After a lovely vacation, many of us believe we will return to our jobs reinvigorated, with a fresh heart and a renewed passion for our professions.
Personally, I find the return to the office to be a definitive, draining reminder of how much I wish I never had to work another day in my life. How if I won the lottery or bought NVIDIA in my 401(k) account 6 years ago, I’d spend most of my days volunteering at an animal shelter (and DEFINITELY not adopt another animal) before going to watch the Mariners game at my local brewery.
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(Well. Maybe not that last part.)
It seems like the Mariners would agree with me, as they returned from the All-Star Break looking limp and lifeless, losing listlessly to the Giants 7-0.
Off the bat, it seemed like the San Francisco Season of Humiliation was bound to continue, as the Giants blew through their two ABS challenges just four outs into the game on poorly-advised challenges from left fielder Kasey Schmidt and catcher Andrew Kavanaugh.
Bryce Miller also started hot, touching 97 in the first inning and recorded four straight strikeouts in the first/second innings. He showed some Nestorocity on his strikeout of Rafiel Dever with a little hesi in his windup.
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There were a few great almost-hits in the early part of the game for Seattle. Cal nuked one that was loud enough that I woke up my cats, but fell just foul, and Luke Raley hit one right to the top of the wall in center field, but it took until the bottom of the fourth for the Mariners to earn the first of their two hits for the night off the bat of Josh Naylor.
My cats had the right idea, as the first four innings of this game were capital-S Sleepy. Unfortunately, the wake-up call for this snoozer did not come from the bats of the Mariners. Miller left a splitter too far up in the zone to Bruce Elderidge, and he was punished for the mistake to the tune of a 2-run homer.
The Mariners swiftly responded with some small-ball to manufacture some outs. After Raley hit a leadoff single, a poorly-executed sacrifice bunt by Robles saw him out at second. Robles soon followed suit, getting thrown out at second on a poorly-executed stolen base attempt.
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Miller saw his chance at a quality start slip away after he plunked Drew Gibert with one on and two out in the sixth inning. There was a notable drop in velocity over his start. Miller attributed this to his fingers cutting in too much on his fastball.
“First couple of innings, heater was really good, and then from the third on, it just really started cutting. Got a little blister from it,” Miller said.
It was the first time he’s had this issue since 2023. Miller ended with a final line of 5.2 IP, 6 Ks, giving up 3 runs on 7 hits, 2 of which were earned.
“Overall, a really frustrating game, just in that today feels like a day that I very easily could have gone six shutout innings and gave us a little better chance,” Miller said in today’s Mariners Starter Takes Responsibility For The Loss Despite Pitching Very Well quote of the day.
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Brought on with two runners on and two outs, José Ferrer walked Andrew Kavanaugh before Louis Arroz did what Arroz does best – use annoying bat-to-ball skills to ruin pitcher’s lives.
A funky deflection off the glove of Ferrer saved the Mariners from another couple of runs, leaving the game at 3-0, but it didn’t take long for the Giants to reclaim what was rightfully theirs.
Nick Davila brought shame upon our name in the seventh inning, loading the bases and allowing William Adams to hit a coffin-nail grand slam that put the game out of reach.
One of the few bright spots from this game was Cole Wilcox coming in for mop-up duty and absolutely cleaning up, hitting 98.2 on the gun and earning himself a couple of strikeouts.
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The Mariners put up almost no fight in this game whatsoever. At no point did it feel like the offense was on the verge of threatening the show signs of life. The defense had as many errors as the lineup had hits. The post-vacation sluggishness comes for us all, it seems.
Ah, well. At least it’s baseball.
