Going into Wednesday afternoon, the Mariners were hoping to really turn the screws on the Astros and Rangers atop the division by sweeping a formidable National League opponent. As it turned out, this wasn’t to be; the Mariners dropped the series finale to the Phillies.
The Phillies jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first. Kyle Schwarber laced a ground-rule double to the gap in the left center to lead off the game. Even though Bryan Woo was able to strike out a couple of hitters in the frame, he left an elevated fastball over the plate to Bryce Harper, which was deposited over the wall in left-center, just out of the reach of Julio Rodríguez’s glove, to put the Phillies up 2-0.
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Unfortunately for Woo and the Mariners, the first inning was only the precursor for things to come. The Phils came out firing again in the top of the second, putting the first two hitters on base to begin the inning. A single on a ground ball through the right side by Justin Crawford tacked on another run, and Kyle Schwarber broke the game wide open by punishing a fastball over the heart of the plate for his league-leading 40th homer of the year. Before even coming up to bat a second time, the Mariners trailed 6-0.
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Woo’s stuff could’ve been worse, which is a positive with all eyes on his health after missing his last start with shoulder discomfort. Despite the damage dealt, he still struck out five and generated 10 whiffs while topping out at 99 mph in four innings of work. He said that the fastball almost felt too good that he became predictable.
“I think just second inning was just got a little too fastball heavy,” Woo said. “I think on days like this, where the fastball does have life and feels good, obviously you want to keep going back to it, but you got to pitch as well, especially with a lineup like that, with veteran hitters that are, you know, they’re smart. They’re not just going up there with without a plan. Like they know what they’re trying to do, and yeah, I just feel like it was too much throwing, not enough pitching. I actually feel physically like as the game wore on, you know, pitch counts builds, I felt better.”
As I sort of alluded to in the preview, the Mariners didn’t roll out their best lineup. Several regular starters (Cole Young, Josh Naylor and Dominic Canzone) all got days off. This isn’t a knock on the management — with a series win already banked and a lefty on the mound, Wednesday was probably as good a time as any to give some days off and load up the lineup with righties. However, the offensive output went about how you might expect. The M’s went without a hit for the first four innings, with Jhonny Pereda notching the team’s first of only two for the entire day with a two-out single in the fifth.
Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo was on his game, striking out nine and allowing only the one hit over seven innings. Even when the Mariners made decent contact off of him, the Phillies infield was there to flash the leather. Multiple “should-be” hits with expected batting averages above .500 were turned into groundouts. Rodríguez also put a charge into a ball in the first inning for one of the Mariners’ hardest-hit balls of the day, but Harper was there to put it away up against the wall in right field.
The remainder of the game was rather uneventful, to be completely honest. One of the more notable things to happen wasn’t within the run of play. Prior to the fifth inning, Bryce Miller joined Andrés Muñoz as he made his way out to the bullpen. Dan Wilson was quick to downplay this development postgame, saying that it was specific to today in case they didn’t have enough coverage in the bullpen.
“It might have been something that would have worked out, but you know obviously didn’t need to do that today,” Wilson said. The Mariners have lost each of Miller’s last eight starts.
Ugly loss aside, the Mariners took back-to-back series on the homestand over a couple of difficult opponents. They’ll get a day off Thursday as they head to Toronto for a three-game set starting Friday. Here’s to hoping they can continue to isolate bad baseball to as few individual days as possible.
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