The Mariners dropped the rubber game of a three-game set against the Boston Red Sox Wednesday afternoon.

The Red Sox took advantage of Luis Castillo’s home-run tendencies, scoring all three of their runs via the long ball. It wasn’t a whole lot, but it was enough nonetheless, as the M’s lost 3-1.

In a familiar theme of late, the Mariners were unable to convert on minimal opportunities against Garrett Crochet. The only run scored on a wild pitch by Crochet early in his start.

Even Tuesday night, with the M’s shutting out the Sox 8-0, six of their runs were driven in by Cal Raleigh, who had yet another otherworldly game.

Monday was a similar feel to Wednesday, except with many more missed opportunities. Roman Anthony hit the first homer of his young Major League career, old friend Abraham Toro drove in Jarren Duran following a lead-off triple, and the Mariners simply didn’t have the response offensively.

Between the two losses on Monday and Wednesday, the Mariners scored only one run and went 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

Fortunately, a sweep against the Guardians means the Mariners still come away with a much-needed 4-2 roadtrip despite the series loss — though you can’t help but have a bit of a sour taste in your mouth.

It feels like a missed opportunity — they could’ve had back-to-back series wins and a potentially crucial tiebreaker in their back pocket against the Red Sox.

Instead, the Mariners hover right above .500 nearing the midpoint of the 2025 season, and they face a set of familiar challenges — will they learn from their past mistakes?

AL Standings update

Note: these standings are as of the morning of June 20, prior to the start of Friday’s Cubs-Mariners series opener. Despite a series loss, the Mariners dropped only a half-game in the division since Monday.

Mariners need a bat, one way or another

Sometimes this sport feels like a big game of whack-a-mole. The moment you solve one issue, the next problem is inevitably popping up.

Back in the month of April, it was the offense that was unexpectedly carrying water for a pitching staff that was understaffed from square one due to injuries.

Slowly, the dynamic has flipped. The bats have cooled off and lineup has experienced some injury woes. Though the pitching still isn’t healthy, it’s back to bearing weight for this ballclub.

Pitching alone didn’t get it done last year, and it certainly isn’t going to get it done this year. The offense is going to need to be better if this team doesn’t want to see another year slip away.

The Mariners, as a whole, are a very streaky team with a lot of streaky players. Prior to this season, you would have said the face of the team was none other than Julio Rodríguez, perhaps the streakiest hitter of the bunch.

Rodríguez’s fWAR as of today is 2.4, though his defense (7.8 Defensive Runs) is doing much of the heavy lifting. His wRC+ is a bit above league average at 111, but his WPA is all the way down at -0.16 on the season.

One of the biggest reasons to be optimistic about the outlook for the rest of this year is that Rodríguez, 23, is already known for his summer hot streaks. We have not yet seen the best of Julio in 2025 — you just hope it’s coming soon.

This is all the more reason to add to this team. The Mariners aren’t lacking in prospect capital — they have more top 100 prospects than any team in baseball. They can add consistent, reliable bats to this lineup without completely depleting their farm.

To me, the bigger question is how you go about doing that.

Harry Ford, the no. 62 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline, has been tearing it up in Triple-A Tacoma so far this year (.313/.425/.483). With Mitch Garver showing close to no sign of improvement on the minimal offensive production he is currently providing you — besides the two-homer game he had today against the Cubs — the idea of giving Ford that roster spot starts to become awfully tempting.

The problem is that Ford is a catcher. The Mariners have the best catcher in baseball at the moment, so there aren’t going to be a whole lot of playing time there. If you’re calling him up, you’re going to want him playing every day, so he’d probably have to be chalked up as a designated hitter many days unless he or the team open up to moving him off of the catching position more.

I’d love to see them try it, and watch him play in Seattle any day now. I am, however, very skeptical of how much the Mariners would want to do it, mainly because they value defensive versatility very highly and I doubt they will want to call up their top prospect just to DH him often.

There is also basically no safety net if they call up Ford and he doesn’t hit. You will have DFA’d Garver, more than likely. So, in essence, Ford would be in a similar role, but there would be no easy way out of playing him every day if things go sideways.

All this considered, I wouldn’t find it all that shocking if Ford is a player traded in the next month of two. Depending on how the front office views the situation, that may solve a problem for them, and help net a quality return at the same time.

Regardless of what direction the Mariners end up going, they need to add — one way or another.

Cal Raleigh All-Star Voting CONTEST!

There is still time to enter the contest announced in Monday’s newsletter!

Cal Raleigh is currently second-overall in the American League in All-Star voting! The top vote-getter in the AL automatically gets a starting spot in the Midsummer Classic, bypassing the next round of voting. Let’s make sure that Big Dumper will be the starting catcher for the American League in Atlanta this July!

To enter, you must:

• Be a subscriber to Rolling Roof Rundown (it’s free!)

• Follow Rolling Roof Rundown on either Bluesky or Instagram

• Repost the contest on Bluesky or post contest to story on Instagram, using the pinned posts on said social media profiles

• Vote for Cal Raleigh using the link here: https://www.mlb.com/all-star/ballot

• Send a screenshot (example below) to [email protected] proving you voted Cal Raleigh, and note the social media account you used to follow/repost. You must use the email you are subscribed with to send this email!

This coming Monday, a winner will be randomly selected to receive two tickets to a Mariners Value Game of their choice this season. The winner will be notified via the email used in the contest. Everyone who enters the contest will also receive a follow back from Rolling Roof Rundown on Bluesky and Instagram.

By the way — you can vote up to five times a day! After you submit your first vote, you can scroll to the bottom of the page to resubmit four more times.

Thanks so much to everyone who has already entered the contest! I look forward to selecting the winner in the coming days.

Coming up next: Chicago Cubs

A three-game set against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field is already underway this afternoon. While you are reading this newsletter, the opening game of the series has already been completed.

Seattle native and member of the 2022 Mariners playoff team Matthew Boyd started for the Cubs on Friday afternoon.

The Cubs (45-29) head into this series with a 5.5-game lead atop the NL Central — their record the best in the National League as of Friday morning. They also own the best run differential in baseball headed into a weekend against the Mariners.

All the games this series will, as usual, be available to watch on Root Sports and listen on 710 AM Seattle Sports.

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.