'I beat myself': Miller, Mariners' staff searching for answers

BOSTON -- Six pitches into Tuesday’s series opener at Fenway Park, it looked as if the Mariners were poised to continue a recent trend they’d set on this three-city road trip.

With one out and two strikes, Jorge Polanco turned on a middle-middle changeup from Boston starter Brayan Bello and sent it a Statcast-projected 407 feet over the right-center-field wall. Polanco’s solo shot marked the 14th homer for the Mariners over their past seven games.

Unfortunately for Seattle, another trend seemed to follow the team over the border from Toronto to Boston.

Holding the Red Sox to two runs over his first four innings, Bryce Miller ran into trouble in the fifth and ended his night on the hook for four runs, four strikeouts and four walks over 4 2/3 innings in the Mariners' 8-3 loss.

“Frustrating one. I think it’s another one of the days [when] I didn’t feel like they beat me today, I think I beat myself,” Miller said. “Three walks in the fifth inning. … I’m trying to get deep into the game. I had a lot of trouble with traffic on the bases and wiggled out of a few of them, but at the end of the day, I’m walking too many guys -- and that’s what’s setting up the damage.”

Miller, who has made it into the sixth inning just twice in five starts this season, epitomized a season-long trend for a Mariners rotation that held the best ERA (3.38) in the Majors last season and was projected to be one of baseball’s best entering this year.

Outside of a sidelined George Kirby, one of the biggest issues facing this rotation has been length. Entering Tuesday, Seattle’s starters averaged 5.2 innings per start, compared to their Major League-leading 5.8 last season.

In Miller’s case, the lack of length could be attributed, at least in part, to right arm soreness that he felt two starts ago against Texas. Miller averaged 93.9 mph on his fastball in that start, down from his 94.6 mph average to that point. The soreness wasn’t enough to sideline Miller, but he was limited to 78 pitches in his next start against the Reds, when his four-seam velocity ticked back up to 95.4 mph.

The 26-year-old again saw a dip in velocity on Tuesday, particularly in the troublesome fifth when he averaged just 93 mph on 13 four-seamers, compared to 95 mph on 31 fastballs through the first four innings. Miller, though, said postgame that he didn’t feel any residual soreness.

“Velo up or down, there’s no excuse,” Miller said. “Like, whether I’m tired or not, there’s still no excuse to not be in-zone. Nothing specific, I think just getting late into the game. But still, I've got to get out and compete, finish the game and give us a chance -- and I didn’t do that.”

Miller worked a couple of fast innings, but entered the fifth at 74 pitches, and the Red Sox took advantage.

“Running his pitch count up a little bit, and these guys put some good at-bats on him," said Mariners manager Dan Wilson. "This is a good lineup and it’s a deep lineup, and just not able to let him settle in. The first couple innings he got through pretty well, and then it seemed like they were pushing up the pitch count after that.”

After getting into a 1-2 count against Ceddanne Rafaela to lead off the fifth, Miller ended up walking the No. 9 hitter on a fastball. Two batters later, he battled back from a 2-0 count against Rafael Devers, only to walk the slugger on a 3-2 cutter that missed high. Those walks came back to bite Miller as both Rafaela and Devers scored on an Alex Bregman double.

Miller’s third walk of the inning prompted Wilson to bring in Eduard Bazardo, who retired Kristian Campbell to end the inning.

“I don’t think it’s really anything to pinpoint, it’s just really frustrating,” Miller said. “The past two years I really prided myself on command and getting ahead and winning the 0-0’s and the 1-1’s, and I just haven’t been doing that. At the end of the day, I’ve just got to reassess and move forward and get back to who I am, which is attacking the zone and getting ahead.”