Mariners take the train to Fall Short Station, lose 6-4

Fun differential falls short.

There’s a lot to love about a train ride. The ease of walking on and turning your brain off, stretching your legs, and pulling up a book, video game, or some other form of entertainment, perhaps even a pen and paper or drawing pad for the artistically inspired among you. I love the rumble of the rails, the scenery passing from urban to rural, small towns, forests, plains, factories, scrolling past like conveyor belt sushi for my eyes. I can imagine my life in every place I pass with as much or as little attention as I desire. The rails transport me with consistency, predictability, and inevitability.

Trains do not play baseball.

The rails appeared to be being laid early today, as the Miami Marlins lept all over Seattle Mariners starter Bryce Miller. It began with a middle-middle first pitch double by Jazz Chisholm, narrowly turned into a stellar outfield assist by Dominic Canzone for the second straight game. Instead, an in-between hop eluded J.P. Crawford and Miami swiftly capitalized. Miller clearly was seeking to lure the aggressive Marlins into chasing subpar pitches, however he could not thread the needle effectively. Running three-ball counts and yielding free passes, Miller dug trenches to lay the wedges for the locomotive he was soon tied down in front of. Another heart-hugging heater ended up in the seats for a three-run bomb, placing the M’s in a 4-0 hole that stretched to 6-0 over the next few frames.

Even a great M’s offense, of which this is not, would struggle to excavate themselves from such a hole, but given yesterday’s explosion, it was not unthinkable to shift the track. Against Marlins rookie and Jean Machi’s worst nightmare, Kyle Tyler, along with a beleaguered Fins bullpen, Seattle crept back into the game. Nukas Raley cracked a two run shot to knot third the lead, then the M’s manufactured another rally to plate two more with Mitch Garver and Raley again crossing home thanks to quality plate appearances by Ryan Bliss and J.P. Crawford.

Even in the 9th there was a chance to veer off course. Thanks to a bent but unbroken bullpen performance for the M’s, the Marlins were held at their marks, allowing the bases to swell full with Mariners with two outs. Julio, maligned for a stretch of struggle and minimal power, lashed a line drive that was inches from a game-tying redemption. Instead, Otto Lopez sprung to full extension, locking in the final itinerary of the afternoon, a 6-4 loss.