Cole Young, Luke Raley home runs lead Seattle Mariners to 5-1 win over Guardians

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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - MARCH 27: Cole Young #2 of the Seattle Mariners celebrates after his three-run home run during the fourth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at T-Mobile Park on March 27, 2026 in Seattle, Washington.  (Maddy Grassy / Getty Images)

SEATTLE - Cole Young and Luke Raley drove in all five Seattle runs on a pair of homers, and George Kirby allowed just one run over six innings as the Mariners beat the Cleveland Guardians 5-1 on Friday night for their first win of the season.

Young's three-run homer off Gavin Williams in the fourth inning gave the Mariners the lead, and Raley's in the sixth inning added some cushion. The Guardians managed just one run on Chase DeLauter's third home run in two nights against Seattle in the first inning.

Eduard Bazardo, Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz combined for three scoreless innings in relief to close out the first victory of the season for Seattle.

For the second straight night, Chase DeLauter homered in his first at-bat to give the Guardians an early lead. While Thursday night's opener was a sky-high swing that just cleared the right field wall, this one was a line drive shot that also just evaded the glove of right fielder Luke Raley.

The Mariners managed to draw several walks against Cleveland starter Gavin Williams, but couldn't find a way to break through until the fourth inning. Leo Rivas' lead-off triple in the third inning served as the only hit off Williams early, with walks by Brendan Donovan, Julio Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena over the first three innings unable to yield any damage.

However, a one-out walk to Arozarena in the fourth, and a two-out pass to Dominic Canzone put two runners on for Seattle in the bottom of the fourth inning. After striking out in his first four at-bats of the season between last night and tonight, Young hammered a 97 mph fastball from Williams deep to right field for a three-run home run and a 3-1 Mariners' lead.

The Guardians nearly answered in the top of the fifth inning only for a boneheaded baserunning play to wipe out the opportunity. Kirby issued consecutive walks to Rhys Hopkins and C.J. Kayfus to lead-off the fifth inning, and hit nine-hole hitter Brayan Rocchio with a pitch to load the bases with one out.

However, a soft fly ball to shallow left field was run down by Arozarena for the second out, and the -far-from-swift Hoskins tagged up and took off for home. Arozarena's throw home beat Hoskins by a mile as Cal Raleigh had plenty of time to apply the tag for the final out of the inning.

Kirby made it through six innings in total, allowing just the one run on DeLauter's home run with only two hits and two walks while striking out six.

Williams walked one more batter in the fifth inning for his sixth of the night before exiting. Williams allowed three runs on two hits with six walks and seven strikeouts for Cleveland over five innings pitched. Colin Holderman replaced Williams for the sixth inning and the Mariners added on.

Arozarena drew his third walk of the night before Raley hit his second home run in as many games over the right field fence for a 5-1 advantage.

For the second straight game, the heart of Seattle's lineup – Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor – combined to go 0-for-11 with a walk and six strikeouts, four from Raleigh and two from Rodríguez.

But the two blasts from Young and Raley were enough to carry the load behind Kirby's strong debut. 

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