SEATTLE — The opening game of the 2026 season provided all the pomp and circumstance expected, including the decorative bunting placed strategically in T-Mobile Park. For the 46,938 fans in the sellout crowd on Thursday evening and those who were able to watch via stream or on cable, game No. 1 of 162 offered a mixed back. The Seattle Mariners, in a disappointing 6-4 loss to the Cleveland ...

Dominic Canzone of the Seattle Mariners celebrates his solo home run during the second inning against the Cleveland Guardians at T-Mobile Park on Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Seattle.

Steph Chambers/Getty Images North America/TNS

SEATTLE — The opening game of the 2026 season provided all the pomp and circumstance expected, including the decorative bunting placed strategically in T-Mobile Park.

For the 46,938 fans in the sellout crowd on Thursday evening and those who were able to watch via stream or on cable, game No. 1 of 162 offered a mixed back. The Seattle Mariners, in a disappointing 6-4 loss to the Cleveland Guardians, showed why they could be better than last year’s AL West title team, and also why they might not live up to the lofty preseason expectations.

The Mariners smashed four homers, including a leadoff homer from Brendan Donovan and two from Dominic Canzone, unfortunately they were all solo blasts, while the bullpen gave up three runs over the final three innings.

Brought in to start the top of the seventh against the bottom of the order, lefty Gabe Speier gave up a one-out single to No. 9 hitter Bryan Rocchio, who was a menace to the Mariners all evening. With two outs, Chase DeLauter singled to left field on a first-pitch single to put runners on first and second to bring Jose Ramirez, the Guardians’ best player and perennial MVP candidate, to the plate.

Batting right handed for the first time on the evening, the switch-hitting Ramirez somehow golfed a 1-1 slider that was just above his shoe tops into left-center for a two-run double and a 5-3 lead for what would be the game-winning hit.

Canzone cut the lead to 5-4 in the bottom of the inning with his second homer of the game — a 444-foot blast to right-center. But DeLauter homered for the second time of the game in the top of the ninth, hitting a solo homer off Cooper Criswell for a big insurance run.

Cleveland closer Cade Smith worked a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.

The Mariners got a workable start from Logan Gilbert.

Gilbert gave the Mariners 5 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on five hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. He threw 86 pitches with 59 strikes, including 12 whiffs.

He allowed the first career homer to DeLauter, one of the Guardians’ top prospects, two batters into the game. DeLauter took advantage of a low slider on the inside half of the plate — a pitch all lefties seemingly love to pull for power.

But Gilbert’s teammates answered immediately against Guardians’ starter Tanner Bibee to provide him with a 2-1 lead.

In his first regular-season plate appearance in a Mariners uniform, Donovan led off the bottom of the first with a towering fly ball over the wall in right field, just staying inside the foul pole.

It was a memorable first impression that put him in the team’s record books as the first player to hit a leadoff homer in opening day in franchise history.

The Mariners grabbed a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second when Canzone smashed a line drive over the wall in right field for a solo homer.

Gilbert settled in after the DeLauter homer, retiring 11 of the next 12 batters he faced.

But his run of three scoreless frames ended in the fifth inning. He gave up a leadoff single to Rhys Hoskins and then a double to Daniel Schneeman. Gilbert came back to retire Gabriel Ariaz for the first out of the inning. A misplaced cutter to Rocchio resulted in a double to right field that scored both runs and put the Guardians ahead 3-2.

The Mariners again answered immediately with Luke Raley’s hard topspin line drive that just got over the wall in right field for a solo homer. The ball had a 114-mph exit velocity — the hardest hit ball in the game.