Bryce Miller’s logic when it comes to pitch selection and game plan isn’t complicated.
In his easy southern drawl, he said a few weeks back: “I’ll keep throwing heaters until they start hitting them hard. I’m going to stay with my best pitch.”
As the first team to face the Mariners’ hard-throwing rookie for the second time this season, the Oakland A’s came into Wednesday’s game expecting Miller to throw mostly fastballs.
It didn’t matter.
Using 80% fastballs, because, well, that’s what he does, Miller tossed six scoreless innings to help lead the Mariners to a comfortable 6-1 victory over the hapless A’s.
With the win, the Mariners improved to 25-24 and moved back over .500 for the first time since May 15. They will go for a sweep of the four-game series on Thursday with right-hander Logan Gilbert getting the start.
“Three in a row,” manager Scott Servais said. “That qualifies as a streak. We are streaking. Really good pitching by Big Tex. I don’t know what the nickname is going to be for Bryce Miller. It’s Miller Time or whatever you want to call him but he did an outstanding job tonight.”
Servais didn’t necessarily think that Miller had his best stuff or his best command since being called up. And he still delivered the Mariner’s 27th quality start this season.
“That fastball, it works,” Servais said. “It works at the top of the zone. Certainly Oakland had seen him before they knew what to expect and they still weren’t able to get on him.”
Why change for the sake of change?
“If it ain’t broke, you don’t try to fix it,” Servais said.
And Miller didn’t.
“The plan is the same — go out and attack with the fastball and get ahead,” he said. “Until it’s proven that I need to stay away from it, then I’m gonna keep riding with it.”
Of Miller’s 90 pitches, 73 were four-seam fastballs that averaged 95 mph. Of those 73 fastballs, the A’s swung at 40 of them and watched 12 of them for called strikes. They whiffed on 11, fouled off 19 and put 10 of them into play with one soft single.
“Honestly I’ve been kind of surprised in all my starts with the amount of fastballs I have thrown,” he said. “But I mean, I’m just keep throwing them. It’s working. In the minor leagues, I never threw that many fastballs just because I was working on my off-speed and stuff. I never really was able to see how effective it could be if I threw it so much. Obviously, it’s been working.”
Oakland didn’t really threaten to score off Miller, who allowed just two hits with a walk and a hit by pitch.
In the third inning, Aledmys Diaz jumped on a curveball and hit a hard one-hopper that handcuffed J.P. Crawford at shortstop for an infield single. Miller then walked Tony Kemp to move a runner into scoring position. But he got Esteury Ruiz to hit into a force out and then fielded Ryan Noda’s odd two-out bunt and flipped it to Haggerty to end the inning.
The Mariners finally gave him a lead in the fourth inning against lefty Ken Waldichuk, who was scheduled to start, but entered the game in the second inning after the A’s used Austin Pruitt as an opener.
After loading the bases with one out in the second inning off Waldichuk, the Mariners failed to score a run. They didn’t make that mistake the fourth. With one out and the bases loaded, Sam Haggerty, playing in place of the injured Ty France, roped a double into the left field corner to score a run.
Haggerty had come to the plate in that second inning with the bases loaded and popped out to first. How bad did he want to come through?
“As much as I wanted to come through the first time,” he said. “Less than two outs and a runner on third base, we take a lot of pride in getting that run in and I was unable do to it the first time. Fortunately, I was given another opportunity and I came through.”
Seattle continued to tack on runs. J.P. Crawford and Julio Rodriguez followed with run-scoring singles to make it 4-0. Cal Raleigh, who led off the inning with a single would come around to hit again and work a four-pitch walk to force in a run.
“A lot of good at-bats all night long, controlling the strike zone and getting some pitches to hit,” Servais said. “I still don’t think we are clicking like we can, but we are moving in the right direction.”
Given a lead, Miller retired the A’s in order in the fifth and ran into a little trouble in the sixth as he felt the fatigue. He threw 102 pitches in his previous outing and the Mariners weren’t going to let him go more than 90 pitches vs. the A’s.
“I was definitely getting a little fatigued,” he said. “Coming off 102 pitches on a five-day (rotation), I could feel it.”
He hit Ruiz with a pitch as he squared around to bunt and then gave up a bloop single to left. But unfazed and wearing the same look as always, Miller got Seth Brown to fly out to right and struck out Shea Langeliers swinging on, what else, a fastball that ripped across the top of the strike zone at 95 mph.
“I figured we had runners on and it was time to reach back a little bit,” he said. “We executed a couple fastballs right there.”
Miller improved to 3-1 in five starts this season, lowering his ERA to 1.15 on the season. His ERA is better than any pitcher in Mariners history in their five career starts, ranking just ahead of James Paxton (1.16) and Felix Hernandez (1.75).
He’s pitched at least six innings in those five starts, allowing fewer than five baserunners, which is an MLB record for pitchers starting their career.
In 31 1/3 innings, he’s struck out 28 batters with three walks while not allowing a homer.
“The results are outstanding,” Servais said. “The thing that has not changed at all is just obviously the confidence he has when he takes the mound. He’s in total control. It’s about as slow of a heartbeat as you’re gonna see from a young starting pitcher. It serves him well.”
His next start will come Monday vs. the New York Yankees.
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