Bryce Miller dazzles in first spring start as Mariners drop pair of games in split squad action

the games, they were bad...but the Miller, the Miller was quite good

It’s the first split-squad action of spring, with the Mariners hosting the Giants at Peoria Stadium and sending a second crew to Surprise to take on the Rangers. Neither game went well, although one went less well than the other.

Home game:

The Mariners hosted the Giants, who sent a crew of fill-ins for the away game. That doesn’t take anything away from the performance of Bryce Miller, who was dazzling in his first spring start. Miller threw six different pitches, including his new cutter, and although he couldn’t land that pitch for a strike, he landed plenty of others despite walking his first batter of the game (and then not helping himself out with a throwing error on a pickoff attempt). But after that, Miller locked in. He struck out Marco Luciano swinging after a four-seamer at 96.5 on the gun, then got a flyout on another spicy fastball (97!) and a groundout on the splitter. He came back out in the second and struck out both batters he faced, obliterating Sam Huff with this disgusting knuckle curve before getting Brett Wisely unwisely chasing after a splitter off the plate.

No rust here, as Bryce Miller earns today’s Sun Visor award for this game. Casey Legumina, someone we’re watching closely this spring, came on after Miller and suffered some bad batted-ball luck with a hit that snuck through the infield and a bunt base hit, but kept the Giants off the board, striking out Casey Schmitt on a frisbee slider and getting a groundout to end the inning.

The Mariners got their first run—and the first run in the game—in funky fashion, as befits a spring training game. Blake Hunt was hit by a pitch, and then Ryan Bliss tripled, although there was confusion on the field about whether or not the ball was caught. Still, it continues a solid spring for Bliss.

Unfortunately, the Giants got that run (and more) right back off Shintaro Fujinami, who hit the first batter he saw, walked the next, and then mishandled a relay throw on a potential double play that turned into a run. Things continued to devolve from there, with another walk coming across on a two-run double, making it 3-1, and then new pitcher Taylor Floyd—one of the Mariners’ Rule 5 picks this off-season—allowed an inherited runner to score on a double before getting out of the jam. I know people are excited about Fujinami, but that inning was pretty brutal to watch.

However, as is their wont, the baby Mariners clawed back in the seventh, taking advantage of some defensive miscues by the Rangers: Nick Raposo worked a walk and stole second, and then Blake Rambusch reached on an error at first by former Mariner Jake Lamb. Jared Sundstrom then brought those runners home on a well-struck double, and Luis Suisbel tied the game up with an RBI single.

The Giants took the lead right back in the eighth, as 2023 eighth-rounder Ryan Hawks gave up a lot of contact and also got unlucky with a comebacker that glanced off his leg for a double (!) and a mishandled bunt that let another run score, making it 6-4. The baby M’s weren’t able to come back from the deficit with their final six outs, striking out for three of those outs.

Other notes:

• Maybe the Mariners minor-leaguers can smell that there’s an opening at third base. In the sixth, Luis Suisbel made an excellent sliding play on a ball that was being blown around by the wind (although he also had a throwing error later in the game), and earlier, Ben Williamson again showed off his superior defense:

• Felnin Celesten got into the game in the late innings. He wasn’t much challenged at short but he did make the plays that came to him, which is still a good showing for a guy getting his first big-league spring training action.

Away game:

This one was a stinker, as the Mariners lost 8-0. This game featured various Mariners minor-league pitchers facing down the teeth of the Rangers lineup, as the starters played into the fifth inning. Jhonathan Díaz started and he worked into the third inning, when he gave up the first run of the day on a Marcus Semien triple, scoring Tucker Barnhart, who had singled and also is apparently a Ranger now. Former indy ball pitcher and 2024 Arkansas Traveler Danny Wirchansky took over and immediately struck out Corey Seager on four pitches, getting the All-Star chasing after a changeup, so that must feel pretty good.

It wasn’t all smooth for Wirchansky, who walked Adolis García and put him on second with a wild pitch, but he rebounded to get Josh Jung to ground out. He then came back out in the fourth and walked a batter but also got the first two outs of the inning before hitting his pitch limit for the day, and for that I award him the Sun Visor Award for this game. A mini-Sun Visor for 2024 17th-rounder Harrison Kreiling, who got himself in some trouble in relief of Wirchansky, allowing a single and hitting Semien with a pitch to load the bases, but he struck out Seager looking—and won a challenge from Seager on a perfectly-placed sinker on the outside edge—to keep the deficit at just one run.

Unfortunately, teeny tiny Blas Castano did not fare as well against the big-league Rangers, giving up a two-run home run to the off-season acquisition I most hoped for, Jake Burger, who blasted a changeup to make it 3-0. Castano also allowed some traffic in the sixth which came around to score when the Rangers jumped all over minor-league signing Dylan File, pushing the lead out to 6-0.

Rangers top prospect Sebastian Walcott added another on in the seventh, destroying a baseball up onto the berm even on a windy day. The Rangers got one more run in the eighth as large human Dauris Valdez struggled with his command, hitting a batter and walking two and requiring acting manager Mike Cameron to get mop-up man Jimmy Kingsbury, who allowed one inherited runner to score on an RBI groundout but struck out Kellen Strahm to stem the bleeding. If we hand out an overall spring training Sun Visor award, Kingsbury, who has done the unglamorous but necessary custodial pitching duties this spring, might earn it.

The Mariners offense was utterly blanked in Surprise; they had opportunities to score but couldn’t push runs across. Tyler Locklear and Harry Ford both singled in the second but were stranded, and back-to-back leadoff singles in the third and fourth innings (Arozarena, Ford) were wiped away by double plays. Womp womp.