Seattle Mariners vs San Francisco Giants Picks and Predictions July 19th 2026

Mariners ride stellar play of middle infield into finale vs. Giants

The Seattle Mariners might be set in the middle of their infield for years to come.

Cole Young and Colt Emerson showed why Saturday.

Young, a second baseman, hit a tying three-run homer in the seventh inning and Emerson, a shortstop, made two key plays in the 10th as the Mariners recorded a 4-3 win over the visiting San Francisco Giants.

The three-game interleague series concludes Sunday afternoon in Seattle.

The Mariners had just one hit through six innings against Giants ace Logan Webb — a bloop single by Young leading off the third — before Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch and Cal Raleigh walked with one out in the seventh. Young, in his second season, went deep to right-center to tie it.

“The more I like tense up and muscle up and try to do damage, like it never worked out for me,” Young said. “So I think just learning that over the past year and realizing that I don’t have to try to hit a home run to hit a home run.”

With the score tied at 3-all in the 10th, the rookie Emerson made a diving stop to his right on a grounder by leadoff hitter Luis Arraez, jumped up and threw him out at first to keep the automatic runner at second.

“I wasn’t expecting to get the out there,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “I was thinking we were going to be first and second with no out, but to get (Arraez) out there is just a huge bonus. It was just an incredibly athletic play.”

The Giants failed to score and Emerson led off the bottom of the frame with a sacrifice bunt to move automatic runner Victor Robles to third. After J.P. Crawford walked, Julio Rodriguez hit a sacrifice fly to left field to win it.

“At least for a while, it didn’t feel like (we) could get anything going,” said Rodriguez, who was activated earlier in the day from the seven-day concussion list. “(Young’s homer) was definitely a great spark for the team.”

Rafael Devers and Willy Adames hit solo shots for the Giants, whose three-game winning streak came to an end.

“I think there was carryover from (Friday night’s 7-0 victory) with the at-bats being really good,” Giants manager Tony Vitello said. “I think the only thing you can do is keep piling positives up and even you can do that on a day like (Saturday). I mean you get an incredible outing from (Webb), some real positives out of the relief. The efforts that we got at bat were competitive.”

The series finale is set to feature Giants left-hander Robbie Ray (8-6, 3.38 ERA) against Mariners right-hander Logan Gilbert (7-6, 3.32).

Ray is 5-0 with a 1.84 ERA over his past seven starts. He took a no-decision in his last outing, July 10 against visiting Colorado, despite allowing just one run on four hits over five innings.

Ray is 2-1 with a 3.23 ERA in seven career starts against Seattle, where he pitched in 2022-23.

Gilbert took a 6-1 loss at Tampa Bay on July 11, giving up four runs on nine hits in 6 2/3 innings.

He has faced the Giants once before, pitching his lone career shutout against them on July 4, 2023, in San Francisco. Gilbert allowed five hits that day, didn’t walk a batter and fanned seven.

–Field Level Media