2nd time's the charm! After near-miss, Canzone crushes longest HR of his career

DETROIT -- Dominic Canzone's first hit on Saturday would have been a home run in 24 stadiums, including T-Mobile Park.

Comerica Park, where he jacked the Statcast-projected 417-foot drive to straightaway center field, was not one of them.

Whether that near-miss was still on his mind in the fourth inning is debatable, but there was no doubt that the 107.1 mph screamer he launched into the second row of shrubbery at the Chevrolet Fountain during that at-bat was a home run anywhere you played it.

At 451 feet, Canzone’s solo shot was the longest in his career, topping the monster he crushed at Texas last June by one foot. It was also the longest by a Mariners player since Cole Young's 456-footer on July 31, 2025, against Texas.

And what exactly does that kind of mammoth hit feel like?

“Nothing. There's nothing.” Canzone smiled. “Just a hollow feeling, and you don't even feel it off the bat.”

Though Canzone’s first hit of the game struck the bottom of the center-field wall, it also scored the game’s first run and helped propel Seattle to a 4-0 victory over the Tigers.

Canzone’s long ball was his ninth of the season, and more importantly, it reignited the offense after two straight losses that followed AL West-leading Seattle’s recent eight-game win streak.

“It didn't work out yesterday, so I guess I was saving it for today,” Canzone said. “... It's just hard to tell here because it's so deep out there. It usually doesn't fly too well in center. So, if I hit anything to center, I'm hustling out of the box.”

The 28-year-old, who finished 3-for-4 with two RBIs, is hitting .524 (11-for-21) over his past seven games, with two doubles, three homers and four RBIs.

Sure, we’ve seen plenty of Seattle homers lately -- 23 in the past 12 games alone. Lest it get lost in the dugout celebrations, what the Mariners do when balls aren’t leaving the park is pretty encouraging, too.

“As you look at consistency and offense, it's important to be able to score in multiple different ways,” manager Dan Wilson said Friday. Randy Arozarena took that message to heart after leading off the second inning with a walk.

When Canzone’s ensuing long drive fell just shy of clearing the wall, his speedy Seattle teammate still took advantage to score from first as Canzone cruised into second.

One inning later, it was Josh Naylor’s turn to hustle around the bags and score from first on Arozarena’s double. The Tigers challenged the tag at the plate, but the replay confirmed that Naylor’s headfirst dive had indeed allowed him to sneak a few fingers across the plate before catcher Dillon Dingler slapped down the tag.

That put Seattle ahead, 3-0, and Canzone’s moonshot in the next inning provided starter Bryce Miller plenty of breathing room to do his thing.

“It's been a while since I had clean six, so I'll take that, for sure. ... I just kind of picked up where I left off last week.” said Miller, who lowered his ERA to 1.33 across five appearances (four starts) this season.

With the Mariners’ piggybacking experiment a thing of the past for now, Miller was free to work as deep into the game as his pitch count allowed. The righty made the most of it, carving through Detroit’s lineup during his six-inning gem. Miller fanned a season-high nine, walked two and allowed just one hit -- a triple to open the third inning after he’d struck out the side in the second.

“As he got close to 90 pitches, he really didn't show signs of slowing down at all,” Wilson said. “Still looked like it was coming out of his hand extremely well, and I thought he was in pretty good control there. … That's what we've seen from him all along, and the further [the] runway he had today, he just kept taking it.”

Miller’s outing included 16 swing-and-misses and gave Seattle its sixth start this season of at least six innings with one or fewer hits allowed. Four pitchers have achieved this feat, including Emerson Hancock (twice), Bryan Woo (twice), Logan Gilbert and Miller.

The six starts lead MLB this year and tie a single-season franchise record set in 2015 and '23.