Rays rough up Bryce Miller, Mariners limp home after 3-7 trip

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – They’re coming home.

You just might not recognize the Mariners when they get back.

Their 10-day, 10-game East Coast trip is mercifully over, and the Mariners ended it with a whimper Sunday in a rather fitting 6-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays to end a rather frustrating 3-7 trip.

Baseball’s hottest team when they left Seattle in late August – was that really just 10 days ago? – the Mariners (79-64) sputter home clinging to the final wild-card playoff position with 19 games left in the regular season.

“Tough road trip,” shortstop J.P. Crawford said. “Forget about it. Gotta look at the bigger picture here and focus on the prize.”

No rest for the weary, either: The Mariners open a three-game series against the Angels on Monday at T-Mobile Park.

The Mariners, hoping for a jolt, are expected to activate outfielder Jarred Kelenic from the injured list before Monday’s game.

“Oh, we’ll be energized tomorrow – us and about 40,000 of our dearest friends hopefully will be at the ballpark to get behind us,” manager Scott Servais said. “We need it. We’re dragging a little bit. But it happens this time of year, at the end of the long rough road trip. But we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”

The Rays (88-56), strengthening their hold on the No. 1 wild-card spot, roughed up Mariners rookie right-hander Bryce Miller early.

Before he’d even recorded an out, Miller had given up a single, a walk and two doubles as the Rays built a 3-0 first-inning lead.

The Rays added two more in the third inning – on a Luke Raley two-run double – to make it 5-0.

“Not the way we wanted to end the road trip, obviously,” Servais said. “There’s a reason Tampa has the record they have. They played really good throughout this entire series. Their pitching shut us down.”

Miller, to his credit, settled down after that, working scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth to keep it close. Servais called it a “big growth moment” for Miller to be able to push through the early struggles.

His final line: five innings, nine hits, five runs, one walk, seven strikeouts on 93 pitches.

“It was a weird start,” Miller said. “Two of their hits in the first inning were on sinkers, and they haven’t seen [his] sinkers before. Just didn’t really go my way.”

The Mariners scored two runs in the fourth and one more in the fifth off Rays starter Zach Eflin to make it at least a little interesting.

Josh Rojas’ two-out single drove in Teoscar Hernandez, and Sam Haggerty followed with a two-out knock of his own to score a rumbling Mike Ford from second base.

Eugenio Suarez’s sacrifice fly in the fifth scored Julio Rodriguez from third base.

Rodriguez had two hits, and Haggerty added two hits, a walk and an RBI.

Eduard Bazardo, recalled from Class AAA Tacoma on Sunday morning, gave the bullpen some much-needed relief. He pitched the sixth and seventh innings, allowing one run on two hits.

Dominic Leone worked a scoreless eighth inning.

Rays closer Pete Fairbanks struck out the side in the top of the ninth inning on 12 pitches to shut the door.

After throwing back-to-back sliders to Rodriguez to get ahead 0-2, Fairbanks blew a 100.7-mph fastball past the Mariners star slugger, who fell to a knee on his swing-and-miss follow-through.

The Mariners, behind a strong start from ace Luis Castillo, won the opening game of the series 1-0. The Rays won the next three, outscoring the Mariners 20-12.

“We competed and we were close every game,” Crawford said. “They just got the lucky breakthrough hit that put them on top. And then their bullpen guys came in and just shut the door. We were just a couple hits away from two or three of those games.”

Of their final 19 games, 13 will be a home – with series against the Angels and Dodgers this week, and then the Astros and Rangers come to Seattle in the final week.

“Two big home stands ahead of us,” Servais said. “We’ll get home tonight. We’ve got a long flight ahead of us, and it’s been a long trip.”