Mariners rout Nationals behind Bryce Miller, Dominic Canzone
WASHINGTON – The Mariners’ 10-2 romp of the Washington Nationals was as complete of a game as they’ve played all season, and it was as complete of a performance as Bryce Miller has had at any stage of his career.
It just wasn’t quite Miller’s first complete game, despite throwing some of best negotiating tactics at Dan Wilson after the eighth inning.
“I told him I had one more,” Miller said just before midnight local time Saturday after a long, steamy, weather-delayed day at Nationals Park. “But it’s fine. I was happy with where we were at.”
Everyone in the visitors’ dugout was happy by the end of this one, as the Mariners (37-34) backed Miller’s eight-inning gem with three home runs and another double-digit hitting barrage to improve to 4-4 on this eternal East Coast trip.
There was even more encouraging news postgame, when left fielder Randy Arozarena – the Mariners’ most valuable player through the first 70 games – said he expects to be sidelined for just a couple days with a strained hamstring that forced him out of Saturday’s game in the third inning.
“What a game today,” Wilson said. “I thought the quality of at-bats were pretty special.”
Dominic Canzone continued his torrid start to June with a two-run triple to start the M’s five-run second inning, and he added his 10th home run of the year leading off the eighth.
Colt Emerson, the Mariners’ 20-year-old rookie playing in his 21st major-league game, belted his fifth home run on an elevated fastball from Nationals starter Zack Littell, a two-run shot to make it 5-0 in the second inning.
Josh Naylor capped the night with his eighth home run in the ninth.
Every starter had at least one hit, and the M’s finished with 11 hits for their 12th double-digit hit total in their last 18 games – and they’ve done so without the likes of Cal Raleigh (oblique), J.P. Crawford (hand) and Brendan Donovan (groin) in the lineup lately.
The early run support was nice for Miller after he went through much of his usual pregame warmup routine – only to find out that the game was being delayed because of a lightning storm approaching the D.C. area.
Up to 95 degrees earlier in the day, temperatures dropped to the mid-80s by the time the game finally started at 8:56 p.m. local time. Still, the relative humidity was 86%, and Miller said afterward it was hotter than any game he could remember pitching in back home in Texas.
“I probably lost 20 pounds sweating so much,” Miller said.
You could hardly tell.
Miller was perfect through three innings on 33 pitches.
James Wood, the Nationals’ emerging star, punished a slider and launched it out to right field after Miller fell behind 3-1 in the count.
But Miller cruised from there, retiring 10 of the next 11 batters and needing just 80 pitches to get through seven innings for the first time this season.
He went back out for the eighth inning and promptly fell behind Dylan Crews 3-0 in the count. Crews crushed a middle-middle fastball out to left-center for the second solo homer of the day off Miller.
Miller needed just six pitches to retire the next three batters and complete eight innings for the first time in his career, at 91 pitches.
One more, Skip?
Wilson, it seems, had already made up his mind. Miller had done plenty, with seven strikeouts, no walks and just four hits allowed.
In six appearances (five starts) since his May 13 season debut, Miller has a 1.54 ERA in 35 innings, with 20 hits allowed and a 36-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Young settling into leadoff role
The new configuration figures to be only temporary.
Long term, though, the Mariners this week might have discovered their answer atop the lineup.
For the seventh time this season, Cole Young batted first in the M’s lineup, this time in the series opener Friday against the Washington Nationals, and the 22-year-old second baseman has looked and felt plenty comfortable in the leadoff spot.
“I love it,” Young said Friday afternoon at Nationals Park. “I love just competing right away, getting that first at-bat right away.”
Young became the third-youngest player in franchise history to hit a leadoff homer Thursday in the Mariners’ 7-5 defeat at Baltimore, and in his first 28 plate appearances atop the lineup, he posted a .360 batting average with a .429 on-base percentage and a .949 OPS, with nine hits, one walk, two hit-by-pitches and three strikeouts in 25 at-bats.
He had spent most of the season batting in the bottom third of the lineup.
“The approach is the same,” he said. “It’s more so just (about) finding any way I can to get on base, whether it’s walks or hits.”
In his first full big-league season, Young has been one of the Mariners’ most productive players, joining Julio Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena as the only players to start all 70 games (through Thursday). Young’s 2.4 bWAR entering Friday ranked second on the roster, behind Arozarena (2.6).
“It’s not an easy switch coming from where he was to the leadoff spot,” manager Dan Wilson said. “But it plays into (his) consistency. He hasn’t changed; he hasn’t done anything different. He’s just continued to do what he does, and I think we’re seeing that play out in a really big way for us at the top of the lineup.”
Brendan Donovan opened the season as the Mariners’ leadoff hitter. And when Donovan landed on the injured list for the second time last month with a groin injury, J.P. Crawford returned to the top of the lineup.
Over a three-week stretch through early June, Crawford was one of the team’s steadiest contributors, hitting five homers with a .346 on-base percentage and a 145 wRC+ in 78 appearances. A week ago in Detroit, Crawford was hit in the right hand with a 96-mph fastball from Framber Valdez, necessitating a stint on the IL for the veteran shortstop.
Crawford said he is hopeful he’ll be able to play Tuesday when the Mariners return to Seattle to begin a homestand, and he’s expected to return to the top of the lineup.