The Mariners waited too long, and Mason Miller eventually caught up with them.
The Padres shutout the Mariners 2-0 in Friday’s series opener in Seattle. The win gives them the second ever Vedder Cup, tying the all-time series at one apiece. Emerson Hancock pitched well, working around a bit of hard contact to get through six innings with the game still reach. But the Mariners’ lineup was lifeless for 7 2/3 innings, starting their day just in time for Miller to end it.
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Hancock was a bit of a mix, picking up six strikeouts on 14 whiffs. He was rarely in trouble over his six innings of work, allowing just one run on five hits. But the contact he allowed was often quite hard. The Padres smacked 11 batted balls with exit velocities greater than 95 mph. Those just so happened to turn into nine outs.
That’s because the Mariners defense, particularly the middle infield, was actually quite good. They entered the day next to last in the majors in defensive run value, and I’m not sure there’s been a game this year that struck me as well-played in the field. This one did. (Of course, I wrote this before J.P. Crawford threw away a grounder of modest difficulty in the ninth inning. I was trying to say something nice about this game, and now I can’t.)
In the second inning, Hancock loaded the bases with a trio of singles — his one real jam of the day. Hancock got Sung-Mun Song to hit a hard grounder to Crawford at short stop, who raced to second, tagged the bag, and made a leaping throw to first to get out of it. This reminded me of the old, er, young J.P., with that slick sling and flare.
Hancock picked up a pair of strikeouts to begin the third. Then he served up another hard grounder, this time to Fernando Tatis Jr. The ball nearly got through the infield, but Cole Young made a nice back hand play, getting the ball to first with a jump throw. Young would make another nice play in the ninth, leaping to snag a soft liner and save a run.
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Gavin Sheets walked with one out in the fourth on a sweeper that Hancock yanked and threw way, way behind Sheets all the way to the backstop. Sheets then stole second and would later score on a double from Miguel Andujar.
“Well, how did Sheets get on?” Hancock said after the game, when asked about the double. “I mean that’s what it comes down to. Free bases, an early jump, early break to steal second, and a really good two strike pitch but a good hitter puts a good swing on it, it’s one run – it’s that small of a margin. One walk ends up scoring in a close game and that’s the difference between a win and a loss.”
For as good as Hancock has looked at times this year, he seems to occasionally lose the grip on that big bender. This time it came back to hurt him, but it’s a small thing, especially when it’s the only walk of the day.e
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In the fifth, Song hit a chopper over the mound to leadoff the inning. Brendan Donovan ranged over and fired the ball to first. Josh Naylor made an awkward lunge for the throw and took his foot off the bag. Song was safe after review. It proved no matter, as Hancock picked up another 6-4-3 double play on the next batter.
That was kind of the game for Hancock. Again, he got a solid number of whiffs and tons of awkward swings. He continued to look like the new version of himself. But he lived in the zone with his fastball and the Padres swung hard. I think this is another good example of an outing where he can still be quite effective even when he’s not at his absolute best. It’s certainly helpful when the defense steps up behind him.
Cooper Criswell got the eight inning and gave up a run on two singles and a groundout, making the game 2-0. But it didn’t really matter because even one run proved too much for the Mariners lineup.
Yes, the Mariners got shut out at the plate. They ultimately picked up seven hits and three walks, but that kind of overstates how much offense they generated. Their only real threat came in the bottom of the eighth when Donovan singled and Julio walked with one out. Josh Naylor nearly took the lead with a barrel deep to center, but it was tracked down. That was actually the third hard hit out to the warning in center field for the Mariners on Friday, and they did swat 12 hard hit balls. It just wasn’t enough.
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“If we have a process that gets balls on the barrels, we’re doing something right,” Dan Wilson said after the game. “But we also want to get balls that fall. We’ll just keep grinding away.”
The Padres acknowledged the threat after Naylor’s near-homer and took the appropriate action, bringing in the cyborg Miller for a four-out save.
The Mariners actually put up a bit of a fight. Randy Arozarena exploded his bat and dropped a ball just beyond the mound to load the bases with two outs. And Connor Joe worked a full count- hey, that’s something. But Joe struck out, ending the threat.
In the ninth, Crawford drew a leadoff walk, and Young dunked a single. Miller countered with three more strike outs and the game was over. It’s, frankly, kind of impossible to string hits together against Miller, who lowered his FIP to -0.22 in the outing. He’s having simply the most dominant reliever season in history. The Mariners only mistake was letting him in the game. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that he probably won’t pitch Saturday after throwing 34 pitches to get four outs.
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“He’s pitching very well,” Wilson said postgame. “He’s got great stuff — I think he hit 103 (mph) tonight — and to be honest, I thought the at-bats we put up against him were really strong, to load the bases there and have a couple of at-bats that went very deep, and the guys kept fighting all the way to the end. Those at-bats were tough, and that’s what you love to see. But he’s definitely touch, and scoring early was what we needed to do.”
The season series — the Vedder Cup — goes to the Padres. The Mariners will look to even this particular three-game set Saturday.
