Miller's scoreless gem spoiled when offense stalls ... again

DETROIT -- The slider from Andrés Mu?oz hung over the heart of the plate, one of -- if not the only -- mistake a Mariners pitcher threw all afternoon. But given the tightrope that Seattle’s pitchers have been forced to walk for much of this season, it wound up being a brutally decisive one in a 2-1 loss to the Tigers on Thursday afternoon at Comerica Park, sinking the club to a sobering sweep.

Staked with a one-run lead and the tying run on third base, Mu?oz entered with two outs in the eighth inning to face Javier Báez, the powerful but free-swinging slugger, who drew three straight off-plate sliders from Mu?oz before the fateful and final one landed up.

Báez pulled it 409 feet and beyond both bullpens, snapping Mu?oz's stretch of 12 consecutive hitless appearances. It was also just his third homer allowed and first since May 18.

“I think it was more a bad decision with the pitches,” Mu?oz said. “I can just go and throw a fastball, just so he can see it. And if I walk him, I walk him up. But probably the best decision over there was to throw a fastball."

Even so, Báez said he was sitting heater the entire time but pounced when the fourth slider was in the zone.

"I was shaking at first,” Báez said. “Obviously, he's having a great year. He's a guy that throws 100-plus. As soon as I saw the first pitch, I just tried to slow everything down and see it close to me. I kind of chased the second slider, but I saw it closer and it was outside. I was just trying to slow my timing down and see it closer until he finally threw it [over the plate]."

Báez represented the go-ahead score, but the tying run was just as costly -- via a leadoff walk from Yimi García to Parker Meadows, one night after García surrendered a two-run, game-tying homer in an eventual walk-off loss.

Those moments speak to where Seattle has stood so often in this 2024 season, one that after Thursday dropped the club to three games behind idle Houston in the American League West standings -- the Mariners’ largest deficit out of first place all season.

Seattle's pitching has been among MLB’s elite, but its hiccups can become glaringly exacerbated by a wildly inconsistent offense.

In Thursday’s finale, Bryce Miller matched Bryan Woo’s seven shutout innings from the night prior, with Miller racking up nine strikeouts and surrendering just two singles. Each of the four hits vs. Woo was also a single.

Those outings were the Mariners' 16th and 17th of at least seven scoreless innings from a starter, making them the first team since the 2019 Dodgers with that many. They were also Seattle’s third and fourth losses within that criteria.

“I go out there, I try to put up a zero and see what happens,” Miller said. “I try to go as long as I can and be efficient. So, just trying to do my job and keep us in games and see what happens.”

The Mariners had just one hit all afternoon, and their only run was manufactured via four walks in the first inning. But that early rally halted just after the bases-loaded free pass when Dominic Canzone swung at two out-of-zone pitches and into an inning-ending groundout.

Seattle didn’t get its first hit until Victor Robles lined a one-out double in the fifth, representing its 19th batter of the game.

“We have to be better offensively; there's no other way around it,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “You're just not going to win games in this league -- [with] one run, two runs -- no matter how good your pitching is.”

For the series, the Mariners went 9-for-92 (.098), and dating back to last week’s three-game set at T-Mobile Park, the club went 26-for-183 (.142) against Detroit’s strung-together pitching staff, one that includes just two healthy starters.

If it weren’t for Mitch Haniger’s bases-loaded walkoff on Aug. 8 that fell among their most improbable wins of the season, Seattle would’ve finished 0-6 vs. the Tigers. After that game, Haniger said, “Nothing against them, but we know we're a better team than Detroit. We haven't played that way.”

Sandwiched between these matchups vs. the Tigers was arguably the Mariners’ best series of the season, when they outscored the Mets, 22-1, en route to a sweep. But their immediate path forward presents another uphill climb, as Pirates rookie phenom Paul Skenes awaits on Friday.