Force is strong in the Mariners bats as Seattle pummels Marlins, 8-1, for series opening victory
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Coming off an ugly road trip that saw them fail to win one of the three series that they participated in, the Seattle Mariners returned home to T-Mobile Park with a crushing victory over the Miami Marlins. Seattle returned to what fans have come to love about Mariners baseball, with numerous homers and excellent pitching on the mound. Young starter Bryce Miller, after a few rough starts, found his way and only allowed one hit on the day to the Marlins team that’s been swinging the bat well this year. Ty France, Eugenio Suarez, and Tom Murphy all homered in this game to propel Seattle to a big victory as they begin a six-game homestand and a somewhat crucial stretch ahead of the All-Star break that’s being hosted in this city.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller delivered a six-inning, one-hit gem of a game (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Bryce makes Marlins hitting look like Bantha fodder
Mariners young starter Bryce Miller has had to manage the ups and downs of his early career, having begun well with a historic start before hitting a couple speed bumps in the form of poor starts. It appeared as though the baseball gods were telling Miller “Great kid, don’t get cocky” after his historic start, but the young Texan has been able to work himself out of that sort of funk and get back to the basics of what got him off to that great start. Against a Miami team that has hit the ball well and is generally playing good baseball, Miller was able to draw weaker contact out of the Marlins and get great hitter Luis Arraez to hit right to the Seattle fielders and avoid any damage. The only real blemishes on Miller’s night were the solo homer he gave up later into his outing and the three walks that he had, two to begin an inning. The homer was a fastball higher in the zone, which isn’t necessarily a poor pitch to give up, while the walks are examples of Miller’s control not being so great. It’s a reminder that Miller is still young, hasn’t faced AAA hitting, and will have definite growing moments as his young career continues. Him having only allowed the one hit is an example of how great his stuff is and the potential that he has moving forward to be a quality pitcher in this league for years and years to come.
The Seattle Mariners offensive attack racked up ten hits on the day to account for their eight total runs (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Mariners offense jumps to hyperspace
As discussed on this weeks episode of CSS on Converge, the Mariners offense was able to win this game because of the batters that they had as they made internal adjustments. While Ty France had the big three-run homer that really got the offense going, Eugenio Suarez and Tom Murphy getting solo shots to leave the yard has to be gratifying and could be a big help in terms of getting their bats alive moving into the summer. Both Suarez and Murphy have had relatively quiet beginnings to 2023, while Suarez in particular has been unlucky with plenty of power and hard hit balls but not much to show for it. Suarez and Murphy were both able to get clicking tonight, in an effort that made it seem like they were referencing the Obi-Wan Kenobi quote: “In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck,” as both batters had multi-hit nights. Suarez had a single after reaching first on an error, a blooper reel type play as Marlins left fielder Bryan De La Cruz dropped a seemingly easy liner right at him, before his big homer. Murphy had a double before his big blast, giving himself a multi-extra base hit game. Just as the long ten-game homestand may have been big for a hitter like Julio Rodriguez to hit his stride, if this homestand goes well for the other respective batters in the lineup, it could be a big boost for the Mariners lineup as we head into the summer months.
This is getting out of hand. Now there are two of them!
The city of Seattle has another iteration of the name Ty amongst their sports teams, this time sticking with the classic version of the spelling. Due to reliever Penn Murfee re-aggravating his right elbow injury (inflammation) during the Angels series a few days ago in Anaheim, the Mariners were looking to add another bullpen arm as to not be short in that department. Seattle went to AA Arkansas Travelers pitcher Ty Adcock, calling upon him to make his major league debut and join the 40-man roster. Adcock had to get on a plane and head to Seattle from Arkansas, which is a five-and-a-half-hour flight. Adcock, an Elon University alum like George Kirby, arrived at T-Mobile Park around 4:30PM PST, just over two hours before first pitch. For an idea of why that isn’t ideal, players typically have already completed their workouts by 4PM PST for a 6:40PM first pitch.
Adcock got into the ballpark, went into the manager's office to speak with Scott Servais, and was told that he was going to pitch today in some capacity. From being with the Travelers just a day ago for their game in Tulsa, to making his major league debut in Seattle. Adcock had a whirlwind of a past few days, but was able to ensure that it wouldn’t affect his performance when the phone call to the bullpen for him was made. Adcock came in to pitch the seventh and eighth innings, facing nearly every Marlins batter (didn’t face Soler or De La Cruz), only surrendering one base runner and it wasn’t even his fault. A somewhat routine ball to Eugenio Suarez at third base off the bat of former Mariner Jean Segura was dropped, resulting in the only base runner Adcock surrendered. Otherwise, Miami put balls in play for the Seattle defense to do their job and give the young pitcher a debut to remember.
