When young stars shine: Mariners win 4-2 over Cubs

After a 4-2 win over the Cubs on a national broadcast night, Scott Servais opened his postgame presser with a strong statement:

“That’s our signature game.”

He meant that in the general sense—the combination of strong pitching and timely hits—not this particular game, but in many ways, tonight’s win does feel like it could be a signature on the young 2024 season. This is how this team was supposed to be built, the team that showed up in the back half of the Cactus League, putting pressure on opposing pitchers with the starting pitching holding back opposing offenses.

As anyone who has watched this team so far in 2024 can tell you, that’s not how the formula has been working, as the top of the rotation has scuffled and the offense has been soporific. The Mariners entered tonight as one of the worst offensive teams in MLB, with only the lowly Marlins scoring fewer runs per game. The Mariners offense has been particularly cruel to Logan Gilbert, rewarding his strong start to the season with no wins.

While Gilbert has been the model of consistency so far this season for a team lacking it, Bryce Miller has been more of an enigma. Coming into tonight he had one good start and one, his season opener, where he’d struggled with location and command. Tonight it looked like it might be a regression after his sterling outing in Milwaukee, when he had pinpoint command from the jump. Miller fell behind hitters at times, struggling to land his slider—the weak point in his arsenal in his last stellar outing as well—but also missing some with his fastball location, carrying over a problem from his first outing.

However, unlike his season debut, when Miller battled his command the entire outing, this time he was able to refocus and gain the upper hand in the zone. While in the first three innings he only threw 6 of 12 pitches for strikes, in innings 4-6 he threw 10 of 11 pitches for strikes. He didn’t strike out a ton of hitters but still picked the Cubs apart in the zone, focusing on weak contact and easy groundball outs. That efficiency helped him get into the seventh inning where, with one out, his command failed him and he threw “four pretty bad pitches”, ending his night to a roar of approval from the crowd at T-Mobile Park.

“He had it all going on tonight,” said Servais postgame, praising Miller’s improvements. “It’s unique because he’s got a little bit of a higher slot, he can ride the ball, he can do a lot of different things. So it’s really hard to game plan against on a particular night.”

The new-look Miller has come as an unpleasant surprise to opposing hitters sitting heater. Miller is pleased that the addition of the splitter allows him to go deeper into games, noting that when he’d see a lineup the third time through, they’d all know they were getting “a lot of heaters.” He’s also added a bit of hesitation in his windup at times as a little wrinkle, something he’s modeling off of…