Jane Njoku

Bryan Woo wore crisp white pants that made the teal shade of the cleats shine against them. It could be seen without squinting from even the farthest seats at T-Mobile Park on Wednesday night. 

Rob Friedman “PitchingNinja’’ gifted Woo the custom kicks he wore during the Seattle Mariners’ 5-2 victory over the Padres, which featured a cartoon of Wrestling legend Ric Flair on the exterior of his right foot. In the same area on his left, Flair’s signature shouting phrase that mirrored Woo’s name was written with two exclamation points (Woo!!).

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 with Woo’s No. 22. The logo was from PitchingNinja, a social media personality who is a huge fan of the Mariners. 

“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 seemed like these creative cleats might end up in Cooperstown, as Woo carried a perfect match into the seventh inning and was cruising economically with his pitch count. 

However, the bid ended with a home from the Padres’ batter Fernando Tatis Jr. The pitch was not bad, either. It was a running two-seamer way in on Tatis’ hands, but enough for one of the best hitters in the game to strike. After a ferocious hack, Tatis’ bat was left at 115.6 mph, raced out in only 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 home run, Woo conceded a double to Jurickson Profar and struck out Manny Machado. But it was a nine-pitch walk to Jake Cronenworth that ended his night, which snapped a stretch of 107 consecutive batters without a walk dating back to his August 19 start at Dodger Stadium.

Woo shouted into his glove in frustration, upon giving the ball to Mariners manager Dan Wilson, when reliever Troy Taylor entered. 

“You’re obviously frustrated as a competitor,” he 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 when his face emerged during his pace to the home dugout, he could not help but soak in the roaring ovation. Bryan gave 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.”