The Mariners keep getting bad news and keep losing, this time 5-4 against the Angels
The Mariners try to shake it off, pick themselves up, but lose the day.
Some weeks, you just lose. And lose again. And lose again.
After losing three straight to the Baltimore Orioles at home, the Mariners have taken that losing on the road to Not Los Angeles, where they dropped game one 5-4 against the Angels.
A week ago today, my mom and I talked on the phone. Normally, we text, but this year and these last couple of months especially, there have been more phone calls. During this particular call a week ago, it was about a test. The kind of test that is standard, but the results might not be. The last many months have been filled with many questions, and maybe here we would get an answer finally, but... there were no expectations. The results would come Monday.
Bryce Miller has had a season marked by losing, by setbacks, by struggle, and by injury. Through it all, he has been battling, doing everything he can to fight the demons off, to delay and perhaps avoid altogether the kinds of backward steps that take the most time to propel forward again from.
Today, he was fighting. Big Tex did face the minimum in the first inning, by way of the runner in Zach Neto that a Ben Williamson error allowed being erased by getting caught trying to steal second base (the call was originally safe, but the Mariners won the challenge thanks to Neto coming off the bag), Nolan Schanuel popping out to Ben Williamson, and then Ben redeeming himself by stealing a hit and ending the inning by snagging a hard Mike Trout grounder. Ben stays busy.
The second saw Miller settling finally into form and facing the minimum with less sway from the defense, getting a fly out, a ground out, and a strikeout looking with a lethal curveball to get Travis d’Arnaud.
Today, Bryce Miller was fighting, but some fights are fated to be lost.
The first cut came in the third, after former Mariner frenemy Chris Taylor singled on a liner and then stole second base. One Zach Neto single just a moment later, and Taylor scored the Angels’ first run. Taylor reached after finding the middle middle 95.1 mph fastball, and Neto finding a splitter in, as in too much in the zone. But the damage stopped there - at least for that inning. The fourth saw Miller give up a Jorge Soler single on a hanging meatball curve immediately before d’Arnaud exacted revenge for the strikeout earlier, bludgeoning a middle fastball at 95.2 mph and sending it 105.7 off the bat.
But that was all the damage in the fourth.
There would be no fight in the fifth, but Miller did make it through the inning, technically. First Bryce would hit Jo Adell with a 94.2 fastball on a 2-2 count, and then Chris Taylor, who personally I think is jeopardizing the “fren” part of frenemy, found a noticeably slower 93 mph fastball at the edge of the zone for an RBI double. A couple batters later Nolan Schanuel made quick work of the first pitch curve and brought in the Angels final run of the night. After three innings of both teams taking the lead or tying it, the Angels took the lead and never lost it again. Some fights, you lose.
When Monday came, and the first day we were expecting results, I texted my mom. Not about the test, and not about the result. We just talked. When Tuesday came, there was a small, quiet part of me that wondered. Are we done losing? Did we win this fight?
On Tuesday, my mom wanted to video chat. With the added suggestion that the rest of my household maybe join on the call. We never video chat, so already, this felt like losing. When the call came, of course I was right. These last several months wouldn’t have been such a battle, we wouldn’t have come to this point, if there weren’t losses and setbacks. And now, we knew. This wasn’t a losing battle, but there had been and would still be losses. The real fight started now, and the irony of this new answer is that it opened up the biggest unknowns for what the end of the fight would mean. Suddenly, there was no floor.
The Mariners lost today, lost again. No amount of silver linings can change what is a quickly changing landscape of the American League that will demand the Mariners start to seriously address or overcome their struggles in order to give themselves the best odds. But if silver linings is what you are looking for, there was that in the offense today. As a team, they only had five strikeouts. Every batter in the starting lineup had some positive contribution to the basepaths with the exception of the recently debuted Cole Young, who went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Randy Arozarena went 0-for-2 but collected two walks, and Leody Taveras didn’t get any hits in his 0-for-4 night, but contributed with an RBI groundout.
The Mariners were first on the board today, and the run came in large part thanks to Ben Williamson, who went 2-for-3 today, when he hit a two out single in the third, and followed it up with stealing second base, his second swipe of the season. J.P. Crawford had to chase a pitch out of the zone to do it, but he looped one into right field to score Williamson and put Seattle on the board first.
The fourth and fifth inning for the Mariners were markedly their best efforts. In the fourth Julio Rodríguez singled, Cal Raleigh singled, and Randy Arozarena walked to load the bases with no outs. Oh and after the Cal single, Julio also stole third base, his tenth of the season. Rowdy Tellez then crushed a ball deep to right field accompanied by what may have been the loudest fly-out call from Aaron Goldsmith I personally have experienced, but the effort wasn’t entirely for naught as a run scored on the sacrifice. Hey, I thought it was gone too. Then the aforementioned Taveras RBI groundout happened, and Cole Young flew out to end the inning. There were some silver linings, some fight... but only getting two runs when you so quickly loaded the bases, when you were a strong wind away from a grand slam, feels like losing. Especially when at the end of the day, they lost. By one.
But in the fifth, the fight continued. Ben Williamson led off, and hitting a sinker 102.4 mph into center field, he turned on the jets and legged out a double, his sixth of the season. Ben rested there for two outs from Crawford and Polanco, but Julio tagged in with a 105.4 mph triple, scoring their last run of the night.
The bullpen that has been such a large part of the M’s struggles lately didn’t add to them tonight, but Jackson Kowar specifically had a little Julio help with that. Kowar worked the sixth taking over for Miller, and collected a strikeout and allowed one hit, and would have could have allowed a home run if not for a stellar JRod Show airing the classic episode “No Fly Zone”.
Eduard Bazardo then finished off the final two innings of the night that the Mariners needed, and he definitely was fighting to keep the Mariners in it, pitching clean and collecting four strikeouts.
I don’t remember much about that Tuesday on the call with my mom. The “C” word was like trying to field a hard grounder that bounces right into your chest, knocking the wind out of me. I have been painfully aware of the days since. Painfully aware of every loss that brought us here. Every setback. Every thread of hope, as well. Both those lost, and those still dangling. But each day I got up, before and since. The next ball that comes my way, I plan to get my glove up in time. Each phone call, each text, is a battle all its own. But... you shake off the loss, you keep battling, and you get to work. And you don’t run from the hard questions. We don’t know how this fight ends, there is still a chance to win.
For the Mariners, the season is still young. But this was a loss at the tail end of losses. This game begged a question, built of many other yet unanswered questions. This had the feel of a game that could be when the tide shifts, and the waters of .500 creep ever hairline-forward. But it doesn’t have to be. There were answers in today’s game that can tell the Mariners how to get up tomorrow and continue the fight. Bryce Miller in particular may have finally resolved to some hard answers, and some new questions. But, for Miller, that is just his next battle. Some weeks, you just lose. But you can still win tomorrow.