Mariners score three runs, two broken bats, beat Angels in extras

Apr 3, 2026; Anaheim, California, USA; Seattle Mariners right fielder Luke Raley (20) greets teammates after scoring during the tenth inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium. Mandatory Credit: William Liang-Imagn Images | William Liang-Imagn Images 12 years before I was born, while Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were bemoaning broken glass , the Seattle Mariners were breaking bats. The M’s of 1982 were the club’s crowning achievement, a 76-86 assemblage that was, at the time and until 1987, by far the franchise’s most respectable showing.

On a night where the M’s pitching staff dazzled and had to wait for fashionably late aid from their hitters, this club I never witnessed was on my mind. Having dealt OF Tom Paciorek in the offseason after his 10th-in-MVP-voting season that was the most recognition the club had received to that point, those M’s were shallow at the plate. They’d moved Paciorek for Todd Cruz, who’d become expendable to the Chicago White Sox after the North Siders determined Cruz potentially stealing a bunch of watches from an Edmonton, Alberta department store was a dealbreaker.

Seattle also flipped future rotation stalwart Bud Black for 3B Manny Castillo, who gave the ‘82 M’s what he had: limited defense and awful hitting. He also was 2-for-10 stealing bases. I haven’t forgotten .

But what those M’s had for the first – and potentially only time – in the Kingdome era, was a club made competent by its pitching staff. While the hitters fumbled their rationed cromulence between one another, Floyd Bannister, Jim Beattie, Wild Bill Caudill, and Ed Vande Berg put together one of the greatest pitching staffs in Mariners history. They were buoyed by impressive work from Bryan Clark, Bob Stoddard, and several others, including 43 year old Gaylord Perry who famously secured his 300th win in this penultimate campaign.