SEATTLE — By the time Emerson Hancock‘s first begin of the 2025 season ended, he had recorded simply two outs.
Once Hancock’s inaugural outing of 2026 concluded, although, just a few very totally different figures lit up the scoreboard at T-Mobile Park.
Six innings.
No runs.
And most spectacular — no hits.
Not solely did the Seattle Mariners starter decide up his first win of the season Sunday within the workforce’s 8-0 victory over the (*6*), Hancock additionally proved to himself in a really concrete method that he has made sizable steps ahead because the spring of 2025.
After all, Hancock gained a spot within the Mariners’ rotation largely due to a spring coaching harm to Bryce Miller.
“A year ago, right now, we’re having a completely different conversation. Things went completely different,” Hancock mentioned with fun. “But, I think that’s just part of this game. And you’re going to struggle, there’s going to be ups, there’s going to be downs.”
There had been no “downs” to talk of Sunday, at the very least not based on the 30,800 followers readily available who rewarded the sixth general decide within the 2020 novice draft with a standing ovation after he labored a 1-2-3 sixth inning.
In the method, Hancock joined Félix Hernández as the one Mariners pitchers to strike out 9 or extra in a hitless outing of at the very least six innings. Hernández did so when throwing an ideal sport in 2012.
Hancock’s 9 strikeouts had been a profession excessive, a determine buoyed largely by a four-seam fastball that generated 9 swings-and-misses. Paired with a sweeper that Hancock spent a whole lot of time refining within the offseason, Hancock’s fastball stored Cleveland’s hitters off stability all night.
“You’re playing the speed game and the break game,” Hancock mentioned. “It’s something slower, it’s something that is breaking a lot through the zone. And if you can throw it in the zone, it can help a ton. And then the heater for me, I’m just trying to see it as the mask and just kind of rip it.”
Hancock effortlessly maneuvered by Cleveland’s lineup. The solely baserunners the 26-year-old right-hander allowed got here when he walked Jose Ramirez within the first inning and hit CJ Kayfus with a fastball within the sixth.
But after six innings and 97 pitches, supervisor Dan Wilson determined Hancock was carried out, and there was no consideration to seeing if he might produce the seventh no-hitter in Mariners historical past.
“What he did today was really good execution,” Wilson mentioned. “Really hard to take a guy out after no hits, six innings. But, pitch count was where it was.”
Guardians rookie Chase DeLauter lined a clear single main off the seventh towards reliever Cooper Criswell to interrupt up Seattle’s bid for a mixed no-hitter.
Across the board, Hancock’s velocity was down relative to final season, too. He and Wilson chalked that up partly to it being early within the season. It did not assist that the temperature hung within the low 40s all sport on a cold late afternoon within the Pacific Northwest
As a lot as the weather might have shortened Hancock’s begin, although, they solely added to its brilliance. From the outset, third baseman Brendan Donovan was impressed with Hancock’s willingness to assault hitters, evidenced by the right-hander throwing first-pitch strikes to 12 of the 19 batters he confronted, in addition to not permitting a batted ball towards him to depart the infield.
“I feel like he had confidence in everything that was coming out of his hand,” Donovan mentioned. “Mixing speeds, locations, high levels. Kind of in and out, down, everything seemed to be working for him.”
Such an evaluation couldn’t be utilized to Hancock’s first begin of the 2025 season, one he in the end completed popping out of the bullpen as Seattle’s beginning rotation obtained more healthy. But if Hancock can spin the ball the way in which he did Sunday extra regularly, Wilson could have more durable selections to make past whether or not he ought to preserve the righty within the sport.
“What an incredible performance by Emerson Hancock,” Wilson mentioned. “It was impressive.”
