Angels drag Mariners to hell with them, hand Seattle another series loss

Offense can’t come up with an answer for yet another pitcher making his MLB debut as Mariners lose 3-2

Continuing their vengeance for the Mickey Mop, the Angels did their part to make sure the Mariners also won’t be seeing the postseason this year, taking today’s game and the series as the Mariners offense was again sleepy against a group of unfamiliar arms and the pitching gave up just enough runs to ensure another excruciating one-run loss, and another excruciating series loss that dragged the Mariners down on a day when the Astros completed a sweep of the Royals.

Bryce Miller was wobbly today, struggling with his command after giving up a leadoff homer to Taylor Ward on his second pitch of the game. He also walked Zach Neto, but was able to get out of the inning without further damage, but he consistently was behind in counts and requiring extra pitches to get out of innings. In the second, in a 2-2 count to Brandon Drury where he had been ahead 0-2, he left a splitter on the plate for a base hit up the middle, but again extricated himself from a jam with a flyout from Jo Adell.

He couldn’t get through the third cleanly either, committing the cardinal sin of issuing a two-out walk to Nolan Schanuel and then going into a full count against Anthony Rendon before leaving a pitch on the plate that Rendon smacked but was run down beautifully by Randy Arozarena. It looked like Miller would clear the fourth inning cleanly after getting the first two outs, but he again issued a two-out walk to Brandon Drury for his third walk of the day before getting Matt Thaiss to ground out, putting him at 77 pitches on the day.

Meanwhile, the Angels were starting their number one prospect, 20-year-old Caden Dana, an 11th rounder they drafted out of high school in 2022, giving him $1.5M to break his strong commitment to Kentucky. Initially, the Mariners tried to be aggressive with his fastball on the plate but were rolling it over for weak-contact outs and allowing Dana to cut through the lineup with ease. At the end of four innings, Dana was at just 51 pitches.

The Mariners got on the board in the second thanks to Luke Raley, who was aggressive on one of those fastballs that landed middle-middle and hittable, destroying it over the fence for a solo homer that tied the game at 1-1:

Unlike Ward’s 397-footer, a homer at just four MLB stadiums, this was a no-doubter 30-of-30 with the rare “1.000” xBA, scorched off the bat at 109 mph. It’s the third-longest homer of the 2024 season for the Mariners; Luke of course also occupies the top spot with his mammoth blast against the Phillies, sandwiching BFF Cal Raleigh at the number two spot with his 445-footer in Minnesota way back in May.

The Mariners pulled ahead in the second thanks to a Josh Rojas leadoff double; he was then small-balled around by Leo Rivas, with a sacrifice groundout, and Victor Robles, who hit a deep flyout (that would have been a homer at all BUT four MLB ballparks) and stood at the plate waving Rojas in before trotting to first. Even the routine is exciting with that guy.

A leadoff walk in the fourth went nowhere thanks to some more weak contact outs, including Jorge Polanco grounding into an inning-ending double play. Similarly, two-out back-to-back walks in the fifth went nowhere, as Victor Robles battled into a 2-2 count but struck out chasing a cutter.

With a shaky Bryce Miller clinging to the one-run lead his offense granted him, the Angels put the screws to him in the fifth. Ward got after Miller with some more solid contact, hitting a one-out double off a hanging slider, and then Miller hit Neto in an 0-1 count. Schanuel sacrificed the runners over to scoring position, bringing up Anthony Rendon, who took the first pitch he saw, a sweeper on the plate, for a go-ahead single that poked right past Rivas at short. That ended Miller’s day, and the frustration was clear on his face.

Dana pitched through the sixth inning, again working around a walk and some deep fly balls, and the battle of the bullpens was on. Unfortunately, the Angels, thanks to their insistence on drafting exclusively players who have stood on a mound at some point in their lives, have a very good bullpen, and the Mariners bullpen, as you might have noticed, is gassed. Trent Thornton held things down, getting both Bryce’s final out in the fifth and working a clean sixth. Troy Taylor issued a leadoff walk to Adell but worked his way back to get his final three outs, again showing some good composure for a young pitcher. Eduard Bazardo, recently added to the club with September roster expansions, had the ninth, and despite a scary moment where Cal Raleigh crashed into the netting trying to capture a foul popup, got through things uneventfully, collecting two strikeouts including last night’s hero/villain Mickey Moniak.

But the Mariners again couldn’t get anything going against the back end of the Angels bullpen, despite getting some traffic on. Josh Rojas managed a two-out single against Ryan Miller in the seventh, but this time Leo Rivas could not scheme his way on base, fouling off a cluster of pitches right on the plate on a day where the Mariners hitters were, as a group, particularly poor at impacting the baseball in the zone. Still, Rivas gets credit for battling for 11 pitches before taking a high called strike three: one of the better at-bats of the day, if that tells you anything about this overall offensive performance. Similarly, a solid Julio base hit (and steal of second) and Arozarena walk were stranded in the eighth as Polanco—0-for-4 on the day and playing today’s role of rancid GarvSauce—flew out to end the inning.

Ben Joyce, now ascended to the Angels’ closer role with Carlos Estévez gone and throwing video game fireballs, gave up a single to Raley on his first pitch. J.P. Crawford then came in to pinch-hit for the righty Haniger and hit into a double play on the first pitch he saw, mercifully hustling this game along to its inevitable end, although Josh Rojas made an admirable attempt, battling for nine pitches before striking out on 103 away. The cellar-dwelling Angels take the season series, eight games to five, crushing the Mariners’ playoff hopes and reminding the Mariners that these two teams are way closer to each other than either is to the Astros.