Boston blasts Bryce Miller, Mariners continue to struggle with runners in scoring position, snapping 4-game win streak
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – On trade deadline day, the Seattle Mariners dropped the second game of their series against the Boston Red Sox. Seattle continues to struggle with runners in scoring position, squandering numerous opportunities to dig themselves out of a hole created by Boston beating up on Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller. With a prime opportunity to gain ground, Seattle drops a game against a team that they’re trying to leap for a Wild Card spot but can still take the series in tomorrow’s rubber match. With the team not making any major deals before the 3PM PST deadline, Seattle is betting on the current roster to get them back in the postseason.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller struggled, allowing six runs in tonight’s outing (Photos by Sage Zipeto)
Miller time comes out a little flat
Seattle starting pitcher Bryce Miller struggled in today’s outing, as the young right hander struggled with his velocity in today’s start. The first three innings of Miller’s night were relatively strong, only surrendering a walk and double through those three frames, but the fourth inning was where things started to go south. The first three Red Sox batters reached as Masataka Yoshida doubled, Rafael Devers walked, Adam Duvall was hit by a pitch. Miller got Tristan Casas to fly out to right, and a strong throw home by new Mariners Dominic Canzone kept Yoshida at third instead of scoring on a sac fly. The Red Sox stayed persistent at the plate, though, as a ground rule double by Christian Arroyo scored Yoshida and Devers. A sac fly by Reese McGuire scored the third run of the inning. After the tough fourth, Miller continued to struggle as he surrendered homers in the fifth (a two-run blast by Alex Verdugo) and sixth (solo shot by Reese McGuire).
“I mean, I didn’t really notice any particular adjustment, it was just more of like I didn’t execute. Wherever you go bases loaded, no outs, it makes it tough, especially two free bases; that hit batter and a walk. You can’t have that. I mean, I felt good. I was rolling. And then the free bases got me, they had one hit that inning, and give up three runs. Just got to be better.”
In terms of his pitch arsenal, Miller is credited with using five different kinds of pitches today. Bryce threw his fastball, which he came into today using 66.3% of the time (Highest 4-seasm usage rate by a starter in all of MLB), a slider, changeup, sinker, and a sweeper one time. He saw pitch velocities drop on everyone except for that sweeper, which is hard to take much stock in considering it was one pitch he threw, and spin rates dropping in the exact same way. 13 of the 19 pitches that Red Sox batters hit were hard-hit. Miller struggled in this outing, and while the statistics lean more towards some of the numbers seeing decreased effect on his pitches, Miller seem more concerned with the free bases he allowed and particularly that fourth inning.
“Well, certainly I think he’s a much more effective pitcher when he’s pitching 94 and 95, it did dip down a little bit. He came back at the end of the game, and he’s a young pitcher. It’s going to happen: the consistency. That’s what really separates the guys at this level. We’ve seen him have some great outings where you can go out there and kind of just work through lineups. You know about the good riding fastball, but the league knows him. He really needs the consistency of the secondary pitches. See some decent sliders, see some changeups, they’re just not consistent. And that’s what leads into some of the bigger innings.”
Seattle Mariners third baseman Eugenio Suarez celebrates his two-run homer (Photos by Sage Zipeto)
Chipping away early, before looking like the same offense we’ve seen often
The Mariners got off to some early success at the plate, instilling hope that they’d be able to continue the strong hitting they’d displayed during their four-game winning streak. The first four Seattle batters reached base, as JP Crawford led off the bottom of the first with a walk, Julio Rodriguez and Eugenio Suarez singled, with Crawford scoring and Suarez’s singled thanks to a throwing error by Boston left fielder Jarren Duran. Cal Raleigh walked to load the bases with no outs, before the next three Mariners batters failed to cash in as Dominic Canzone flied out to right, Ty France struck out, and Mike Ford grounded out. The way that the Seattle batters were able to get after Boston starter Brayan Bello inspired hope, something that was soon squished as the Mariners went scoreless for the next three frames.
Seattle’s offense picked things back up in the fifth and sixth, responding to the runs from Boston in both frames. In the fifth, Cade Marlowe singled to lead off the inning before Eugenio Suarez slammed a two-run homer into the left field corner on a pitch inside. In the next inning, the Mariners got back-to-back doubles from Canzone and France to score their fourth run of the game. If you truly wanted to, you could sit and argue that Seattle could be in position to win this ballgame had it not been for Bryce Miller’s poor game. And while there is some truth to that, the Mariners offense didn’t help itself out by going a dismal 2-12 with runners in scoring position. It’s a tough stat to look at but given the way that Seattle has played since July 1st, it’s hard for me to sit here and throw a fit over this loss. Rather, knowing that this is something that the Mariners still need to improve upon.
The Seattle Mariners had Josh Rojas and Dominic Canzone make their team debuts (Photos by Sage Zipeto)
New recruits
Dominic Canzone and Josh Rojas both made their Mariners debuts tonight (Trent Thornton did too, but we’ll talk about him in the ‘Pen report), just hours after they had gotten situated in their new lockers and started to meet their new teammates. Canzone got the start in right field, giving Teoscar Hernandez a much-needed day off, while Rojas started at second base as he forms a new tandem with Jose Caballero since Kolten Wong was designated for assignment to make room on the roster.