A new hope?
I will again insert caution before I say that I am hopeful that what we saw tonight is some sort of iteration of what the Seattle Mariners can be as a group moving forward. It’s going to take smarter decisions (at the plate and on the base pathes), more accountability, and just overall consistency, but we’ve seen them do this before. The tools are there for the Mariners to be a winning ball club, but it has to be internal. It would be smart for them to add at the trade deadline in terms of a bat, but no singular bat could turn this offseason around completely. It’s going to have to be an internal effort that Seattle uses in order to right their ship on course, ensuring that they just stay on target despite whatever sort of obstacles they may face or opposition they encounter.
The pitching staff has been lights out for most of the year, displaying great control as though they were jedi masters while some on the rotation are the age of mere padawans, but they cannot do it alone. Calling out to a singular batter in the lineup as their only hope won’t help them, as the Mariners need contributions up and down this group to be better moving forward. Julio Rodriguez, Teoscar Hernandez, Ty France, and JP Crawford have been swinging the bats well as of late. A night like tonight could be the spark that a hitter like Eugenio Suarez (two hits including a solo homer) needs to remind himself that do or do not, there is no try. Other bench-esque players stepping up could be big, as Tom Murphy hit a solo homer today and doubled, while Dylan Moore has yet to record his first hit this year after recently joining from injury. Seattle will have to count on themselves to be better moving forward, as Sometimes we must let go of our pride and do what is requested of us in order to move forward towards a greater goal.
Quick notes
The Mariners opened their 6-game, 7-day homestand with an 8-1 victory.
They are 8-3 over their last 11 games at T-Mobile Park.
Seattle is now .500 in series openers (11-11).
The Mariners 27-14 when homering… they hit 3 tonight.
When leading after the 6th inning, Seattle is 24-5.
The Mariners pitching staff allowed just 1 hit, setting a season-low.
It marked Seattle’s first 1-hitter since June 28, 2022 vs. Baltimore (2-0 SEA win).
Ty France extended his hitting streak to 8 games with a 3-run home run in the 2nd inning.
It was his 8th career 3-run homer and 2nd this season (last: 3/30/23 vs CLE).
Eugenio Suárez went 2-for-4 with a home run and a single.
Tom Murphy went 2-for-4 with a double and a home run… he pushed Seattle’s lead to 8-1 with his second homer of the season.
It was Murphy’s first multi-hit game since 5/9/23 vs TEX.
J.P. Crawford went 2-for-4 with a double in the 1st inning and single in the 6th.
He recorded 2 runs tonight… the first off Teoscar Hernández’s double to open tonight’s scoring…the second off France’s 3-run homer.
Crawford has recorded 7 hits and 2 doubles over his last 3 games (6/10-c).
José Caballero reached base once with his 8th hit-by pitch of the season.
With 8, Caballero ranks 2nd on the team in hit-by-pitches this season… he trails France’s 11 hit-by-pitches.
Julio Rodríguez went 1-for-4 with an RBI and a walk.
In his 8th start of the season, Bryce Miller pitched 6.0 innings… he allowed 1 hit, 1 run (1 earned), 3 walks, 6 strikeouts
He tossed 6 strikeouts across 89 pitches and 56 strikes.
Miller held Miami scoreless through 4.1 innings before allowing a home run.
Ty Adcock tossed 2.0 innings in his Major League debut.
He didn’t allow a hit, run, walk, or strikeout.
Adcock became the 2nd pitcher in Mariners history to toss 2.0+ scoreless innings without allowing a baserunner in his Major League debut, joining Mayckol Guaipe on June 1, 2015.
Tonight’s game marked just the 3rd time in franchise history the Mariners allowed just 1 hit, with that hit being a home run.
It also occurred on April 20, 1990 at Oakland (Ken Phelps HR off Brian Holman in 6-1 Mariners win) and on July 31, 2015 at Minnesota (Miguel Sano HR off Taijuan Walker in 6-1 Mariners win).
What’s next?
This series against the Miami Marlins will continue for the next two days, with all three of the games taking place with a first pitch time of 6:40PM PST and all of them being value games (you can join us at the ballpark for as low as $10!). Tomorrow’s game is that second of three 6:40PM first pitch starts, as the Mariners will have young strike-zone filler George Kirby on the mound to duel against Miami’s Edward Cabrera. Seattle manager Scott Servais discussed at length how important it was for his ball club to make these sort of nights consistent, not particularly blowing a team out, but having quality plate appearances and seeing the zone well. If the Mariners can do that, especially through the rest of this series and stretch of games before we hit the All-Star break, Seattle should be back on track for a second-consecutive postseason appearance.