PEORIA, Ariz. — If you carved out your afternoon to catch the Seattle Mariners’ latest Cactus League showdown — or more specifically, to witness Bryan Woo’s highly anticipated first outing of 2026 — you were met with an unexpected curveball before the first pitch was even thrown. No live TV. No immediate radio. Not even the comfort of a standard AM broadcast humming in the background. For the first time this spring, fans were stranded with only the voices of Rick Rizzs, Gary Hill Jr., and Charlie Furbush narrating the action, while scattered social media clips attempted to piece together what turned into a wild, 8-8 offensive avalanche against the Kansas City Royals. Remember when that used to be normal for spring training? On Thursday, it felt less nostalgic and more like baseball in the dark.
And fittingly, the game itself unfolded like a half-seen fever dream.
By the time the dust settled, 16 combined runs had crossed the plate, 10 Seattle pitchers had cycled through the mound, and the Royals had countered with seven of their own. Twelve of those runs poured in after the fifth inning, once non-roster invitees and nameless jerseys took over in what quickly became a chaotic, late-February slugfest. It was sloppy. It was loud. It was spring baseball at its most unpredictable.
But beneath the stat-sheet noise, there were meaningful flashes — especially from Woo.
The right-hander threw 28 pitches across 1.1 innings, and while the box score shows early damage, the context matters. Woo was lifted with two outs in the first after a grueling nine-pitch battle with Salvador PĂ©rez, a sequence that followed back-to-back doubles from Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino to open the scoring. Welcome to spring training, where experimentation is encouraged and ERA is an afterthought.
Woo stayed true to his identity: fastballs, and lots of them. Eleven four-seamers and seven sinkers led the charge, all sitting at typical velocity. His sweeper emerged as the primary secondary pitch, while a lone changeup fooled Kyle Isbel badly enough to produce a strikeout that had the Royals hitter fishing in the opposite batter’s box. Two strikeouts. No walks. Velocity intact. In February, that qualifies as a win.
Afterward, Woo offered a candid assessment that cut through the noise. “Spring training can be a little bit of a trap,” he said. “You come in trying to feel things out, try new things. Everyone has their traps. Some guys are too hard on themselves, or focused on different things. For me, it’s about working on what I worked on during the week and keeping the right head space.” It was a telling quote from a pitcher increasingly aware of the mental balance required to refine, not overreact. The sweeper that Witt doubled off? A calculated risk. A lab experiment with stakes intentionally lowered.
While Woo grabbed the spotlight early, the bullpen steadied things — at least briefly. Andrés Muñoz flashed triple digits while striking out Witt in a clean third inning, a reassuring sight after some loud contact in his previous outing. Eduard Bazardo followed with a scoreless frame of his own, his sinker biting on the outer edge to freeze Lane Thomas. Weak contact and 100 mph heat? That’s the kind of balm a pitching staff welcomes in the Arizona sun.
Offensively, Rob Refsnyder quietly delivered exactly what he was brought in to do. Batting second and facing left-handed pitching in both of his plate appearances, he singled off Royals starter Noah Cameron and later roped a double into the left-center gap against Chase Jessee
