Mariners Noon Number: 9

Seattle Mariners starter Ariel Miranda struck out a career-high nine batters in Friday night’s 2-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

Miranda might be growing up right before our eyes. The 28-year-old lefty has quietly put together a pretty impressive string of starts – if you overlook the one ugly blemish in Philly.

Miranda has given up two or fewer runs in four of his last five starts and six of nine overall. In Friday’s solid performance, he gave up four hits and walked two, limiting his damage against to Jose Abreu’s mammoth home run that just landed a few minutes ago.

Really, the walks are seemingly the last part of the equation for Miranda – two in seven innings on Friday, three last time out in five innings, three before that against the Phillies in 3 1/3. If he can fine-tune his control, he’d be that much better off.