Mariners flex pitching prowess to salvage win from series against Tigers
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Following a frustrating shutout loss that resulted in a series loss against the Detroit Tigers, the Seattle Mariners salvaged a win from the three-game set with a tight 2-0 victory. The Mariners relied on the strength of their pitching, who would’ve thought, as Bryce Miller threw five shutout innings in his return from the injured list. Seattle wasn’t able to muster much at the plate today, with five of their six total hits coming in the first four innings, but it was just enough thanks to the power of their pitching. With the win in the series finale against the Tigers, the Mariners have won 1,000 games here at T-Mobile Park/Safeco Field.
Miller money
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller, coming off the 15-day injured list after dealing with a blister on his right middle finger, was strong in his outing today to give his team a good foundation for a win. After All-Stars Luis Castillo and George Kirby had “off” games to begin this series, Seattle needed to get back to their strong pitching considering what we know about the Mariners struggles at the plate. Despite coming off the injured list the day of this start, Miller was able to provide exactly what the coaching staff and team could’ve asked for given the circumstances. Some thought that this was a “short” outing for Miller or that he was pulled early but given the fact that he was coming off the injured list and the fact that he isn’t used to a workload like this, especially at the big-league level, it really wasn’t “short.”
“The second time we’ve seen him this year… it looks like he’s got a dynamic fastball, mixing his pitches, at least against us…he will be in attack mode from what it looks like in the two games I’ve seen him.”
It’s somewhat interesting to look at Miller’s pitching breakdown, as he essentially relied on his fastball and slider in this game while barely sprinkling in a sweeper and changeup. While his fastball, which has been a big player in why Miller has seen such strong success to begin his career at the Major League level, wasn’t particularly spectacular today, his slider is what took the show. Miller’s slider saw a major increase in spin rate which is most likely why he relied on it so much as opposed to the sweeper or changeup in this game. It’s been talked about before and I’ll mention it again, watching Miller continue to develop his off-speed will be fun as he adjusts and adapts more and more to big league hitting.
Hot start just enough
While they’ve needed to improve for the entirety of this season and even the two seasons prior, the Seattle bats were looking for a jumpstart in the final game of the series if they were going to salvage a win from this series. With a slow start in game one and after getting shutout in game two yesterday, the Mariners certainly wanted to get out to a quick start. Seattle did just that, getting two hits immediately off Detroit starter Reese Olson as JP Crawford led off with a double and Julio Rodriguez singled. There was reason for doubt that it would mean anything after Teoscar Hernandez grounded into a double play, but Jarred Kelenic’s double (on his birthday) scored JP easily and got the Mariners on the board.
The next two frames were quiet outside of a JP Crawford single, his second of a three-hit day, before Cal Raleigh blasted a solo homer into right-center field to double Seattle’s lead. Raleigh’s homer, his 12th of the season, was Seattle’s fifth hit of the day and the Mariners only recorded one more knock through the entire game, as JP Crawford smacked his second double of the day. Despite the minimal two run advantage that Seattle held over Detroit, their strong pitching proved to be just enough to be the difference in this ballgame.
Issues remain prevalent
While it’s nice to see the pitching be so strong today, and there aren’t any issues presently to look at with it through today’s game, there are still hitting issues the remain. Putting up only two runs on the offensive end won’t get it done against most teams and wouldn’t have through the first two games of this series. The Mariners can’t afford to keep relying so heavily on their entire pitching staff to shoulder the load while the bats sputter along and look for some semblance of rhythm, but again that’s what they’ve been doing for the past three years. Real change is necessary for Seattle to get traction as a team going at the plate, as there are specific examples throughout the lineup of hitters who are chipping in and making the difference, just take JP Crawford’s three-hit day. The bottom of the order has been a problem all season for the Mariners, and now that includes first baseman Ty France, who has moved from hitting in the three-hole to now the seven, at least in today’s game.
France’s timing is completely off, and he needs a hard reset. The natural hitter seems to have lost that click in his head at the plate and needs to regain it if he’s going to remain a Mariner, let alone help the team contribute down the stretch. There are the few players who have been heating up as of late that had bland days, IE Teoscar Hernandez and Eugenio Suarez, so we’ll give them a half pass for the day. Mike Ford continues to largely remain a boom or bust player, and that’s all he’ll ever really be given his nonexistent play in the field. Kolten Wong continues to struggle this season, after what appeared to be a potential turning point on the previous road trip. It’s not like there’s much help that will come from the Seattle bench either, as four of the players that were in the dugout today for the Mariners (Murphy, Pollock, Moore, and Caballero) have largely been ineffective with their bat with a somewhat exception for Caballero. While many clamor for the team to bring up players from AAA Tacoma, particularly Cade Marlowe, even those hitters aren’t really raking enough to justify a callup currently. The only reason I could see that happening is that the team sends Dylan Moore down to find his footing or they finally cut AJ Pollock loose.
