New York, allowing 4 hits, 1 earned run, 7 strikeouts, 2 walks over 4.1 innings on 77 pitches, an encouraging outing after several rough spring training performances.

Fernando Cruz delivered a filthy fifth-inning escape, striking out Dominic Canzone and Julio Rodríguez on 11 pitches, 10 of them splitters, leaving runners stranded at 2nd and 3rd. Camilo Doval followed with his own high-leverage escape in the bottom of the 7th, stranding runners at the corners on a groundout by Julio Rodríguez. The Yankee bullpen had been nearly flawless over 14 shutout innings prior to the ninth.

The bottom of the ninth featured drama: Paul Blackburn, making his first appearance of 2026, pitched a scoreless eighth inning before the chaos in the ninth. There, a leadoff single by José Rivas and a Brandon Donovan single to center put runners on the corners, and Raleigh delivered the game-winning ground single past Ben Rice into right field. Boone might have considered intentionally walking the switch-hitting Raleigh to load the bases for J-Rod to gain a platoon advantage. Instead, he let Blackburn pitch to Raleigh with less than desirable results.

ABS/Video Replay remained in full effect and markedly impacted the game, if not the final result—The Yankees successfully overturned five called strikes (without a miss) in the first 3 innings, though they lost a video replay challenge on José Caballero’s 1B pickoff by Castillo. Fans cheered and booed call reversals throughout the night. Aaron Boone became aggravated by all the missed calls by home plate umpire Mike Estabrook and got in several shouting matches in the game's early innings.

Giancarlo Stanton extended his hot start with a ninth-inning double, marking his fourth consecutive multi-hit game to start the season.

In other news, Carlos Rodón threw a 50-pitch simulated game in Tampa, methodically tracking toward a minor league rehab assignment.

One concern that warrants further monitoring is how many pitches Aaron Boone is requiring from the bullpen. Since Wednesday’s opener, the Yankee relievers have thrown a ton. (See here:

35 pitches

OFF DAY

53 pitches

63 pitches

OFF DAY

65 pitches

This workload is unsustainable, a pattern that has blown out prior Yankee bullpens in the past and which has often been cited as a source of the annual “June Boone Swoon.”

Overall, Ryan Weathers, who had a rough 1st inning due to control problems, pitched effectively and improved as the game progressed, giving the Yankees a real chance to extend their winning streak despite the lack of offense. In the game's first 4 innings he consistently hit 98 with the fastball (touching 99), about a 2 mph improvement over his average fastball in 2025 which ranked 2nd fastest among left-handed starting pitchers last year. His fastball dropped to 95 in the 5th suggesting he was tiring before yielding to Cruz. This dynamic will warrant close attention in future starts.

In the end, the Yankees fell to 3–1 on the young season.

Max Fried will take on Logan Gilbert tonight in Game 2 of the series.