Yankees punch their ticket to postseason; Mariners punch tickets, but also punch out in 2-1 loss

Untimely offense lets down another powerful pitching performance in extra-innings loss

As off-season trade projections already swirl among a once-again-disappointed Mariners fanbase, one that causes me a special amount of grief is ones involving Bryce Miller (usually in the way of Bryce Miller being dealt with a salary dump of one of the Mitches, which just adds insult to injury). Miller seems to be the pitcher most fans are okay with putting into hypothetical trade packages, which is understandable: he’s not an All-Star (yet) like Gilbert or Kirby, and he’s not an analytics darling like Woo. What makes Bryce Miller special, his value-added quality, is something that might not be readily apparent to the average fan: his ability to adjust, innovate, and change, even mid-game, which was on full display tonight.

Miller navigated around the top of the Yankees lineup in the first inning, battling Gleyber Torres for six pitches that ended in a flyout, walking Juan Soto on five pitches, but then getting back-to-back strikeouts of Aaron Judge (splitter) and Austin Wells (four-seamer) to end the inning without damage, although it did cost him 25 pitches.

Unfortunately, Miller was right back out there as the Robles-less top of the Mariners lineup did not create as much resistance against Nestor Cortes. Julio Rodríguez struck out on a cutter, Cal Raleigh popped out on the first pitch he saw, and Randy Arozarena was ruled to have swung on a pitch that wasn’t anywhere near the swing Soto made after a Woo pitch last night, giving Cortes an easy-breezy 13-pitch inning.

Miller didn’t help himself out in the second, working against the middle of the lineup. He walked Jasson Domínguez, who is striking out over 30% of the time this season; Domínguez then stole second and took third on an errant throw by Cal Raleigh. Miller then threw Anthony Rizzo a slider that landed right in the middle of the plate that Rizzo was able to redirect for an RBI single: a huge run, as it would be the only run scored in the ballgame for almost eight innings. More on that later. Postgame, Miller was annoyed (he’d say “cranky”) with himself for trying to “do too much” early on: nibbling, being too fine, and falling behind in counts. He ran five 2-0 counts in the first three innings alone, which is significant for the club that leads MLB in fewest 2-0 counts.

Much attention will be paid tonight to how the game ended—a new and fresh way to twist the knife from a team that shames any modern master of horror with its endless innovations in the field of torture—but to be very clear, the reason the game ended the way it did was because the Mariners offense once again blew away scoring opportunities like so much dandelion fluff on a late-summer evening. The Mariners had an opportunity in the second to tie it up with a leadoff double from Justin Turner that just missed getting out for a home run, but Jorge Polanco and Mitch Garver made back-to-back outs. J.P. Crawford extended things with an infield hit, pushing Turner to third, but the other Mitch, righty Haniger playing in place of the lefty Raley, struck out to end the inning. The Mariners struck out an abysmal 14 times tonight, once again proving their strikeout issues aren’t behind them, while collecting a mere six hits—and four of those were thanks to multihit games from Cal Raleigh and Justin Turner.

Miller had to do more fancy pitching in the third, working around a two-out double from Juan Soto that was some bad luck (full count, just fair down the right field line on a pitch Soto turned on, Haniger almost had him out at second). The Mariners then opted to walk Aaron Judge, smartly, but Miller then fell behind Austin Wells 2-0 before eventually issuing him a five-pitch walk to load the bases. Miller was able to rebound to strike out Jazz Chisholm Jr. on his splitter, but ended the third at 63 pitches, with only 50% of those as strikes.

After that, however, Miller turned it around, making the kind of in-game adjustment that seems to come naturally to him. In the fourth, he posted his first clean inning of the day, getting himself through the bottom of the lineup 1-2-3, racking up another pair of strikeouts, both on the splitter. He had a similarly good fifth inning, needing just 11 pitches to clear the inning, eight of which were chewed up by Soto in this at-bat that ended in a strikeout:

Miller said that not only had he circled the Yankees as a redemption game after he struggled against them the last time these teams faced each other, he also was intent on controlling Judge and Soto, noting “they beat us last night.” Outside of Soto’s double, Miller—and the rest of the Mariners pitching staff—managed to keep the Twin Titans hitless (although with three walks between them), while also keeping leadoff man Gleyber Torres—0-for-5 on the night—off base.

