TAMPA -- They know the stinging feeling as much as anyone, having been here each of the past two seasons.

The sunken emotions of coming short of expectations for a starved fanbase, but more so, themselves. The managerial transition that came last August when things were spiraling. The missed opportunity of springboarding momentum after ending their 20-year playoff drought in 2022.

All of these factors were within the Mariners’ commentary after Tuesday’s 6-5 loss to the Rays -- specifically, from Cal Raleigh, J.P. Crawford and Bryan Woo -- which revealed blunt urgency to not let unflattering history repeat itself, having finished as the first team on the outside looking in from 2023-24.

"You’ve just got to take accountability for it,” Woo said, following his shortest start of the seaso

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