It’s not much, but it’s a start, for Bryce Miller and the Mariners.
The Mariners took a series in Boston on Wednesday with a solid 8-3 win. Bryce Miller got the start for the first time since his no-good, very-bad week, and did all that was asked of him, handing the ball to the bullpen with a lead. The Mariners offense did something we haven’t seen much in 2026, stringing together 12 hits and five walks and applying constant pressure to Red Sox pitchers, who simply couldn’t handle it. The Mariners somehow,
someway salvaged their road trip, and return home with a shiny 2-0 record in September.
It was Miller’s first start since being demoted to the bullpen last week. He never actually appeared in a game as a reliever because Emerson Hancock got hurt shortly after the decision, which allowed Miller to slot back into the rotation after nine full days of rest. If anybody on the team needed a break, it was probably Miller, whose last two starts ended 22-0 and 19-2.
I was interested to see how the Mariners would manage Miller after acknowledging he wasn’t holding up as a true starter. We kind of got the answer: Dan Wilson pulled Miller at just 65 pitches in the middle of the fifth inning while holding a 4-1 lead. The start looked more like the abbreviated outings from May, albeit without the bullpen-saving piglet on his shoulders.
But Miller didn’t exactly recapture his dominance from the late spring. He was in trouble from the jump, putting runners on with back-to-back singles in the first. It looked like the Red Sox would score on a third single, but Randy Arozarena came up firing and just caught Mickey Gasper at the plate (with a nice tag from Jhonny Pereda):
Miller set down the side in order in the second, and easily worked around a single in third. The fourth presented another challenge. Wilyer Abreu doubled off the Monster to lead off the inning. Miller got an out, then walked a batter, then got an out, then gave up a dinky ground rule double to score a run. This was kind of a make-or-break moment for Miller, and he chose to completely break Connor Wong’s brain with a sweeper way out of the zone for a swinging strike three.
Miller returned for the fifth to face the top of the order a third time. Roman Anthony singled to lead off. Gasper then hit a little flare that nearly landed for hit, if not for Arozarena’s second Gasper-thwarting gem of the day — a diving-ish effort that left him breathless for a few beats.
Miller got the second out in the fifth with a grounder, then Wilson came out to get him. The decision made sense. Miller has really struggled in the middle innings and later. For whatever reason, whether that be health or stuff or God or whatever, he entered Wednesday with a 10.57 ERA and 7.07 FIP on the third pass through the lineup in 2026. It’s been an issue dating back to last year, and really calls into question his long-term status as a starter. That’s why he was such a great candidate for the piggyback setup earlier in the year. With Abreu having already doubled off Miller, and José Ferrer presenting a favorable platoon matchup out of the bullpen, Wilson decided to call it before Miller’s line could sour. He finished the outing at 4 2/3 innings, seven hits, one run, one walk, three strikeouts, and five whiffs. That’s not great, but it’s nice to see him get through a game without making any national headlines.
Of course, we also saw why it’s not ideal to pull a starter early. Wilson turned to Ferrer to face Abreu, and Ferrer immediately gave up a double to put runners on second and third. Ferrer eventually escaped, but Wilson still found himself with four innings to cover with one of the worst bullpens in the majors. He turned to Michael Rucker, arguably one of his best options (I know, I know), to try and hold an 8-1 lead. Rucker cruised through the sixth inning, but gave up a pair of runs in the seventh on a solo homer and back-to-back doubles.
This looked like the makings of a classic “no lead is safe at Fenway” kind of game, but Seranthony Dominguez pitched a clean eighth, and Cooper Criswell pitched a clean ninth to seal a relatively comfortable at 8-3. The game was managed better than it was pitched, but ultimately everyone did their job.
The lineup did their job, too. Patrick Sandoval got the start for the Red Sox, as the sort of crafty lefty that seems to give the Mariners fits. They put up a four spot and chased him midway through the fifth inning, then put up a four-spot on his replacement Brayan Bello (having a season not dissimilar to Miller).
The Mariners didn’t homer in this one. In fact, their only extra base hit was a double from Dominic Canzone. Instead, they strung together 11 singles and five walks and always seemed to have someone on base. It’s the type of performance that doesn’t summarize well in text, because it was just single after single after single. The hardest single was a 107 mph line drive from Julio in the third that scored a run to make it 2-0. The softest single came on the next batter, a 68 mph flare from Josh Naylor that scored two more runs (thanks in part to a throwing error from Jarren Duran).
The Mariners now return to Seattle after a 2-4 road trip. I wrote after Sunday’s brutal — and I mean brutal — loss to Old Man Scherzer that I wasn’t sure if Wilson would make it back home as manager. That seemed about right after another hard-feelings, extra-innings loss on Monday, which punctuatedone of the worst months in team history.
But the Mariners have pulled off commanding, back-to-back wins to steal the series in Boston. They’re now 2-0 in September, and face the easiest strength of schedule in the majors the rest of the way. It’s going to take something close to perfection to win the division, or even finish above .500. Nevertheless, everything remains in front of them. The 2026 Mariners aren’t dead yet.
