RECAP: Seahawks, Kraken look to bounce back after losses; Rodríguez wins ROTY
The Seahawk defense reverted to their early-season struggles against the run in Sunday’s 21-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
AP Photo/Steve Luciano
The Seattle Kraken saw their five-game win streak snapped with back-to-back losses last week, first to the Minnesota Wild.
Seattle Mariners outfielder Julio Rodríguez was named the AL’s Rookie of the Year on Monday, becoming the fifth player in franchise history to win the award.
SEATTLE – Both the Seattle Seahawks and Kraken saw their win streaks snapped last week, while the Seattle Mariners found themselves back in the headlines with an award for a certain star rookie outfielder. Check out this week’s professional sports recap for Washington’s team, with updates for the Seahawks, Kraken and Mariners.
Seahawks
The Seahawks traveled across the pond for their Week 10 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, playing in Munich – the NFL’s first regular-season game played in Germany. Seattle struggled to move the ball in the first half, only totaling 57 net yards of offense through the first 30 minutes. A 14-point deficit at the half forced the Seahawks to abandon the run in the second half, where they only ran the ball on designed runs three times for nine yards.
Seattle’s defense, which had held opponents to under 350 yards of offense during their four-game win streak, surrendered 419 total yards to the Buccaneers on Sunday, the second-most by a Tampa Bay offense this season. The Buccaneers, who have struggled to run the ball all season (60.67 rushing yards per game entering Week 10) rushed for 161 yards on the Seahawks defense.
Despite the slow start, quarterback Geno Smith was able to get the offense moving in the second half, where he completed 17-of-23 passes for 206 yards and two touchdowns in the final two quarters. Three second-half scoring drives were unable to capture the lead from Tampa Bay, giving Seattle a 21-16 defeat, its first loss in over a month.
Seattle made three roster moves over the past week, first signing running back Godwin Igwebuike to the practice squad on Nov 8. Fullback Cullen Gillaspia was placed on injured reserve on Saturday, defensive back Tre Brown was activated from the physically unable to perform list on Tuesday and receiver Kevin Kassis was released from the practice squad on Monday as well.
Seattle is on a bye this week before their Week 12 matchup at home against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Seahawks are 6-4, still atop the NFC West.
Kraken
After winning five-straight games, the Seattle Kraken have dropped their previous two matchups against the Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets.
The Kraken took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal by Mats Zuccarello on Friday, a lead that held true throughout the game. Even with outnumbering the Wild 18-7 on shots on goal in the third period, Seattle was unable to find an equalizer and snapped their five-game win streak, the longest in the franchise’s brief history.
The loss to Minnesota was the first time the Kraken had been shut out in a game this season.
Right wing Jordan Eberle found the net in the first period against the Jets on Sunday, his fourth of the season, to give Seattle a 1-0 lead against Winnipeg in its third-consecutive home game. Tied at two after the third period, Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele scored under a minute into overtime, his second goal of the evening, and give the Jets a 3-2 win, dropping the Kraken to 8-5-3 on the year.
Defenseman Jamie Oleksiak, who has three goals and two assists on the year, was placed on injured reserve on Thursday, and defenseman Gustav Olofsson was recalled from Coachella Valley. Goalie Joey Daccord was re-assigned to Coachella Valley.
Mariners
Outfielder Julio Rodríguez became the fifth Mariner to garner American League Rookie of the Year honors, joining Alvin Davis, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Ichiro Suzuki and Kyle Lewis. Rodríguez won the award nearly unanimously, receiving 29 of 30 first-place votes by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America – Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman was the only other player to receive a first-place vote.
The rookie sensation helped guide the Mariners to the postseason for the first time in 21 years, which was the longest playoff drought in the four major American sports leagues. Rodríguez led all of the MLB’s rookies in home runs (28), OPS (.853) and total bases reached (260). 145 hits gave Rodríguez a .284 batting average, and the rookie also stole 25 bases.
Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.
