Dodgers toy with their food before crushing Mariners gently beneath heel, 6-3

Mariners blow chances early, pay for it late

Those tricky Mariners. After hearing fans complain they have to score more off a starter, they did so tonight, putting up three runs, and only three runs, and then failing to score for the rest of the game despite threatening us with a good time. Silly fans, Trix playoff appearances are for kids fans of other teams.

Things got off to a promising start, because the Mariners love nothing so much as to lure you into a false sense of security. The Mariners were able to take advantage of Walker Buehler’s lapsed command tonight. After Buehler got two quick outs to open the game, the Mariners made him work, beginning with a Cal Raleigh double followed by back-to-back walks from Luke Raley and Randy Arozarena. Jorge Polanco then cashed in two runs with a sharp single on a sinker that wound up in the middle of the plate. In the third, it was the Cal-Polo duo again, with Cal leading off with a single and scoring on a Polanco double into the gap to make it 3-0 Mariners.

Frustratingly, the Mariners did have more opportunities to score early. They weren’t able to keep the line moving other than the Polanco hit in the first, and wasted a golden opportunity in the second with two on when Julio Rodríguez grounded into a double play. In the third, with two on in scoring position and one out, Mitch Haniger chopped a ball weakly in front of the plate for a non-productive out and Josh Rojas grounded out to end the scoring threat. In the fourth, Victor Robles hit a one-out double and Julio—after making Walker Buehler Big Mad taking a very close called strike and then a late timeout—popped out, followed by Cal Raleigh grounding out harmlessly.

Bryce Miller didn’t have his best command tonight, and as a result had to navigate around some early trouble. He opened the game with back-to-back strikeouts of Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts, but then gave up a ground rule double to Freddie Freeman in a deep count and then had to battle Teoscar Hernández for seven pitches before getting him to ground out. In the second he had to work around some self-created trouble after issuing a two-out walk to Max Muncy. Miller’s toughest early challenge came in the third, when he gave up a one-out triple to Ohtani and another two-out walk, this time to Freeman; he pitched his way out of trouble by getting first Betts and then Teo to pop out harmlessly. However, it came at the cost of his pitch count, sitting at a ripe 67 after just three innings.

After the Mariners again squandered yet another runner in scoring position in the fourth, Miller finally broke, giving up a pair of solo home runs to Gavin Lux and Max Muncy (shakes fist). The Lux one is remarkable because it did something I’ve never seen a baseball do, squirting over the wall and then wiggling down, Plinko-style, between the padding and the wall to end up on the field. That cut the Mariners lead to 3-2, because as mentioned earlier, the Mariners choose not to insure their leads. Laboring at 92 pitches in the fourth, Bryce Miller ended his short outing with a highlight-reel play to retire Ohtani for the final out of the inning:

If you can only go four, that’s a heck of a way to end it.

Both teams turned to their bullpens in the fifth. Alex Vesia did his job, shutting down the Mariners 1-2-3 for the first time that day. The Mariners answered with Collin Snider to work against the top of the Dodgers lineup, protecting that one precious run. Snider got Betts to pop out, struck out Freeman on three pitches, and then avoided a scare against Teoscar, who drove a ball deep oppo that went just foul, eventually striking out Teo on a sweeping slider on his bobblehead night. Collin Snider, this season has gone rancid, but you remain daisy-fresh.

After Ryan Brasier put down the Mariners 1-2-3, Scott Servais leaned on Snider for another inning. He struck out Lux on the sweeper looking like a golfer, and got Will Smith to ground out easily. Call me Georgetown bound because I’m off to study Colli-Sni. Playing the handedness matchup, Servais called on Tayer Saucedo with two outs to face Max Muncy, and Saucedo did his job, getting Muncy to ground out easily. Dave Roberts parried by sending out Brasier again, who struck out Robles looking before Julio reached on a ball Lux dropped at second. Roberts opted to bring in a lefty, Anthony Banda, to face Cal, who struck out, and then Justin Turner, pinch-hitting for Raley, who repaid the very nice standing ovation he received from the Dodgers faithful by popping out to end the inning.

Saucedo, out again to start the seventh, opened the inning by giving up a double to the gap to Tommy Edman. Pinch-hitter Enrique Hernández flew out for the first out of the inning, bringing up Shohei Ohtani. Rather than go for a left-on-left matchup, or even intentionally walking Ohtani, Servais opted to bring in Andrés Muñoz. Ohtani lasered a Muñoz slider right at Justin Turner, but Mookie Betts jumped on the first pitch he saw and snuck a slider right on the chalk for a game-tying double.

Now the Mariners had to play for the tie, facing former Mariner Teoscar Hernández on his bobblehead night. Teo laced a line drive into right field, but Mitch Haniger, proving that the cannon is still fully operational, nailed Betts trying to score at home.

Joe Kelly took over for the Dodgers in the eighth, and held the Mariners off thanks to an incredibly frustrating strike ‘em out/throw ‘em out double play in which Dylan Moore probably should have been ruled picked off already, so, balls, lies, things of that nature. Muñoz then had to work the eighth, facing the part of the lineup that’s done the most damage against the Mariners so far this series in Lux-Muncy. Muñoz retired Lux on a groundout, but then hit Will Smith in an 0-2 count and walked Muncy before striking out Tommy Edman looking. That left just pinch-hitter Jason Heyward, who decided it was time to stop toying with the Mariners, cranking a three-run home run to put the game out of reach.

The Mariners will play to not be swept tomorrow, or at least not to lose another game in the AL West after the Astros lost today, but at this point, with this kind of play, it feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, as my dad was fond of saying. Nonetheless, the baseball continues to baseball, tomorrow at 7:10, because we can’t even have a day game to get this road trip over with quickly.