SEATTLE -- The teal shade of the cleats made them shine against Bryan Woo’s crisp white pants and could be spotted without even squinting from even the farthest seats at T-Mobile Park on Wednesday night.
Gifted from "PitchingNinja" Rob Friedman, the custom kicks that Seattle’s second-year starter sported during the Mariners’ 5-2 victory over the Padres featured a cartoon of professional wrestling legend Ric Flair on the exterior of his right foot. In the same area on his left, Flair’s signature shouting phrase that also mirrors Woo’s name was plastered with two exclamation points.
The Nike swoosh and most of the front side of each foot was in Mariners teal, blended with gray and navy along the back, imprinted alongside Woo’s No. 22 and the logo from PitchingNinja, the popular social media personality who’s also a big fan of the Mariners’ rotation.
“I really, really appreciate everything that he does for the game,” Woo said. “And growing up, especially in college when he kind of got big, I learned so much from his stuff. And watching all of his interviews, watching all of his stuff, like, you get grips from this guy.
“As a pitcher, that's the stuff that you really, really appreciate -- like, truly growing the game and truly trying to help the next generation of getting better at pitching.”
For most of Wednesday night, it looked like these creatively themed cleats might be bound for Cooperstown, as Woo carried a perfect game into the seventh inning and was economically cruising with his pitch count.
The bid, however, ended on a rocket of a homer from Fernando Tatis Jr., the Padres’ 20th batter of the night. The pitch wasn’t a bad one, either -- a running two-seamer way in on Tatis’ hands, but up enough for one of the game’s best hitters to get to. After a vicious hack, it left Tatis’ bat at 115.6 mph, raced out in just 3.8 seconds and narrowly hooked inside the left-field foul pole.
"His ball was rising on a level I haven’t seen much,” Tatis said. “The guy has really good stuff. He was pounding the zone. His fastball was really alive, and he was making good pitches all the way from the beginning."
After the homer, Woo surrendered a double to Jurickson Profar and then struck out Manny Machado. But it was a nine-pitch walk to Jake Cronenworth that ended his night, which also snapped a stretch of 107 consecutive batters without a walk dating back to his Aug. 19 start at Dodger Stadium.
Upon handing the ball to Mariners manager Dan Wilson as reliever Troy Taylor entered, Woo shouted into his glove in frustration.
“You're obviously frustrated as a competitor,” Woo said. “Like, you know what you're doing is special, if you just kind of stay in the moment. And credit to them. I mean, they put some good swings on some good pitches. And it is what it is. It's more just me wanting to finish the job, at least finish that inning.”
But as his face emerged during his pace to the home dugout, he couldn’t help but soak in the roaring ovation -- a Flair mimic of “Woo!” from the ticketed 21,129 on hand.
“It was a tough one,” Wilson said. “I just thought it was a long inning, by far his longest of the night. ... He's kind of a quiet guy, but there's a lot of intensity in there. And I think we saw that tonight.”
Carbon-copy, pull-side singles with the bases loaded in the third inning from Cal Raleigh and Luke Raley -- Seattle’s most consistent hitters within its oft-scuffling offense -- gave Woo and the rest of the Mariners’ pitching staff enough breathing room to reach the finish line. And their win, coupled with the Astros’ loss, cut the Mariners’ deficit to 3 1/2 games in the American League West. They remain four games back of the final AL Wild Card spot.
Seattle is 13-6 behind Woo, who is poised to finish 2024 on a huge upward trajectory. And he’ll be doing so wearing his new cleats for the foreseeable future.
After missing the season’s first 38 games with right elbow inflammation and another 14 with a right hamstring strain in late June, Woo has a 2.38 ERA -- the third-lowest in franchise history among pitchers through their first 19 starts, behind only Félix Hernández (2.11 in 2014) and Randy Johnson (2.22 in 1997).