The Mariners left their weekend set with the Cubs carrying a little of everything: two walk-off wins, a debut that hinted at something bigger, and another rough Bryce Miller outing that pushed the rotation discussion into urgent territory.
For a team sitting seven games under .500 and last in the majors in runs per game, this has been the kind of season that keeps throwing contradictions at you. Seattle is 62-69 with 31 games left, has taken two massive beatdowns in the last week, and still somehow trimmed its gap behind the Astros in the AL West to 3.0 games.
FanGraphs still lists the Mariners with the ninth-best World Series odds at 3.4 percent. That alone tells you how strange things have gotten.
The weekend’s defining image was simple: the Mariners winning twice in dramatic fashion against a Cubs club that entered with a 36-27 road record.
Leo Rivas started the fireworks on Friday. He had been stuck in a miserable season of his own, hitting under .150 and carrying a negative bWAR, and he hadn’t appeared in the previous 12 games until entering in the bottom of the eighth as a pinch-runner for Taylor Ward. Two innings later, with the game tied, two outs, and two men aboard, Rivas lined a single to center field to score Randy Arozarena and seal a 6-5 walk-off win.
Arozarena was right back in the middle of the action on Saturday night. He put Seattle ahead 1-0 on the first pitch he saw, then later made a strong defensive play by robbing Miguel Amaya of a home run in the third inning.
The Mariners still found themselves trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth before Rivas again nudged the rally forward with an RBI single. That set up Arozarena with two outs, and he delivered the kind of swing he has built his reputation on, launching a two-run homer to send T-Mobile Park into a frenzy and finish off a 5-4 win in front of 45,681.
The other major storyline from the series was Kade Anderson’s debut. The moment carried real weight: it was nationally televised, and it came against a Cubs lineup that ranked first in the majors in OPS against left-handed pitching.
Anderson handled it well. He worked 5.0 innings, allowing two hits, two walks and one earned run.
The decision point came after that. Anderson was at 72 pitches, had not reached 80 pitches in any outing all season, and had rarely faced the same lineup three times.
The Cubs also entered with a .826 OPS the third time through the order against starters. Still, Anderson came back out for the sixth, and the inning went sideways fast.
Chicago stacked three hits and got two solo homers to move ahead 3-2 before Carlos Vargas took over, one out shy of a quality start for the Mariners’ third overall draft pick from last year.
Even with that ending, the day showed why the hype around Anderson exists. He looked composed, and he looked like a pitcher the Mariners can build around.
Sunday was a different story entirely for Bryce Miller. What began earlier this season as a dominant run - 1.71 ERA and 0.66 WHIP through nine starts - has turned into a sharp collapse. Over his last eight outings, he has posted a 7.19 ERA and 1.62 WHIP, and every one of those starts has come in a Mariners loss.
His latest one came on his birthday and was easily his worst. Miller walked a career-high seven batters, worked 4.1 innings, threw a season-high 104 pitches and gave up six earned runs.
He allowed only two hits, but both were home runs, including Ian Happ’s grand slam. Seattle’s bullpen was thin, which left the club little choice but to leave Miller out there longer than it wanted while the bases kept getting loaded.
Adam Jude of The Seattle Times noted that the outing made Miller the first pitcher in the modern era, beginning in 1901, to have his team lose by 15 or more runs in back-to-back starts. Miller also said after the game that he has been dealing with a lat issue for about a month.
With Bryce Woo’s own recent injury concern still awaiting an update, the Mariners are at the point where Miller may need to be removed from the rotation, whether that means a bullpen move or an IL stint. His talent isn’t in question. The problem is that this can’t keep going the way it has.
In Other News...
Mariners Just Took A Brutal Colt Emerson Hit
Colt Emersons season has come to an abrupt end with wrist surgery, a tough blow for a Mariners prospect who had been part of the organizations broader infield picture. He is on the 10-day injured list now, and the club plans to move him to the 60-day injured list, a procedural step that gives Seattle some roster flexibility while it waits out the final stretch of the season.
The Mariners are still juggling the infield around J.P. Crawfords impending return, so Emersons absence lands at an awkward time for the depth chart. Even so, the team is expecting him back in time for spring training next year, which at least gives Seattle a clear target as it tries to absorb a painful setback and keep the bigger picture intact. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners May Need A Roster Shakeup After Deadline Bat Disappoints
Taylor Ward was supposed to give Seattle a much-needed jolt after the trade deadline, but the early returns have been rough. Limited by leg soreness and still trying to find his timing, Ward has hit just .136 since joining the Mariners, a stretch that has done little to settle the clubs outfield picture or answer the lineup questions that led to the move in the first place.
Meanwhile, Lazaro Montes has kept forcing his way into the conversation with a huge season in the minors, including 37 home runs and a strong OPS at Triple-A Tacoma. With roster expansion on September 1 looming, the Mariners have a possible path to shake things up if they decide the bat they need is already in the organization, even though no official move has been made yet. [Read more 🡒]
Kade Andersons Mariners Debut Put One Pitch Under Immediate Scrutiny
Kade Andersons first big league start came with the kind of close inspection that follows any top Mariners prospect the moment he reaches Seattle, and the attention only intensified once he was asked to work 5.2 innings and allow three earned runs in his debut. Promoted straight from Double-A, Anderson stepped into a new level where every pitch gets judged not just by results, but by how it moves, how it spins and whether the stuff that played so well in the minors still looks the same under major league lights.
One layer of that adjustment is the baseball itself. The majors use a different ball than Double-A, with changes in composition and stitching that can alter pitch movement, including spin and vertical break, and pitchers making that jump often see subtle changes right away in how their offerings carry or finish. For a young arm like Anderson, that makes his first outing less of a verdict than a starting point, with one pitch in particular now under the kind of scrutiny that can shape the conversation around his next turn. [Read more 🡒]