Insiders break down why Mariners’ Bryan Woo is so hard to figure out
The Seattle Mariners have had plenty of stellar pitching performances throughout this season, but Bryan Woo may have had the best yet in Wednesday’s 5-2 win over the San Diego Padres.
Drayer: The gloves are off for Mariners’ Bryan Woo
The second-year right-hander took a perfect game into the seventh inning – no hits, no walks, no baserunners whatsoever. It wasn’t broken up until Fernando Tatis Jr. lasered a home run into the left-field corner, which perhaps not coincidentally came right after Woo had to spend nearly 20 minutes in the dugout while the Mariners added on a pair of runs against two separate Padres pitchers in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Woo was taken out before making it through the seventh, putting a few blemishes on his final line (6 2/3 innings, two earned runs, one walk, five strikeouts) in a game where he was, for the most part, completely dominant.
Wednesday was far from the first time Woo has grabbed attention this season, which has been quite the breakout campaign for the 24-year-old former sixth-round MLB Draft pick. He currently owns a 2.38 ERA, 0.823 WHIP and 8-2 record in 19 starts (105 2/3 innings) with 82 strikeouts to just 10 walks, essentially putting himself among the game’s elite pitchers despite missing time at the beginning of the season with elbow inflammation and having a short stint on the injured list with a hamstring strain along the way.
It’s all pretty incredible considering Woo was a little-known pitcher in Seattle’s farm system just two years ago who had an unimpressive college career (his ERA in his final season with Cal-Poly in 2021 was 6.11). But the Mariners saw something in his makeup and have helped him nurture it, and that’s all a big part of why he was the story around the league on Wednesday night.