‘Pen report
As strong as Bryce Miller’s outing was as the team's starter today, the Mariners bullpen might’ve been even better. Seattle used four relievers today, getting into their high leverage pitching in relief. The Mariners called upon Matt Brash, Justin Topa, Andres Munoz, and Paul Sewald out of the ‘pen, and the foursome only allowed one hit and no walks through their four innings of work on the mound this afternoon. While Miller really didn’t face much danger in his five innings, the Seattle relievers essentially had no trouble mowing down the Tigers at the plate, with the only hit that was allowed by the bullpen was a single with one out against Paul Sewald in the ninth inning.
For a third straight year, at least if we include this season to this point, the Mariners bullpen largely remains as a major factor in the success that the team has. While they can’t come to the plate and provide their own support, not anymore anyway, Seattle’s relievers continue to do all that they can to keep this team in games, whether that be with some form of a lead or if they need to battle in the trenches in a low scoring battle. The starting rotation tends to get the praise and the big names, but the Mariners bullpen deserves arguably just as much love and appreciation for the work that they do to pick up what’s left off by the starters.
“Obviously this pitching staff, if you give them the lead and then they can set their bullpen up how they want, they’re tough… We didn’t get to Miller, like I said before the game we needed to get to him because their best guys were fresh and then we saw their bullpen 6, 7, 8, 9…”
Quick notes
In the final game of the series, the Mariners beat the Tigers 2-0…they pick up their 8th shutout win of the season and move back to .500 on the season at 46-46.
Today’s win marked Seattle’s 1,000th regular season win at T-Mobile Park, improving to exactly 100 games above .500 in their home ballpark at 1,000-900.
J.P Crawford went 3-for-3 with 2 doubles and 1 walk in today’s game…it marked his 20th multi-hit game this year and the 4th time he has recorded 3-or-more hits in a game (last: 6/10 @ LAA).
He reached base 4 times in today’s game, the 5th time he has accomplished it this season (last: 7/1 vs. TB).
Crawford led off Mariners hitters off with a double today, his 6th leadoff double of the season and 4th during the month of July… his 6 leadoff doubles are tied for 3rd most in the Major Leagues.
Today was the 2nd time this season Crawford has had a multi-double night (last:4/7 @ CLE)…Mike Ford was the last Mariners hitter to record a multi-double game on 7/4 @ SF.
Crawford has hit safely in 12 of the last 13 games (6/30-c)…during this span, he is batting .367 (18x49) with 6 doubles, 2 home runs, 7 RBI and 10 walks.
In his outing today, Bryce Miller threw 5.0 innings and allowed 5 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk and struck out 3…it was the 4th time this season Miller has thrown 5.0+ innings without allowing a run.
Miller has allowed only 13 walks over 12 starts this year…today marked the 7th time he has thrown 5.0+ innings and allowed 1-or-fewer walks…George Kirby leads the Mariners with 14 such games this season.
Over his last 5 starts, Miller holds a 2.78 ERA (7 ER, 25.2 IP) with 8 walks and 23 strikeouts.
Miller was reinstated from the 15-day IL earlier today and made his last start on 6/30 @ TB.
Jarred Kelenic picked up 1 double and 1 RBI in today’s game… he has hit safely in the last 4-consecutive games (7/9-c) and 9 of 12 games during the month of July.
Kelenic’s double drove in the Mariners first run of the game in the 1st inning…it was his team-leading 24th double this season.
Cal Raleigh picked up his 12th home run of the season in the 4th inning.
Raleigh’s home run was both the hardest hit and furthest hit home run he has hit this year at T-Mobile Park (previously: 107.1 MPH on 5/28 vs. PIT and 409’ on 6/13 vs. MIA).
Julio Rodríguez singled in the 1st inning to record his 15th infield single of the year, which is tied for 3rd-most in the Majors.
Eugenio Suárez picked up his 42nd walk of the season in the 6th inning…Suárez has now walked in the last 5-consecutive games (7/8-c) and trails only Crawford’s 52 walks for the most on the team this year.
Mike Ford recorded the hardest hit ball of the game at 108.6 MPH on a groundout in the 7th inning.
The Mariners bullpen (Matt Brash, Justin Topa, Andrés Muñoz, and Paul Sewald) combined for 4.0 innings pitched.
Brash retired all three batters he faced in order, striking out the first two…he leads Mariners relievers in strikeouts this season with 64 and entering today, Brash ranked 5th in the Majors in strikeouts among relievers with 62.
Topa and Muñoz each pitched 1.0 inning and struck out 1 and Sewald struck out 3 batters in the 9th inning.
What’s next?
Following today’s win but series loss to the Detroit Tigers, the Mariners will continue with their ten-game homestand tomorrow, when the Minnesota Twins come to the Pacific Northwest for a four-game set. It won’t be an easy series for Seattle, and it’s hard to think that any of them will be considering they lost this set to the lowly Tigers, as the Twins currently sit atop the American League Central. For tomorrow’s matchup to open the series, with a first pitch time of 6:40PM PST, Seattle will have Logan Gilbert on the mound to battle against Sonny Gray in a fun pitchers duel. Gilbert recently won American League player of the week for the week leading into the All-Star break.