Canzone had two nice plays out in right field, with his throw that kept a runner at third base on a potential sacrifice fly, and a retreating play where he caught on a ball on a hop at the warning track. There was one “blemish” so to say on his night in the field, as the ground rule double by Christian Arroyo got over his head, but it’s going to be hard for me to cast serious judgement right now on a player that got called up to the bigs back in mid-July. Canzone’s better side of his game is his hitting, anyway, and Mariners fans got to see a bit of that with his double in the sixth inning where he later scored the team’s fourth run. Fly outs in the two previous plate appearances before were disappointing, but as we discussed in our introduction article on the new players from the Diamondbacks, Canzone is a proven hitter through his career so far and is getting adjusted to the pace of Major League play.
Rojas had the less impressive performance of the two, mainly because of what he did at the plate. He did help turn a slick 4-6-3 double play in the sixth inning to take away a leadoff single by Tristan Casas, so not much to knock on his defensive game and he’ll surely be learning some things from Mariners infield coach Perry Hill. At the plate, Rojas had an 0-4 day with two strikeouts, including grounding into a double play with Ty France at third in the fourth inning and striking out with Ty France at second and Cal Raleigh at third in the eighth. Rojas has been an okay hitter at the Major League level, spending time in the bigs with Arizona on four different occasions (three, if you take away the weird 2020 season), and I again have trouble casting judgement on a guys first game with the team.
Seattle Mariners reliever Trent Thornton also made his team debut in this ballgame (Photos by Sage Zipeto)
‘Pen report
After taking a heavy hit to their bullpen (No, I am not talking about the Sewald trade. Go be angry somewhere else) when they deployed five relievers in game one of the series, the Mariners were able to turn to two lesser-known faces to get them the remaining three and a third innings after Miller’s day was done. Recent (July 26th) trade acquisition Trent Thornton was recalled from the Mariners AAA affiliate, the Tacoma Rainiers, today in a roster move that saw Juan Then sent down to Tacoma to take Thornton’s place. The glasses wearing right hander threw two and thirds innings of relief for the Mariners, performing well given the circumstances as he only surrendered one hit (a single by Masataka Yoshida) while striking out three. Devin Sweet (Not spelled Devon, as it appeared on Mariners vision) took over following Thornton, pitching in his first game since July 19th vs the Minnesota Twins. In similar fashion to Thornton, Sweet only allowed one hit (also a single, this to Yu Chang on a little dribbler up the third base line) but was otherwise clean in the top of the ninth inning.
Quick notes
The Mariners lost tonight’s middle game vs. the Red Sox by a 6-4 score, evening the series at 1-1.
Seattle will look to win the series tomorrow…Seattle has won its last 3 series and holds a 6-1-1 series record over their last 8 series.
Eugenio Suárez recorded 3 RBI tonight to extend his active streak to 7 consecutive games with an RBI…his streak is the longest active RBI streak in MLB and longest by a Mariners batter this season.
Suárez has recorded 10 RBI through the 7-game span
His 68 total RBI this season lead the Mariners and rank tied for 9th-most in the American League.
Julio Rodríguez extended his hitting streak to a career-high 10 consecutive games (7/22-c)…he has also reached base in a career-high 26 consecutive games (7/1-c).
Rodríquez’s 26-game on-base streak is the longest active on-base streak in the Majors and the longest on-base streak by a Mariner since Robinson Canó reached base in 34 consecutive games from April 30-June 5, 2016.
During his 10-game hitting streak, Julio is batting .304 (14x46) with 10 runs, 3 doubles, 4 home runs and 7 RBI.
Cade Marlowe has reached base safely in each of his first 8 starts to begin his Major League career (10 G, 8 GS).
Since making his MLB debut on 7/20, Marlowe has batted .280 (7x25) with 5 runs, 2 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run, 1 RBI and 5 walks while reaching base at a .400 clip and slugging .560 for a .960 OPS.
Tonight’s game marks Marlowe’s 2nd career multi-hit game.
Dominic Canzone, Josh Rojas and Trent Thornton each made their Mariners debuts tonight.
Canzone went 1-for-4 with 1 double and 1 run scored.
Thornton tossed 2.1 scoreless innings in relief, allowing only 1 hit with 3 strikeouts.
Ty France tallied 3+ hits in a game for the 9th time this season, most among Mariners batters.
France has recorded 3 hits in 2 of his last 3 games and multiple hits in 3 of his last 5 games.
France recorded 2 doubles in tonight’s game, breaking a stretch of 9 consecutive games without an extra-base hit (July 22-31),France now leads the Mariners with 26 doubles this season.
Through 5.2 innings, Bryce Miller allowed 7 hits, 6 runs (6 earned), 2 walks, 2 home runs, 1 hit batter and 4 strikeouts.
Tonight was just the 3rd time through 15 starts that Miller has allowed 2 or more home runs.
The Mariners bullpen combined for 3.1 scoreless innings, allowing only 2 hits with 4 strikeouts.
What’s next?
With the trade deadline now in the rear view, the full focus of this Mariners ballclub is on the rest of this season and doing what they can to get themselves back into the postseason. It remains possible considering that Seattle, even after tonight’s loss, sits six games out of the top spot in the American League West and 3.5 games out of the third and final Wild Card spot. Gaining ground and climbing up the ladder must continue with a win in tomorrow’s rubber match against the Red Sox, with a first pitch time of 1:10PM PST. The matinee will feature Seattle’s Logan Gilbert, who is 5-1 in his last seven starts, as he duels against Boston’s Kutter Crawford, who has gone 4-2 over his last seven starts.