Mariners road woes continue with series loss in Miami

The Seattle Mariners fall 6-4 to the Miami Marlins in Sunday’s rubber match, leading to several concerns for Scott Servais’ ball club.

It doesn’t take much to get your average Seattle Mariners fan worried. However, just in case, the ball club provided some ammunition in Miami, Florida over the weekend.

The Mariners entered the three-game series versus the Marlins, looking to improve on their poor road record. They figured to have some hope of heading in the right direction, by virtue of playing a ball club with the most losses at home so far in 2024.

So of course, the Mariners proceeded to lose two out of the three games, including Sunday’s rubber match. After falling behind big early on, there was just too much for them to overcome as they ultimately lost 6-4.

Mariners manager Scott Servais tried to remain pragmatic about the situation regarding results on the road, while acknowledging there has been an issue up to this point. Speaking to the media postgame, he said:

“Just the consistency on the road hasn’t been there. A lot of games to go. You’re going to have ups and downs throughout the course of the season. This trip has been a struggle for us.”

No Miller Time on Sunday in Miami

The Marlins got to Bryce Miller pretty much from the word go. The home side scored four runs in the bottom of the first, highlighted by a three-run blast from Nick Gordon.

Miller just couldn’t get on track, as the Marlins added another two runs in the next couple of innings and created a 6-0 hole for the Mariners. As a result the righty equalled his shortest start of the season, at 4.0 innings.

When it was all said and done, Miller took 61 pitches to get through his outing. He allowed six hits, a walk and the aforementioned six runs, while striking out three batters.

Postgame, the 25-year-old explained his approach heading into the game and how it subsequently went wrong. He said:

“With a lot of the lefties, I was trying to go up and away and I was just missing further arm side. When I know they’re going to be aggressive, I’m trying not to miss in the middle of the plate early. And then I think I was just trying to be too fine and I ended up falling behind.”

Servais maintained his pragmatic outlook, when discussing Miller’s performance on the day. He said:

“He’s got to ride it out. These guys are going to make 32 starts in a year. They’re all not going to be perfect, even though we get used to seeing them be so consistent. There are going to be a few bumps in the road, that happens. You’ve got to bounce back from it, and he will.”

For what it’s worth, Miller is currently projected to improve on both his ERA and WHIP from his first season in the Majors. For one outing at least though, he has a lot to think about.

Bullpen and offense do their best to give the Mariners hope

After Miller left the mound, the bullpen managed to stop the bleeding the rest of the way. Tayler Saucedo, Trent Thornton, Austin Voth and Mike Baumann all pitched an inning each and combined to allow just one hit and two walks.

Of course this only matters so much, if the offense isn’t scoring. In fairness though they did mount a comeback, albeit coming up short in the end.

Luke Raley struck first for the Mariners in the top of the fourth, as his two-run bomb pulled the Mariners to within 6-2. And when Ryan Bliss and J.P. Crawford added a RBI each in the top of the seventh, there seemed like genuine hope at 6-4.

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This hope only grew, as the Mariners got their first two batters on base in the top of the ninth, and went on to load the bases. However, with two outs by this point, the Marlins finished the game courtesy of a leaping catch off the struggling Julio Rodríguez.

As a result, the Mariners lost a series to the ball club with the third-worst record in all of Major League Baseball. And they actually did it despite outscoring the Marlins 15-9 overall, due to winning Saturday’s game 9-0.

In respect of the offense in general they have improved of late, as evidenced by now moving up to 21st in the Majors in scoring. Of course this still isn’t good enough, not helped by ranking a lowly 28th in batting average and 25th in OPS.

The gap is slowly shrinking

Finally on the not so positive front, the Mariners have picked a bad time to lose four of five games. With the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers on five- and four-game winning streaks respectively, the 10.0 game lead at the top of the AL West is now down to 6.0 games.

In fairness though, if you can still have a healthy lead in your division despite a bad run of form, this has to count for something. Of course it won’t matter, if the Mariners don’t get back to winning more consistently again soon.

On this subject, the Mariners now travel to Tampa Bay for three games against the Rays, who have just a 19-23 record at home so far. It’s up to Servais’ ball club to take advantage of this, with Bryan Woo on the mound for Monday’s series opener.

Where is your confidence level at following the series in Miami? What stood out for you most from the Mariners, during their three-game set versus the Marlins? Let us know in the comments section below.