Mariners do all the small things right, earn first road win of 2025

Ben Williamson’s first RBI, two homers from Cal, and Bryce Miller’s best start of the season lead to 5-3 win over Reds

The Mariners earned their first road win of the 2025 season today with a 5-3 victory over the Reds, in a game where the Mariners did all the little things correctly and the Reds...did not. It was another complete team effort, starting with a sterling starting pitching performance from Bryce Miller, who turned in his best start yet of the young season, backed up with offensive contributions up and down the lineup, four out of five strong bullpen performances and crisp defense, maybe highlighted best by this play on a swinging bunt by Cal Raleigh and Rowdy Tellez:

Plays like this were the separator between the Mariners and the Reds tonight, and that 5-3 score doesn’t fully encapsulate how the Mariners outplayed the Reds in most phases of the game tonight.

The Mariners got on the board right away in this one: Julio Rodríguez laced the first pitch he saw right at Reds shortstop Elly de la Cruz, who couldn’t handle the 109 mph bullet cleanly, allowing Julio to reach safely. Two batters later, Randy Arozarena started off a strong night for him by jumping on a first-pitch fastball from Nick Martinez, missing a homer by mere feet but bringing Julio home nonetheless:

The Mariners were on the offense against Martinez, swinging early in counts and being aggressive on the fastball. In the second, Dylan Moore continued his hot streak of hitting with a double on the second pitch he saw, and then Ben Williamson checked in with his first big-league RBI, parachuting a single into center field:

Unfortunately, he then collected another first, getting caught stealing thanks to an absolutely perfect throw from Jose Trivino and an equally stellar tag by Elly De La Cruz.

Bryce Miller looked untouchable for 2.2 innings, retiring eight hitters before Jose Trevino got him for a double, jumping on a splitter Miller left up in the zone. The Reds threatened to get on the board with a single from T.J. Friedl, who jumped on a slider, but Luke Raley threw a perfect laser from the outfield to get the slow-footed Trevino at home:

The bottom of the lineup came through to get Miller a little bit more breathing room in the fourth. DMo singled, stole second, and then took third on a Williamson groundout; J.P. Crawford then came through with a two-out single to push the lead to 3-0, and help push Martinez’s pitch count to 62 through four.

That run loomed large, as the Reds threatened to get on the board again in the bottom of the inning. Miller, whose velo was down from 96-97 to 93-95 in the inning, walked De La Cruz, who then immediately stole second. Elly got greedy, though, trying to swipe third, and Miller and his infielders caught him easily. That turned out to save a run, as Austin Hays singled in his at-bat, which would have brought the speedster De La Cruz home easily. Instead, Gavin Lux flew out harmlessly, and Bryce again avoided damage.

Cal Raleigh did his part to extend the lead in the fifth, jumping on a first-pitch cutter for his fourth home run in five games.

The Mariners had a chance to do more damage, as Arozarena and Raley worked back-to-back walks, but DMo couldn’t come through for the two out hit against new pitcher Scott Barlow—the second night in a row the Mariners have forced Terry Francona to go to his bullpen before the sixth inning.

Meanwhile, Miller was back out for the fifth, and while it wasn’t quite a 1-2-3 inning—with two outs, and from an 0-2 count, he walked former Mariner Jake Fraley, which has to be a fine of some sort—it was another dominant one, as Bryce added two more strikeouts, one swinging and one looking, both on the fastball. Miller went incredibly fastball-heavy today, going to the four-seamer or the sinker 71% of the time and going right after hitters.

“I pitch off my fastball,” said Miller postgame. “That’s what got me here, that’s who I am and how I get hitters out, attacking with the heater and working off of it.”

“He looked in top form tonight,” said Dan Wilson. “In a game that we needed, a bounceback game for us, he came through big for us tonight.”

Barlow managed to put up the first clean inning for a Reds pitcher in the sixth, carving through the bottom of the lineup quickly, and Dan Wilson opted to send Trent Thornton out to deal with the top of the Reds lineup rather than having Miller face them a third time.

Miller noted he felt much better after dealing with some early-season soreness, so much so that he thought his manager was kidding when he said he was taking him out of the game at just 78 pitches.

“It’s a lot easier to pitch when you don’t feel like you’re fighting uphill,” said Miller. “It’s fun to feel good.”

Thornton worked around a one-out single, striking out De La Cruz and Austin Hays, getting EDLC swinging after a curveball and Hays flailing after a changeup.

There would be no clean inning for lefty Taylor Rogers, though, who became the latest victim of Cal Raleigh’s early 2025 All-Star campaign, as he notched career home run #100, homering from both sides of the plate in the same game for the fourth time already in his young career.

Staffer Zach Mason found this incredible detail: of the four times Cal has homered from both sides of the plate, this is the second time he’s done it within 0.1 mph exit velocities of each other (at Anaheim: 113 and 113.1; tonight: 104 and 104.1).

“[Cal] is a talented hitter from both sides,” said Wilson. “He just really puts really good at-bats together, whether it’s right-handed or left-handed, he’s a force to be reckoned with.”

“I told Cal, maybe he should have waited for the extension till after he found the torpedo bat,” joked Miller. “But I’m sure the Mariners financially are happy they locked him up before he got the torpedo.”

Troy Taylor, making his first appearance of the season, had the seventh inning and it was a struggle. He fell behind his first two hitters before giving up back-to-back singles and then a two-run double to Encarnacion-Strand, leaving without recording an out. In came Carlos Vargas to protect what was suddenly just a three-run lead.

First, though, some drama: Vargas has been making cuts in his sleeves representing each of his strikeouts this year. This umpiring crew did not care for that, and forced him to cut off his stylish sleeves. Vargas recovered from that to strike out Fraley, but then got unlucky on some ground ball singles, allowing the Reds to score another run. Vargas spun an inning-ending double play after that, but what was a comfortable 5-0 lead at the start of the inning was suddenly cut to 5-3.

Gabe Speier, no longer a lefty specialist but also a setup man option, worked the eighth, and Elly De La Cruz paid back the ball Julio had hit off him by banging one right at rookie Ben Williamson, who couldn’t recover in time to get the speedy Elly at first. However, Austin Hays, in the process of striking out, fell over in front of Cal Raleigh while Elly was trying to steal second, and De La Cruz was ruled out on batter interference. Speier then retired pinch-hitter Santiago Espinal on the first pitch, coaxing an easy flyout as boos rained down from an incensed Reds crowd, understandably frustrated at the Reds running themselves out of yet another scoring opportunity.

“That’s a play that doesn’t get called very often; I feel like it should get called more,” said Wilson, the former catcher.

Those boos continued as Brent Suter put down the Mariners 1-2-3 in the ninth, and as Andrés Muñoz took the mound in the bottom of the inning, spinning his own 1-2-3 inning to earn his seventh save as the booing intensified. Depending on how you look at it, rookie Ben Williamson either put a cherry on his day or twisted the knife a little further for Reds fans, executing the win dance perfectly in his first time doing it.

“These guys are really executing offensively and doing the little things, and when you do that, you can add on throughout the game,” said Wilson. “It really keeps the momentum in your dugout.”