Seattle Mariners' late strategy fails in shutout loss to Padres
The ongoing "criticism" about the Mariners' usage/reliance on platoons as a strategy has been a popular topic on the yelling halls of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Fans dislike the idea of Luke Raley and Dom Canzone being removed late in games for either Rob Refsnyder or Connor Joe when a left-handed reliever appears from the bullpen.
The growing argument against the strategy was offered another talking point in the Mariners' 2-0 loss to the Padres on Friday night at T-Mobile Park.
Clinging to a 2-0 lead, Padres manager Craig Stammen went to closer Mason Miller with two outs in the bottom of the eighth and runners on first and second.
Miller gave up a rare hit to a right-handed hitter when Randy Arozarena's lunging, bat-throwing swing produced a bat-shattering infield bloop single behind the pitcher's mound - exit velocity 43.1 mph - to load the bases. It was just the third hit that Miller had allowed to a right-handed hitter in 36 plate appearances this season.
It brought the right-handed-hitting Joe, who pinch hit for Raley in the seventh inning when lefty Adrian Morejon was brought into the game, to face Miller in the highest leverage at-bat of the game.
Joe battled Miller, fouling off some tough fastballs and not chasing sliders out of the zone. But he ultimately froze on a perfect 3-2 slider for a called strike three to end the inning.
The number of angry/snarky social media posts about having Raley batting in that situation instead far exceeded the 43,349 that bundled up and came to T-Mobile Park on Friday night, many there to receive the free Hello Kitty sling bag promotion.
And while manager Dan Wilson's steadfast belief in playing the matchups with those four players can be rightly questioned by some fans based on 46 games of results and fairly defended by fans with a more pragmatic look, the overlooked aspect was the Mariners' failure to score a single run or generate anything close to offense over the first six innings against starter Randy Vasquez.
We hit some balls hard early," Wilson said. "We were not able to get a ton of traffic, but hit some balls hard. This is a team that we know the back end of their bullpen is tough and you've got to try to score early and we weren't able to do that tonight."
Every opponent knows Miller, who is aptly nicknamed The Reaper, is the best closer in baseball. His presence is always looming for the ninth and now possibly the eighth, depending on the score and situation of the game. Getting hits off him is something more than difficult and scoring runs off him is almost impossible. It's why they went to the pinch-hitters in the seventh against Morejon, a lefty who destroys lefty hitters. They feel like they have a better chance of beating Morejon or right-handed setup man Jason Adam than trying to do anything against Miller.
In 20 appearances and 21 innings pitched this season, Miller has allowed two runs for a 0.85 ERA. Both runs allowed came in an outing vs. the Cubs on April 27, when he entered in the ninth inning with his team leading 9-5. It was the first time he allowed multiple hits in an outing, giving up three singles. He has yet to allow an extra-base hit.
The second time was Friday night as the Mariners managed to get the tying run on base and even the winning run to the plate in the ninth inning vs. Miller.
J.P. Crawford worked a leadoff walk. Miller came back to strike out Refsnyder, who also entered the game in the seventh to face Morejon, for the first out of the inning. Cole Young followed with a single to right field to put runners on first and second. But Miller struck out pinch-hitter Mitch Garver and Brendan Donovan to notch his 14th save - most in MLB. He struck out 44 batters and walked six.
"Miller, he's pitching very well, he's got great stuff," Wilson said. "I think he hit 103 mph tonight. To be honest, I thought the at-bats we put up against him were really strong."
Seattle was held scoreless for the fifth time this season.
Emerson Hancock gave the Mariners a solid outing. He pitched six innings, allowing one run on five hits with a walk and six strikeouts. It was his sixth quality start - six-plus innings pitched, three runs or fewer allowed - in nine outings this season.
It wasn't an easy outing. Hancock allowed plenty of hard contact all evening, including 11 balls in play with exit velocities above 95 mph. He worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the second inning, aided by a nifty double play turned by Crawford.
His lone run allowed came in the fourth inning. He issued a one-out walk to Gavin Sheets, who later scored on Miguel Andújar's two-out double to left field.
Hancock fired a low sweeper away, hoping to get a swing and miss on a 1-2 count. But Andújar made a lunging swing and somehow got the barrel of his bat to the ball, sending a soft liner just out of the reach of a leaping Crawford.
It wasn't a bad pitch, but for Hancock it was a simple solution: "How did Sheets get on?"
"That's what it comes down to is free bases," Hancock said of the walk. "And then he gets an early jump, early break to steal second. Yeah, I made a really good two-strike pitch to a good hitter who put a good swing on it. It's one run. It's that small of a margin. Having the one walk that ends up scoring in a close game - that's the difference in a win or a loss."
Seattle's best scoring opportunity against Vasquez came in the fifth when Young doubled to right-center with one out. Jhonny Pereda followed with a hard line drive to left field. Young left almost immediately on contact and was doubled off second when Ramon Laureano made an outstanding sliding catch.
"I think he thought that ball was down, or was going to get down," Wilson said. "The left fielder made a nice play on it. That's a tough read on his part, and he's just trying to be aggressive there.
The Padres tacked on another run in the seventh off Cooper Criswell. Andújar singled and later scored on a fielder's choice to first base.
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