SEATTLE -- The Mariners are stumbling out of the Trade Deadline and into the toughest part of their schedule with little room for error.
Over their first three games after Monday’s transactional cutoff, Seattle was outscored 21-4. That stretch ended with an 11-0 loss Thursday afternoon at T-Mobile Park to the Tigers, the club’s most lopsided defeat of the season.
It was also the Mariners’ 11th shutout of the year, tying them with the Mets, Giants and Padres for the most in MLB. By the end of the game, outfielder Victor Robles was the Mariners’ final pitcher.
The series swung Seattle’s season run differential from +3 to -14 in a hurry.
Even the one win in the three-game set came with fallout. Leverage reliever Gabe Speier was handed a three-game suspension, though he is appealing, and manager Dan Wilson received a one-game suspension that he served Thursday. Both were also fined an undisclosed amount.
Bryce Miller took the ball a little more than two hours after MLB announced those penalties, and his day got away from him fast. The right-hander needed 40 pitches to survive the first inning, giving up two doubles, two homers and two walks as Detroit built a three-run lead right away.
“I’ve got to be better at the beginning of the game and get off to a better start,” Miller said.
Miller’s fastball velocity was also down slightly again. He averaged 95.7 mph on his four-seam fastball, compared to 97.5 mph when he returned from the injured list on May 13.
“He didn't come out very sharp from the get-go and made us play catch-up baseball,” acting manager Manny Acta said. “But we couldn't do anything offensively, anyways.”
Miller settled in enough to get through the fifth, but he allowed another run in the second, and Seattle never had the offense to dig out. Framber Valdez controlled the game for seven innings, allowing five hits and two walks.
The Mariners’ best chance came in the sixth, when they put runners on first and second with one out. Dominic Canzone struck out, and Julio Rodríguez grounded out, leaving Seattle with its only two at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Seattle finished with seven hits, none for extra bases, and grounded into four double plays. Cal Raleigh, Josh Naylor and Brendan Donovan all sat out with planned rest days.
For Miller, the slide has been real. The Mariners have lost each of his last five starts, and he’s posted a 5.81 ERA in that span. That comes after he opened the year with a 1.71 ERA across his first nine outings, after missing the season’s first seven weeks with a left oblique strain.
“If I split my season so far into halves,” Miller said, “the first half of my season, a lot of things went my way, and the second half, things haven't. And so I think that's part of the game, but at the same time, I’ve just got to continue to make quality pitches and continue to stay on the attack.”
Seattle’s only real spark in the series came Wednesday, when Rodríguez launched a three-run homer in the sixth and Colt Emerson followed two innings later with an emotional insurance shot. Otherwise, Detroit held the Mariners down in a pair of blowouts around that middle-game win.
The Mariners are now 56-60 and have dropped 16 of their last 25 games. Only 10 of those games came against teams currently in playoff position, and Seattle went 3-7 against the Rays, Dodgers and Rangers in that stretch.
Now the road gets steeper. Every one of the Mariners’ next 18 games comes against teams currently in postseason position, starting Friday against Tampa Bay, which owns the best record in the American League at 68-46.
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