Miller's latest gem sets stage as Mariners work late-inning magic

SEATTLE -- On a night when Bryce Miller flirted with perfection, then his teammates looked like the ones who’d be no-hit, the Mariners remarkably cast some late-inning magic en route to a 2-1 walk-off win over the Braves on Monday at T-Mobile Park.

Mitch Garver blasted a 412-foot two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning off reliever A.J. Minter, just after Jorge Polanco led off with a single -- all on a night when the Mariners went hitless into the eighth, spoiled a bases-loaded opportunity that inning and looked like they were on the way to a gut-punch loss.

Miller had receded to the training room as Garver stepped to the plate, then he burst back out to the field to take part in the mob of the veteran’s first walk-off homer of his 12-year pro career, including the Minors.

“I was doing arm care and had to run out there,” Miller said. “And I threw my phone across the locker room so I wouldn't have it, and ran out there and everybody's fired up. So we had fun.”

Garver’s heroics salvaged Miller’s stellar start, the Mariners’ latest from a rotation that is making gems custom.

Miller retired each of the first 16 Braves he faced, then carried a no-hit bid through the sixth inning before Ronald Acuña Jr. broke it up with an infield single that chopped off shortstop Dylan Moore’s glove. From there, the reigning National League MVP wreaked havoc on the basepaths by swiping second, then third standing, and he scored on a double from Ozzie Albies that one-hopped the wall in right-center.

Those short sequences looked like they’d prove to be the difference in this series opener pitting first-place teams featuring Atlanta’s juggernaut offense against Seattle’s stingy pitching -- especially after the Mariners had Julio Rodríguez fly out too shallow for a sacrifice fly and Mitch Haniger swing at strike three in the dirt with the bases loaded in the eighth.

But the Mariners wound up getting the final say in their second walk-off win of the year.

“It was really a relief that the game was over,” Garver said. “I mean, we had an opportunity. We had plenty of opportunities to score in that game.”

But relievers Cody Bolton and Austin Voth combined to surrender just one hit with four strikeouts -- bringing the Braves’ strikeout tally to a season-high-tying 14 -- to keep the game within reach. Miller matched a career high with 10.

"His fastball had some big jump to it," Braves third baseman Austin Riley said. "It was playing up. And then as he went on through the lineup, he starting trinkling in some offspeed, and I think it was like 18 to 20 inches of vertical [movement]. It had some skip to it. It's tough to get on top of those balls and drive them. He threw the ball well."

The superlatives of Seattle’s rotation have been endless over the past three weeks, with Miller’s gem being the club’s American League-leading 18th quality start. The Mariners have only used five starters and are MLB’s only team with five pitchers with least three quality starts, and only the Giants have four such arms. Seattle advanced to 15-3 when its starter achieves that criteria.

Yet for Miller, 2024 has been a year of extreme ascent.

He outlasted Max Fried, who himself was hitless through the sixth before reaching 100 pitches and behind whom the Braves were 5-0 entering play. He grinded through the heart of Atlanta’s order for three straight outs after Albies’ breakthrough. He reverted back to his primary out pitch -- the four-seam fastball -- for a whopping 15 whiffs and six K’s against a lineup that had outscored opponents 67-to-37 (+30 run differential) in its previous 13 games.

And Miller did so on the heels of a tough start at Texas, when he lasted a season-low four innings.

“I'm at my best when I attack with the heater,” Miller said, “and then they have to adjust to the other stuff. ... If it's working early, we're going to keep going with it and try to adjust as the game goes. But you could tell early it was working, so we stuck with it.”

Though Seattle’s offense looked more like the group that struggled in its first two weeks than the one that’s found life recently, gems like Miller’s -- and within the rotation’s totality -- show that its starters should keep them in every game, even if pushed to walk-off territory.