The bats came alive for the Mariners this weekend as they took two of three high-scoring affairs from the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Home runs were abundant throughout the series with strong winds blowing out toward center field. The two teams combined for a total of 21 home runs over the course of all three games.

Cal Raleigh hit four homers of his own in this series, raising his league-leading total to 31 on the season — the most by a catcher before the All-Star Break in Major League history. He homered in all three games and gave the Mariners first-inning leads via the long ball on both Friday and Sunday. The Mariners would go on to win both of those games.

Players like Mitch Garver and Donovan Solano, who have lacked home-run power for much of this year, both had multi-homer games this weekend. Dominic Canzone, who was recalled to the big league roster just two weeks ago, also had a two-homer game on Sunday.

Mariners starters struggled to keep the Cubs’ star-studded lineup in check — though given the conditions, it’s a bit hard to blame them. Emerson Hancock gave up nine earned runs in four innings and took the loss on Saturday afternoon. George Kirby and Logan Gilbert had a little better luck in the other games, though each gave up four earned runs in their starts.

Despite the struggles, the Mariners’ pitching was able to limit the Cubs’ offense just enough to come away with a much-needed series win over one of the better teams they will face all year. With this, they have created a fantastic opportunity to gain momentum as they play each of the next 14 days with no off-days.

Lack of consistency stands out as the Mariners’ main issue — but is improvement finally coming?

When one looks at the Mariners as a whole, no one part of the roster stands out as a glaring weakness. Whether it be hitting, starting pitching, fielding, bullpen or whatever else, each facet has faced its fair share of both successes and failures throughout this season.

As has been discussed many times in the first half of this year, the Mariners have faced brutal injury luck at a number of positions. This may be to blame for their inconsistencies as much as anything.

In recent years, the Mariners leaned heavily on a starting rotation as a metronome — the team goes as the starters go. Generally, the Mariners win when their starting pitching is doing well, and lose games in bunches when starters hit rough patches.

In 2025, though, it’s been a little bit of a different story. Despite some injuries to the rotation that have forced them to rely on some shoddy depth, the Mariners have stayed afloat. The Mariners’ starting pitching has objectively struggled — their 4.18 ERA for starting pitchers is 21st in the Majors, down from first in 2024 and fourth in 2023 — yet they sit two games over .500 and hold a tie for the final playoff spot in the American League headed into today.

The division also remains well within striking distance — the Mariners trail the first-place Astros by five games, but that has been with the Astros coming upon a hot streak at the same time the Mariners slid hard. As we learned last year when the M’s held a 10-game lead in June, it’s a very long season, and leads can evaporate quickly.

Considering all the things that have gone wrong for the 2025 Mariners, there is a lot of room for optimism the rest of the way. OF/1B Luke Raley returned from an extended stint on the injured list this weekend. Gilbert, arguably the Mariners’ best starting pitcher when he’s on, has also finally returned. Solano, the team’s largest new free agent acquisition this offseason, appears to be hitting his stride — so much so that the Mariners elected to keep him on the roster over Rowdy Tellez when Raley returned.

All this is to say that we haven’t seen this team at its best yet. We’ve seen flashes of quality play in every facet. The offense was one of the best in the game back in April, and that may be a lot of the reason the Mariners are still in striking distance. Now that the team’s pitching staff is healthier, there is plenty of potential for this team to hit its stride and string together wins as the bats heat up.

This also doesn’t even mention the potential for additions as we near the trade deadline at the end of July. The Mariners’ president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto has said publicly that they will have the resources to make acquisitions at the deadline, and this is a strategy the Mariners have used repeatedly. We still see the impact of these deadline trades on our roster today in the form of Luis Castillo and Randy Arozarena, among others.

Ultimately, with our expanded playoff format and potential for improvement over the next couple of months, the Mariners have plenty of room to make some noise down the stretch. If and when things come together for this roster, they will be a team that is as difficult to beat as anyone.

Cal Raleigh voting contest update!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the contest to help vote Cal Raleigh to the 2025 All-Star Game in Atlanta. A winner has been randomly selected to receive two tickets to a Mariners Value Game of their choice and will contacted shortly with details!

More contests and giveaways will be coming in the near future. Welcome aboard to all the new subscribers over the last week — I am so happy to have you all and am excited to keep producing content for all of you!

Our efforts to get Cal Raleigh to Atlanta have been successful to this point! In the first stage of voting, Big Dumper is holding a MASSIVE lead among American League catchers, with just over 1.9 million votes so far. The next-highest vote-getter, Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk, has yet to break a million.

The top two vote-getters will advance to the second phase of voting, where they will go head-to-head for the starting spot beginning at 9:00 a.m. PDT next Monday, June 30. This phase of voting will only be open for two days, until 9:00 a.m. PDT next Wednesday, July 2. We need to be ready to bring it those two days! Keep your eye on Rolling Roof Rundown for more updates.

Know your opponent: Minnesota Twins

The Mariners kick off a four-game set against the Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis tonight.

The Mariners took two of three from the Twins just three weeks ago, despite blowing a late lead in each of the games.

The Twins have hit a rough stretch since last playing the Mariners on June 1. They are 6-13 in that stretch, and have lost nine of their last 10 games. Since leaving Seattle, Twins starting pitching has put up a 6.27 ERA, which is dead-last in the Majors in that span and nearly an entire run more than the next-highest team (Detroit, 5.36).

At least some of those starting pitching woes can be chalked up to losing Pablo López to a Grade 2 shoulder strain, which will keep him out for the next 8-12 weeks.

Conversely, the Mariners have the second-best wRC+ in the Majors since playing the Twins (128), which trails only the red-hot Tampa Bay Rays (134) in that span.

The Twins are also without third baseman Royce Lewis, who was placed on the injured list on June 14 with a hamstring strain.

The Mariners will look to build on their recent offensive explosion and keep the Twins down in the dumps this week.

This is Rolling Roof Rundown’s twice-weekly Mariners newsletter. You can follow James @rollingroofrundown.com on Bluesky and, if you haven’t already, subscribe to the newsletter for more news and commentary. Rolling Roof Rundown is now on Instagram and Threads as well.