Bryce Miller gives Mariners a chance, but no offense, shaky bullpen add up to loss

ATLANTA – The reaction from Bryce Miller was one of anger and disappointment. It was a rare display of emotion from the talented rookie, who is as easy-going as his Texas drawl.

He knew his outing was done after he pulled a 3-2 fastball well off the plate and inside to Ozzie Albies with one out in the bottom of the seventh and the Mariners leading. In his mind, the thought that “walks always seem to score” couldn’t be ignored.

Indeed, the walk would lead to a run. Miller’s replacement, Trevor Gott, gave up back-to-back RBI singles to Marcell Ozuna and Orlando Arcia as the Braves took the lead and never trailed again, tacking on three more runs against the bullpen in the eighth inning to pull away for a 6-2 victory.

The bullpen struggles were a bit of an anomaly for the Mariners. The lack of run support and tepid offensive production followed a familiar theme to the 2023 season.

Two runs against the Braves, the best team in the National League, isn’t going to get it done. Atlanta came into the game averaging 5.3 runs per game – fifth best in MLB. The Mariners lost for the third straight game and are now 5-15 when scoring three runs or fewer.

“Certainly, offensively, it was a struggle,” said M’s manager Scott Servais, who is running out of ways to describe their subpar run production.

With a sold-out crowd of 40,412 packing Truist Park on a comfortably cool evening and facing a loaded lineup of dangerous hitters, Miller started a little shaky. This wasn’t the A’s or the Tigers on the road. Ronald Acuna smoked a 1-1 curveball into the right-center gap for a double. Matt Olson followed with a double into the right-field corner on a 1-1 fastball that stayed into the middle of the plate.

Two batters, two doubles and a one-run deficit – it was less-than-ideal way to start the game.

Would this be the start where Miller finally looked like a rookie and struggled?

Nope.

With his typical poise and a little help from his defense, he was able to reel it in.

After getting Sean Murphy to hit a hard ground ball to Ty France for the first out of the inning, he thought he’d given up a run when Austin Riley crushed a line drive up the middle .

The ball seemed destined to be a run-scoring single.

Instead, second baseman Jose Caballero, who is generously listed at 5-foot-9, snagged the ball out of the air with a fantastic leaping grab.

“I didn’t think he was going to be there,” Miller said. “I was just trying to get out of the way and I looked back and he caught it.”

The third out was a 370-foot flyball off the bat of Eddie Rosario that Teoscar Hernandez caught with a little jump up against the wall in right field for the third out.

“With the way the game started tonight in this ballpark and that offense, he weathered the storm,” Servais said.

Those three outs were the start of a stretch in which Miller retired 18 of the 19 batters he faced using his fastball almost exclusively. A leadoff single from Murphy in the fourth inning was the only base runner allowed.

“It was a definitely a tough first inning, but I was able to get out of it with only one run,” Miller said.

“They definitely had a couple barrels in a row. I went back and looked at the video and I was missing middle of the plate and they were on it. So I just made an adjustment, got off the off the heart of the plate and move to the corners and things started to work out.”

After struggling to do much against Braves starter Bryce Elder and his combination of sliders and sinkers, the Mariners finally broke through in the seventh inning.

Julio Rodriguez led off with a double to right-center and then hustled to third on a ball-four pitch in the dirt to Jarred Kelenic. With runners on the corners, Eugenio Suarez pulled a ground ball through the left side a game-tying single, which ended Elder’s night.

The Mariners thought they were headed to a big inning when Cal Raleigh greeted Elder’s replacement, Collin McHugh, with a towering flyball to right-center. However, Acuna made an outstanding leaping grab up against the wall for the first out of the inning instead of a sure RBI double.

“Run prevention isn’t just about pitching,” Servais said.

The Mariners would still take the lead moments later when Teoscar Hernandez pushed single to right field to score Kelenic. But the inning ended when Taylor Trammell hit into a double play.

With a 2-1 lead and Miller at 85 pitches and a few relievers unavailable due to heavy usage, Servais sent him back out for the bottom of the seventh.

“He had three hitters,” Servais said of how much he would extend Miller.

Riley led off the game with a hard groundball to third that Eugenio Suarez couldn’t handle. Miller got Eddie Rosario to hit a groundball to second base, but the Mariners couldn’t get the much-needed double play. It brought Albies to the plate. Miller admitted feeling a little fatigued in that inning, but also didn’t think it was an issue.

“Obviously I wanted to go back out,” he said. “I was rolling, so I was good with it. You just can’t can’t walk that guy right there. You walk a guy and they somehow end up scoring every time. I try not to walk anybody. I would rather make him earn it than pull a fastball. I was trying to go middle.”

Servais brought in right-hander Trevor Gott to get the Mariners out of the inning. Gott got ahead of Ozuna with two quick strikes, but his 0-2 sinker wasn’t far enough inside. The Braves big designated hitter, who came into the game hitting .176 on the season, blooped a single to right that tied the game.

On Gott’s next pitch, Arcia ambushed a first-pitch sinker for a single to right that scored Albies for a 3-2 lead.

“Everything kind of revolves around getting that first out when you’re bringing the reliever in,” Servais said. “It sets up everything else. When that doesn’t happen, now you’re kind of up against it a little bit and you’ve really got to have some things go your way.”

The Braves tacked on three more runs in the eighth inning to make any sort of comeback impossible. Justin Topa gave up a solo homer to Olson and then allowed back-to-back singles. Tayler Saucedo entered the game. With the bases loaded and one out, Ozuna looped a single into left to score a pair of runs.