The Mariners made a clear bet on Bryce Miller late in August: shrink the workload, clean up the command, and hope the right-hander could find himself in a different setting. That plan barely had time to exist. Seattle moved Miller to the bullpen on Aug. 28, but two days later Emerson Hancock landed on the IL, and Miller was pushed right back into the rotation before he ever threw the relief outing the Mariners had in mind.
So tonight at 6:40 p.m. PT against the Rangers at T-Mobile Park, Miller is back in the same spot, with the same question hanging over him: did he actually adjust, or did the reset never get a real chance to matter?
His last two starts before the bullpen idea surfaced were ugly. He walked seven Cubs hitters and gave up six earned runs over 4 1/3 innings, and that came only five days after Milwaukee tagged him for five earned runs. Those games were team problems as much as individual ones, but Miller’s command was clearly part of the mess.
One thing jumps out from the numbers: the cutter disappeared.
Against Chicago, Miller threw 15 cutters. In his next start at Boston, he didn’t throw one.
That matters because the pitch has been a disaster this season. Opponents have slugged .875 against Miller’s cutter, and it hasn’t produced a strikeout in 20 plate appearances.
He was giving hitters a pitch they could handle and getting almost nothing back.
Cutting bait there made sense. In place of the cutter, Miller leaned more on his slider, sinker and splitter, and the results were better.
He allowed one earned run, seven hits, one walk and three strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings. It wasn’t a long outing, but it was a cleaner one, and that’s where this starts tonight: not with a finished product, but with a pitcher who at least took one obvious problem off the table.
Still, Boston was more of a step than a statement. Seven hits in fewer than five innings is not the sign of a pitcher suddenly in total control, and three strikeouts don’t scream dominance. Seattle’s offense backed him with an 8-3 win, giving him room to work while the bullpen handled the rest.
The Rangers already know how to bother him. On July 24, Texas scored five earned runs against Miller over 5 1/3 innings.
Wyatt Langford homered on a splitter, Jake Burger took a 96 mph four-seamer deep, and Miller finished that night without a strikeout. That game was part of the stretch that eventually led Seattle to consider pulling him from the rotation.
There is some reason for optimism in the setting. Miller has a 3.14 ERA and 0.88 WHIP at T-Mobile Park this season, while his road ERA sits at 4.69 and opponents have an .815 OPS against him away from Seattle. The home numbers are better, but the Cubs start at T-Mobile Park also showed how quickly things can unravel.
The bigger issue is durability. Miller has gone nine straight starts without a quality start, and the last one came July 2, when he threw seven scoreless innings against the Angels. The outing in Boston helped stop the slide a little, but it did not settle the question.
Seattle gets a rested bullpen behind him after Woo’s eight scoreless innings Sunday and Monday’s off-day. That matters, because six innings from Miller would be a win for the Mariners compared with another short outing that only hints at progress.
The version of Miller Seattle wants is still out there somewhere. It may not show up tonight. But if he keeps the cutter buried and continues trusting the rest of his mix, that would at least be another step toward getting there.
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