Bryan Woo nearly flawless in return home to Oakland as Mariners blank A’s

OAKLAND, Calif. — Walking backward off the mound, Bryan Woo looked up into the bright blue California sky as third baseman Dylan Moore caught a high pop-up in shallow left field for the final out of the sixth inning.

As he watched the play end, Woo pounded his right hand into his glove firmly three times, a rather muted reaction to another sensational outing from the Mariners’ 24-year-old right-hander.

The celebration was much louder and much longer from the large gathering of Woo’s family and friends sitting directly behind the Mariners’ dugout at the Oakland Coliseum. They showered with him a standing ovation as he slowly made his way back into dugout.

In his Oakland homecoming, Woo continued a nearly flawless start to his season, allowing just two hits over six shutout innings in the Mariners’ 3-0 victory over the A’s before an announced crowd of 6,571 on Thursday afternoon.

Woo, born in Oakland and raised in nearby Alameda, threw a season-high 85 pitches while working under strict workload conditions.

He struck out six with no walks.

“Honestly, I think coming home, you’ve got to focus a little bit more,” Woo said. “Just because you’re seeing family, you’re seeing friends; you look up in the stands and see a lot of familiar faces. So I think sometimes it can actually throw you off a little bit. So you’ve got to lock in a little bit more.”

This was the sixth shutout of the season for Mariners pitchers. Relievers Austin Voth, Mike Baumann and Ryne Stanek followed Woo to hold A’s to just two hits in all.

The Mariners have won all six of Woo’s starts this season.

In those six starts, Woo is 3-0 with 24 strikeouts, two walks, 16 hits and four runs allowed in 33 2/3 innings.

His 1.07 ERA through the first six starts of a season is the lowest in franchise history, surpassing Randy Johnson’s 1.21 ERA to start the 1995 season.

“What a season he’s putting together,” manager Scott Servais said. “A very talented young pitcher; we’ve got to keep him healthy and keep him going. He’s huge for our rotation.”

Of the four runs Woo has allowed this year, just two came when he was still on the mound. The other two runs were inherited runners that scored on a homer by the Nationals’ CJ Abrams off the Mariners’ bullpen on May 26.

Woo threw credit to catcher Cal Raleigh.

“I just listen to whatever Cal says. I’m not shaking him anytime soon,” Woo said. “That dude puts in more work than anybody. We’re actually we’re living together this year, and I see what he does day to day. …

“I know nobody outworks him. So whatever he thinks is best, I’m going with. It helps me to just put all trust in him and be convicted from there and just go with it.”

It hasn’t mattered yet who he is pitching against or where — Yankee Stadium or the Oakland Coliseum — Woo is attacking hitters with the same confidence, and the same two fastballs.

Of the 85 pitches Woo threw Thursday, 76 were either his four-seam fastball (57) or his sinker (19).

In four career starts against the A’s, Woo has thrown 21 1/3 scoreless innings, the longest scoreless streak by an opposing pitcher to begin his career in Oakland history.

“We just couldn’t hit the heater,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “I don’t know what it is about his fastball that gives us trouble. He basically just threw his four-seam and two-seam and played it off the plate today with success. That’s the story of the day.”

Abraham Toro, the ex-Mariner, led off the bottom of the first with a double just fair down the right-field line. Woo would retire the next three batters to strand Toro in scoring position — Oakland’s best and last chance to score off Woo.

Woo retired 14 of the next 15 batters, and the only runner to reach for Oakland came on an error by Victor Robles, who dropped a fly ball in left field on his first defensive chance as a Mariner.

Oakland’s only other hit was a one-out single by Tyler Soderstrom in the fifth inning.

There was some confusion when Woo was about to throw his first pitch of the sixth inning. Home-plate umpire Nick Mahrley called Woo for a pitch-clock violation; Woo argued and had to be nudged back to the mound by shortstop J.P. Crawford as manager Scott Servais continued the conversation with Mahrley, to no avail.

No matter. Woo needed just 11 pitches to retire the top of Oakland’s order. He struck out Toro looking at a 95-mph sinker, got Miguel Andujar to ground out to Moore and got JJ Bleday to pop out to Moore.

This was Woo’s second start back home in Oakland. Last September, he threw five shutout innings in a 5-0 Mariners victory.

Mitch Garver had one of his best games with the Mariners on Thursday, scoring the game’s first run in the third inning and driving in the second with a clutch two-out, two-strike single in the fourth.

“I do think, when we look up at the end of the year, I think Mitch Garver’s going to be one of our best hitters in the middle of our lineup,” Servais said. “I really do believe that.”

Garver added a 403-foot solo homer in the ninth inning to give the Mariners an insurance run, extending the lead to 3-0.

“Yes, it has been tough. I have not performed up to my own expectations or anybody’s expectations,” Garver said. “But we’re in first place. We have a winning team, a really good staff. The guys in the clubhouse get along really well together. That’s what’s important.

“I don’t think anybody in that locker room is saying that they’re having their best year they’ve ever had, and we’re still winning and we’re still in first place.”

The Mariners, after a frustrating 2-1 loss on Wednesday night, rebounded to take the series from the A’s. The Mariners (36-28) are now 14-5 against AL West rivals.

In the third inning, the Mariners loaded the bases with no outs against Oakland left-hander JP Sears.

Garver led off with walk, Robles was hit by a pitch and Ryan Bliss followed with a first-pitch bunt single.

Moore lofted a fly ball to deep left field for a sacrifice fly to score Garver for the first run, but that’s all the M’s would get.

In the fourth, Cal Raleigh was hit by a pitch and stole second base — just the second steal of his career and first since 2022. It proved valuable when Garver’s single scored a hustling Raleigh from second.

The Mariners got three perfect innings from Voth, Baumann and Stanek, and they’re now 26-0 when leading after seven innings.

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