Miller twirls gem, Muñoz bounces back in much-needed Mariners win

MILWAUKEE -- Bryce Miller created his own rendition of “Miller Time” in territory where that slogan rings loudly. Andrés Muñoz rebounded from a disastrous outing the night prior. The Mariners’ scuffling offense manufactured a five-hit inning for the first time since last August. And a somewhat surprising decision to turn to the bullpen when Miller was cruising worked out despite a late jam.

Saturday night’s game was shaping up to be the Mariners’ most complete win in this young season. But despite a late Brewers rally, and thanks to a critical insurance homer from Luis Urías in the venue where he played at his peak, Seattle eked out a 5-3 victory at American Family Field.

“We played a really good game tonight,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said.

Miller was easily the game’s MVP, turning in arguably the best start of his young career. He matched a personal best with seven shutout innings and needed just 78 pitches to do so. He effectively landed his two- and four-seam fastballs at the bottom of the zone early, rode the heater at the top rail later in counts and mixed in his new splitter as a dominant out pitch.

Perhaps most telling was that Miller -- who’d been tagged by left-handed hitters for a .903 OPS in his first 26 career starts -- held them hitless in 13 at-bats on Saturday.

“That was my goal this offseason, to find a way to attack lefties,” Miller said. “And I'm happy with where we're at.”

Saturday was also a stark difference to how he trended over the final month of his rookie year, as Miller entered carrying a 6.05 ERA across his past eight starts dating back to Aug. 25, over which hitters had a .914 OPS against him.

Moreover, while mowing down Milwaukee, Miller barely broke a sweat.

At the only moment where potential damage loomed for him, Miller needed a quick break -- to tie his right shoe. He’d just surrendered a two-out single to William Contreras while working the third time through the Brewers’ lineup, and awaiting in the on-deck circle was Christian Yelich, the lefty slugger who’s been hitting like the 2018 version of himself that was the National League MVP.

After Miller double-knotted his gray New Balances and catcher Cal Raleigh utilized the time for a mound visit, Miller blew an elevated four-seamer by for a swinging strike and a darting splitter for a groundout.

“I feel way better with where the sinker is this year,” Miller said. “It's hard enough to hit one fastball, let alone two, so if I'm able to mix both of those, then it also helps getting ahead and then I can play the splitter or whatever off of it.”

The way Miller was pitching made it somewhat surprising that Servais replaced him to begin the eighth with Austin Voth, who gave up a leadoff single to Brice Turang then a massive two-run homer to Jackson Chourio that made things interesting. Gabe Speier then entered and issued a four-pitch walk to Yelich and gave up a sac fly to pinch-hitting Rhys Hoskins to make it a 4-3 game, before Trent Thornton came in and induced a groundout to close the floodgates.

“Everybody wants to [question it] because we gave up a couple of runs,” Servais said. “We are so early in the season. It's seven innings. He's not been up and down that much. This is a young pitcher that's got 30 more starts ahead of him.”

Then came Muñoz, who the night prior walked the bases loaded, then issued a free pass to walk it off. But on Saturday, Muñoz pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his second save, capped with a punchout of Chourio, MLB Pipeline’s No. 2 overall prospect.

"I want to do the best that I can to help the team and to not be able to do it, it's a lot of frustration on me,” Muñoz said. “And that's why the good thing was I came the next day, ready to work ... so that doesn't happen again."

Muñoz’s efforts were aided heavily by a key solo homer from Urías in the ninth, and Miller’s were backed by a three-run third, which began with a bunt single from Samad Taylor. The speedster then advanced to second on a passed ball, to third on a single from J.P. Crawford and scored on a 98.2 mph knock from Julio Rodríguez. Jorge Polanco -- who hit his first homer with the Mariners in the eighth -- and Mitch Garver also had RBIs in the inning.