Mariners play unfun, fun, then unfun again game, lose to Baltimore 2-9

It’s all fun and games until the other team hangs almost double digits on you

Even having prepared oneself mentally for the jump in competition from the A’s and Royals to the Orioles and Yankees, tonight was a jarring start to the Mariners’ long road trip, as the Orioles battered Mariners pitching for nine runs. This was an odd game, starting out nearly unwatchable, then becoming actually sort of fun before descending back into unwatchably bad territory. Here’s how it went down, for those of you who (blissfully) did not see it:

The Mariners got off to a promising start against John Means, who no-hit the Mariners the last time he saw them in 2021, with Dylan Moore doubling on the first pitch of the ballgame and eventually coming around to score. That small flame was quickly doused by the Orioles’ bird bath, however, as they showered down hits on Bryce Miller, jumping all over Seattle’s starter for five runs in the first inning, a painful, 32-pitch affair where the Orioles sent nine men to the plate, jumping all over Miller early in the count. Miller’s location wasn’t sharp, and his problems with the lefties appeared to re-emerge with a vengeance against Baltimore’s lefty-heavy lineup. There were several poor pitches, but maybe none more egregious than this bases-loaded first pitch fastball to Colton Cowser:

To his credit, Miller was able to flush away the first inning and start over in the second, facing the top of the Orioles’ lineup again. This time, he needed just 10 pitches to record three quick and tidy groundball outs, all on pitches located off the plate, with two outs coming on the splitter. He followed that up with a five-pitch third inning, again getting the aggressive Orioles to expand the zone and make weak contact, with two first-pitch swinging outs, this time getting the middle of the Orioles lineup to make weak contact with his four-seamer and sinker. Despite giving up a parachute fly ball single in the fourth, Miller still needed just 27 pitches to get through innings two through four—five fewer pitches than he needed to get three outs in the first. After looking like he might not make it out of the first inning, Miller buckled down and actually made it into the sixth inning, which tells you a lot about his mental toughness and the variety of weapons he’s working with now compared to last year when he’d get into similar scrapes.

The Mariners maybe could have cut into that deficit more, but after making Means work in the first with three hits, the Mariners’ bats went to sleep, going down meekly 1-2-3 in the second, third, and squandering a leadoff base hit from Cal Raleigh in the fourth. They were flummoxed once again by Means’ changeup, but also had some poor batted-ball luck, with DMo getting robbed of a second hit by some stellar defense at third by Jordan Westburg, who in case you didn’t know was Bryce Miller’s high school teammate, did you know that?

But DMo got his revenge in the fifth, knocking a ball over the new, meaner left field wall in Camden Yards:

That’s a home run at every ballpark in the league. Julio followed that up by scorching a ball of his own for a single, finally getting a reward for hitting the ball hard himself, but Mitch Garver lined out to end the threat. Haniger also got robbed in the sixth inning, hitting a rocket to capacious left field (xBA of .760), but again tracked down by the speedy Josh Stowers in the gap.

But the Mariners also committed some robbery of their own, with Julio reeling in this catch that you’ll be seeing everywhere on the highlight reels tonight:

Miller gave up a hard-hit base hit after that, and Scott Servais opted to end his evening there at 86 pitches, as it seemed like the Orioles were getting back on time for Miller’s pitches. Cody Bolton came on and got a pair of easy flyouts to shut down the threat.

Means departed in the seventh inning, bringing on Jacob Webb, who gave up a one-out base hit to Luke Raley, staying hot with a laser up the middle. Dominic Canzone, pinch-hitting for Luis Urías, followed up with a laser base hit of his own, prompting Brandon Hyde to go to his bullpen for hard-throwing Yennier Canó, who got Dylan Moore to hit into an inning-ending double play, and ending the Mariners’ scoring opportunities for the evening.

With Canzone in the game, that pushed Ty France to second base and Luke Raley to first, but he was spared action by his pitchers thoughtfully giving up back-to-back triples well over his head, plus back-to-back doubles to make it 8-2. Eduard Bazardo was the third pitcher of the inning and he was also the first to secure an out, getting Ryan Mountcastle to line out to Ty France, second baseman. As one does. France also recorded the second out of the inning, scooping up a dribbler off the bat of Santander. Another run scored on a passed ball from Cal Raleigh that inning, because why not, making it 9-2. Credit to Eduard Bazardo, who managed to mostly stop the bleeding from there in unglamorous mop-up duty, but the back end of this game was about as little fun to watch as the first part.

Looking at the aggregate, though, there are things to like about this game. Miller’s bounceback from one very bad, terrible, no good inning says a lot about him as a player. The hitters struck out just four times, and they made a lot of hard contact, including the three hardest-hit balls of the game, two off the bat of Julio, who continues to look like he’s emerging from his early-season slump. Mitch Haniger checked in with another hit and a walk, continuing a good run he’s been on. Every spot in the lineup recorded at least one hit except six and seven, Rojas and France, respectively, en route to nine hits on the evening.

All of this is admittedly cold comfort, though: the Astros have been on a hot stretch and making up ground quickly in the AL West, and the Rangers, playing the Angels, continue to be hot on the Mariners’ heels. The Mariners have to tread water well enough over this extremely tough stretch to ensure they don’t fall too far in the standings and undo the work they’ve already put in this season, and a seven-run loss to open this long road trip doesn’t feel like a great start. They’ll come back tomorrow early—1 PM Pacific—to try to get things on the right track.