Mariners break own Fenway curse, win 4-3

you’re bound to win sooner or later

To put it bluntly, to be a Mariners fan means watching a lot of failure. Failure to make the playoffs, failure to win ball games, failure to even score. I think that at this point a lot of us have resigned ourselves to enjoying the ballgame itself and not the outcome. That’s not to say that there aren’t expectations or hopes of winning, but that they aren’t as great here as some other franchises.

Which is why it was surprising, but not extremely so, to learn that before today the Seattle Mariners had not won a series in Fenway Park since 2014 when they swept the defending champions. Fenway has been something of a house of horrors since then, of course, but certain standout games wiped away the memories of the worst losses. And after year over year of losing, the Mariners today finally broke that mini-curse, taking the series with today’s 4-3 win. All it took was time.

Bryan Woo has perhaps been the standout pitcher for the Mariners so far in 2025. And he had another excellent game today, going 6 innings while only allowing two runs and striking out eight. But what the box score doesn’t tell you is that he had unreal composure today in his Fenway Park debut. The Sox, with one exception, couldn’t touch him.

That exception being who else but Alex Bregman. The third baseman scored the first run of the day for Boston in the bottom of the first when he got ahold of a rare mistake from Woo, a middle-middle fastball that Bregman sent to the seats on top of the Green Monster.

Besides that homer, Woo struck out the side in the first. In the third inning Jarren Duran hit a one out double off the monster, and was quickly brought home by a Bregman single also off the wall.

But for the rest of the game, Woo was totally locked in. There were only two more instances of a Boston player reaching base against Woo: a Triston Casas HBP in the second inning, and a (you guessed it) Bregman walk in the sixth. Even though his command was perhaps a little spotty (a fair number of wasted pitches) there was nothing 8 of the 9 Sox could do about it. The only think you can say to that is “Woo!”

Bryan must have stolen all of the composure for himself, because there was none left over for Red Sox starter Garrett Crochet. The first was about as much of a disaster as a mere 2-run inning can be. Dylan Moore led off with a single that bounced high off the monster, and made it to second on a balk. Crochet looked to be settling in a little bit, as he struck Julio and Cal out on 9 total pitches. But then Randy ground out a 9 pitch walk to put runners on first and second. Mitch Garver stepped in after him, and bounced a 1-1 fastball off the far side of the monster, scoring both runners. Donovan Solano grounded out to end the inning (he’s not having a very good season), but the Mariners came away with two runs, and forced Crochet to throw 29 pitches in the first.

The second inning was similarly difficult for Crochet, as he loaded the bases with no outs on a pair of singles and a walk, but only gave up a second pair of runs. Those coming from a Dylan Moore sac fly and a Julio RBI groundout. Those would be the last runs of the day for the Mariners, but they were just enough. Crochet didn’t get the hook, but he also never truly locked in after the second. He did limit baserunners, only allowing four Mariners to reach base in the next three innings. But he labored for every out, and ended his day after the fifth inning after 110 pitches.

The Mariners threatened to score again in the 7th when they loaded the bases against Liam Hendriks with two outs, but that came to naught when J.P. struck out on a pitch in the dirt. J.P. did have two crucial hits today, though, so he’s allowed a strike out or two.

The final run of the game came in the bottom of the 8th, and unfortunately it was tagged to Gabe Speier, who hadn’t given up an earned run in 2025. It was also a very silly run; a home run that Carlos Narváez doinked off the pesky pole in right field. This is only a home run in Fenway, folks.

With a one run lead in the 9th, there was only one man who was coming out of the bullpen. Fresh off a save last night, Andrés Muñoz pitched again tonight and continued his season of making hitters wish they had never been born. His fastball is still unbelievable. And his slider? Let’s just say it has a way of disarming opposing hitters.

I’ve written before about the curse of sisyphus on this site so I won’t labor the point here, but there is a real joy in seeing the M’s push their boulder up over this small hill, and take a series in a park that’s haunted them for the past decade. It shows that all it takes to do something impossible is to keep trying.

And who knows? Maybe the boulder will keep going up.