Thus far, it's been a season to forget for the Seattle Mariners. In their follow-up to a postseason that ended in last year's American League Championship Series (ALCS), the Mariners are five games out of first place in the AL West and three games out of an AL Wild Card playoff spot at the time of this writing. To be sure, Cal Raleigh's fall from grace after a 60-home run campaign is undoubtedly a big reason for the Mariners not even floating above water, but it's still a team effort and every Mariner needs to pick up the slack. While there's still plenty of time to make a run in mid-August, all of this ongoing disappointment is why Seattle has to take joy in every little moment and accident where it can. Thankfully, Josh Naylor and Cole Young did just that by creating a new "butt slide" for everyone to laugh at in a 10-5 road win over the AL West-leading Houston Astros on Saturday night. Let me explain. With both Naylor and Young on base at the top of the second inning, Víctor Robles hit a clutch triple that ultimately allowed both Mariners to reach home plate. The only issue was that Naylor seemed to forget he had to leave room for Young to come in for a run, too. After Naylor went for a full slide, he stood up and lingered a bit too long around home plate. This meant Young, who was tailing just behind Naylor, had to make a tough decision on the fly where he could score but not injure anyone. Young ultimately decided to slide through Naylor's legs. He was ruled safe ... just as his upper body collided with Naylor's derrière. Here's a replay video of the sequence in full:
Cole Young slid through Josh Naylor legs to score pic.twitter.com/Ge6ZulOi32 — Punchoutpitch (@Punchoutpitch) August 16, 2026 Honestly, kudos to Young for his awareness to make up for Naylor's apparent forgetfulness. It's what allowed the Mariners to get two runs without hurting themselves while also giving us all a much-needed brief moment of levity. Does Josh Naylor have a good base-running reputation? Yes, actually! Despite not having traditional top-end speed like other baseball speedsters, Naylor is 13th in steals in MLB with 23 so far this season. This article originally appeared on For The Win: Josh Naylor and Cole Young inadvertently created a new 'butt slide' for Mariners