But the Mariners weren’t interested in giving Miller run support. They squandered a leadoff walk in the fourth, and left yet another runner at third in the fifth, after a leadoff base hit from Mitch Haniger; Haniger advanced to third on a two-out single from Cal Raleigh, but Randy Arozarena popped up to end the inning, triggering boos from the relatively few Mariners fans in attendance and raucous cheers from the many, many Yankees fans hoping to see their team clinch a postseason berth.

With Cortes finally out of the game in the seventh, the Yankees turned to Tommy Kahnle, who didn’t have a solid handle at all on his stuff, walking J.P. Crawford to open the inning before striking out Mitch Haniger and getting pinch-hitter Josh Rojas to chase after a changeup. Not wanting to mess around with a runner in scoring position, Aaron Boone opted to bring in Clay Holmes, last seen undeservedly getting the nod over Andrés Muñoz for the All-Star Game, to face Julio, who walked on a questionable call from HP umpire Jim Wolf, bringing up Cal Raleigh, who also worked the count full before flying out to end the inning without damage, stranding yet even more runners.

The Mariners got a pair of sterling innings of relief from Troy Taylor, who crushed the bottom of the Yankees lineup, striking out the side, and a harder-fought but still hitless inning from Andrés Muñoz to deal with the Judge-Soto part of the lineup in the eighth, meaning the Mariners’ best opportunity to score was in the bottom of the eighth, still facing Holmes. Arozarena struck out, bringing up Justin Turner, who proved the old dog’s still got it with a tremendous home run followed by an even more tremendous bat flip:

Unfortunately, neither Jorge Polanco nor Mitch Garver have had it all season, and they both struck out against new pitcher, former Mariner Luke Weaver. Ouch. After a scoreless top of the ninth from Collin Snider, Weaver was back out there; he opened by walking J.P. Crawford, who remembered his old self and who has the power in these situations, but the next three batters (pinch-hitter Luke Raley, Rojas, and Julio) seemed a little overeager to get things done in regulation, swinging the bat with abandon to make three quick outs.

The Yankees were also quick to swing the bat against Collin Snider, out for another inning of work, but theirs was rewarded with the first run they’d scored since the second inning, as Rizzo jumped on a first-pitch sweeper for a go-ahead double. Snider was able to cap the damage there, thanks to an ill-advised bunt by Volpe, a flyout from Verdugo, and a little parachute shot that could have been trouble but was saved by an excellent diving play by Luke Raley.

Despite all that solid defense, the game ended in about as crushing a way as possible. Cal Raleigh opened up against new reliever Ian Hamilton, pushing the ghost runner of Julio to third to put runners on the corners with no outs. However, Randy Arozarena struck out, and in doing so lost the handle on his bat, which went flying down the third base line. In trying to avoid the bat, Julio didn’t get back to third in time, and was picked off, causing Cal Raleigh to go full surrender cobra at first base. Justin Turner then struck out because he can’t be expected to score all the runs for this team, ending the game.

“Honestly, I just had a bat flying at my face, and I just ran away from it,” Julio said postgame, describing himself as being “in shock” when the bat came hurtling towards him. He also said he thought the ball was going to be called dead, but then he heard Manny Acta at third calling for him to get back to the base. While not necessarily agreeing with the umpire’s explanation, he says he understands it. “Now I know.”

Much attention will be paid to the particularly heartbreaking way this one ended, but don’t let a fluky play at third distract you from the fact that the problems here are very much the same they’ve been all season. Too many strikeouts. Lack of timely hitting, and lack of sequenced hitting. Problems hitting left-handed pitching. At-bats where the batter falls into an early hole and is at an immediate disadvantage. As it has been all season, what works has continued to work, and what hasn’t, doesn’t. In his second full season, Bryce Miller has shown himself to already be a pro at making adjustments; the rest of the organization needs to catch up.