The Mariners are finishing out their long road trip with an interleague set against the Nationals and things got off to a tough start with a two-hour-plus rain delay, their second of the season (glares in the general direction of Minnesota). Rain delays historically haven’t been kind to the Mariners, but today they overcame the long delay thanks to a strong start from Bryce Miller, backed by an offensive explosion led by Dominic Canzone and Colt Emerson.
After a tough loss in Baltimore yesterday,
the Mariners were on the right side of a big inning today, jumping on Nats starter and former Mariner Zack Littell in the second inning. It started with what I’m terming an Arozarena Double (single, stolen base) followed by a walk to Luke Raley, who’s really trying to lean into that Three True Outcomes label lately. Dominic Canzone apparently has a grudge against Nationals Park – which, fair – because he then tried to laser this ball through the center field wall for a rare Dominic Canzone Triple, which unfortunately immediately triggers a #CycleWatch for Canzone.
Miles Mastrobuoni brought home Canzone from third because Miles “Mister Bunny/Master Boney” Mastrobuoni knows how to do his job, to make it 3-0 Mariners, but the suffering would not end there for Littell, as Jhonny Pereda wore him out with a nine-pitch at-bat that ended in a line-drive single (with batflip, natch), bringing up Colt Emerson. Emerson got a fastball up in the zone and was able to pull it over the wall for his fifth home run: an impressive feat for a player whose power was never a highlight in his prospect scouting report.
Even though the Mariners had knocked out Littell by the second inning, the third inning was more of a bummer, comparatively, not only because the Mariners didn’t score but also because Randy Arozarena appeared to injure himself on a routine groundout to first, looking like he maybe tweaked a hamstring trying to beat out the throw. Victor Robles replaced Randy in the bottom of the inning, playing right as Luke Raley shifted to left, making his first return to Nationals Park, and immediately made a nice inning-ending catch.
The first Nats run off Miller came in the fourth, when Miller made the mistake of falling behind Nats slugger James Wood in a 3-1 count. Miller then compounded his mistake by hanging a slider in Wood’s lefty loop zone for a no-doubt homer that at least was a solo shot. Miller almost made things harder for himself with an ill-located splitter to Luis García Jr., but thankfully the yard held it, and Miller was able to escape the inning without further damage.
The Mariners were able to get that run back in the fifth and then some, doing some damage with two outs. Cole Young started with a one-out single, moving to second on a seven-pitch walk to Julio Rodríguez. With two outs, Victor Robles worked a walk to load the bases, with Young eventually scoring on a wild pitch by Nats bulk pitcher Riley Cornelio (pause for Beavis and Butthead jokes). Luke Raley then brought in Julio and Robles with a big two-out single that would put this game functionally out of reach; a pair of solo homers later in the game from Canzone and Josh Naylor pushed the score to double digits.
Miller, with his pitch count in good shape, earned an opportunity to pitch in the eighth to try to set a career high, but fell behind leadoff man Dylan Crews 3-0 before serving up a sinker that didn’t sink, prompting Dan Wilson to get up new bullpen addition Michael Rucker. Miller rebounded, however, to get his next three outs, completing eight innings for the first time in his career.
For Miller, who has a near-encyclopedic recollection of his outings, it was a satisfying step forward.
“The last time I had a low pitch count after seven was 2024 in Milwaukee, and I lost the battle then,” joked Miller.
Today, with the Mariners bullpen thin in the middle of a long road trip, Miller got the green light to go back out and push deeper into a game than he had, making things easy on new callup Michael Rucker, who pitched a scoreless ninth. It was a statement game against a team that’s been averaging over five runs a game, and a statement game for Miller, who’s making a case along with Emerson Hancock to be considered the ace of the Mariners rotation. Big Tex > Big thunderstorms.
