When young stars shine: Mariners win 4-2 over Cubs

When young stars shine: Mariners win 4-2 over Cubs

After a 4-2 win over the Cubs on a national broadcast night, Scott Servais opened his postgame presser with a strong statement:

“That’s our signature game.”

He meant that in the general sense—the combination of strong pitching and timely hits—not this particular game, but in many ways, tonight’s win does feel like it could be a signature on the young 2024 season. This is how this team was supposed to be built, the team that showed up in the back half of the Cactus League, putting pressure on opposing pitchers with the starting pitching holding back opposing offenses.

As anyone who has watched this team so far in 2024 can tell you, that’s not how the formula has been working, as the top of the rotation has scuffled and the offense has been soporific. The Mariners entered tonight as one of the worst offensive teams in MLB, with only the lowly Marlins scoring fewer runs per game. The Mariners offense has been particularly cruel to Logan Gilbert, rewarding his strong start to the season with no wins.

While Gilbert has been the model of consistency so far this season for a team lacking it, Bryce Miller has been more of an enigma. Coming into tonight he had one good start and one, his season opener, where he’d struggled with location and command. Tonight it looked like it might be a regression after his sterling outing in Milwaukee, when he had pinpoint command from the jump. Miller fell behind hitters at times, struggling to land his slider—the weak point in his arsenal in his last stellar outing as well—but also missing some with his fastball location, carrying over a problem from his first outing.

However, unlike his season debut, when Miller battled his command the entire outing, this time he was able to refocus and gain the upper hand in the zone. While in the first three innings he only threw 6 of 12 pitches for strikes, in innings 4-6 he threw 10 of 11 pitches for strikes. He didn’t strike out a ton of hitters but still picked the Cubs apart in the zone, focusing on weak contact and easy groundball outs. That efficiency helped him get into the seventh inning where, with one out, his command failed him and he threw “four pretty bad pitches”, ending his night to a roar of approval from the crowd at T-Mobile Park.

“He had it all going on tonight,” said Servais postgame, praising Miller’s improvements. “It’s unique because he’s got a little bit of a higher slot, he can ride the ball, he can do a lot of different things. So it’s really hard to game plan against on a particular night.”

The new-look Miller has come as an unpleasant surprise to opposing hitters sitting heater. Miller is pleased that the addition of the splitter allows him to go deeper into games, noting that when he’d see a lineup the third time through, they’d all know they were getting “a lot of heaters.” He’s also added a bit of hesitation in his windup at times as a little wrinkle, something he’s modeling off of watching Nathan Eovaldi use a similar technique to keep hitters off-balance. (He is quick to point out it’s mostly a “fun” thing more than a regular occurence, and something he can only do when he’s in good counts.)

But Miller’s main area of growth has been in his mentality on the mound, the thing which allowed him to dial back into his command tonight in those middle to later innings and keep the Cubs hitters from reaching base.

“Runners on, no one on, I’m just trying to attack and get ahead and make good pitches. Especially with a runner on second, like I’ve really got to dial it in and focus. But I mean, every batter I try to focus like the exact same, like the bases are loaded or something. Make the best pitch I can in every count.”

With Miller holding up his end of the signature win, all that was necessary was some offense, something the Mariners hitters haven’t been providing consistently this season. On the bright side, they did pressure Cubs starter Jordan Wicks early, something that’s been a struggle. In the second inning they loaded the bases against Wicks, with Mitch Haniger and Jorge Polanco opening the inning with back-to-back singles, and Mitch Garver working a walk. Bases loaded, no outs, it’s not like we have an acronym for that or anything? (We do, and it is NOBLETIGER) Alas, Cal Raleigh—who had a very bad game with four strikeouts, which we also have a cute name for—struck out chasing a changeup, and Dylan Moore went after a fastball at the top of the zone for an easy flyout. Wicks helped the Mariners out by hitting Luis Urías with a pitch, forcing in a run, but J.P. Crawford grounded out after that, setting up yet another stay for the Mariners on the Island of Missed Opportunity.

Life does not often offer opportunities for redos, but Jordan Wicks did, walking the bases full with two outs in the fourth. This time it was Julio’s opportunity to come up clutch for the Mariners. After swinging and missing at a changeup, Wicks made the perplexing decision to throw Julio a fastball, and he did not miss it:

Once again, Julio didn’t swing for the fences to hit a home run; he reacted to what the situation needed, and did it. Servais had remarked earlier on how it seemed like Julio had been off with his timing, as witnessed during his first at-bat when he just missed a fastball. But Servais sees an improvement in his young slugger in that area.

“He’s making contact, he’s staying through the middle of the field, and getting the ball in the air. That usually means his timing is a little bit better.”

“Really happy for him, he got a big hit in a big moment and helped us win the game.”

Julio’s big hit would be all the Mariners offense for the night, but thankfully, all they needed thanks to Miller’s stellar start, plus a key appearance from Trent Thornton where he dealt with Miller’s leadoff walk and also worked around some more sloppy infield play. Andrés Muñoz had the eighth and made the top of the Cubs lineup look like they were Straight Up Not Having A Good Time. In the ninth with one out, Ryne Stanek tried to sneak a fastball past Michael Busch, who was not having it, to make the score 4-2, but he rebounded to get the final two outs and secure his second save already, a fact that I imagine makes fantasy managers Big Mad.

The five walks the Mariners worked definitely helped—please walk more, friends—but tonight’s win was driven by two young players in Miller and Rodríguez. Neither are finished products, facts that can be easily forgotten by Julio’s starpower or Miller’s disarming “Big Tex” persona. Both will make mistakes, and will make the same mistakes over again, and will seem like they’re done making mistakes and then make mistakes all over again. That’s how growth works. It’s sloppy, often not linear, and very often frustrating. But in the moments where it clicks—like tonight—it’s beautiful.