Bryce Miller fired six innings of shutout ball Wednesday and the visiting Seattle Mariners earned their first series win in nearly a month, blanking the San Diego Padres 2-0 to finish a two-game sweep.
Miller (7-7) allowed five hits and walked none, striking out one in an 80-pitch outing. Three relievers got the final nine outs, with closer Andres Munoz pitching 1 1/3 innings for his 15th save in 17 chances. The Mariners’ last series sweep came June 14-16, when they took three straight from the Texas Rangers in Seattle.
Michael King (7-6) was the tough-luck loser, permitting only three hits and two runs (one earned) over six innings. He issued one walk and fanned nine, but it wasn’t enough to keep San Diego from dropping its fourth straight game.
Seattle got its first run in the second inning without the benefit of a hit. Cal Raleigh drew a one-out walk and swiped second as Ty France looked at a third strike. Jorge Polanco then slapped a grounder to first that went between Luis Arraez’s legs for an error that scored Raleigh.
The Mariners got their other run via more conventional means in the fourth. Luke Raley and France singled ahead of Polanco’s two-out RBI single to right-center that easily scored Raley from second.
The Padres generated three legitimate scoring chances but couldn’t cash in any of them. In the second, they got consecutive singles from Donovan Solano, Jackson Merrill and David Peralta to load the bases with one out. However, Ha-Seong Kim flied out to center fielder Julio Rodriguez and Solano was nailed at the plate on a close play for an inning-ending double play.
In the eighth, Brett Sullivan drew a two-out walk off Ryne Stanek and went to second on Arraez’s single. Munoz then came in and fanned Jurickson Profar with a 2-2 slider in the dirt to quash the threat.
San Diego put the would-be tying runs aboard to start the ninth when Munoz walked Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado. Solano’s bouncer to short moved the runners up 90 feet, but Merrill fanned and Peralta softly lined out to shortstop J.P. Crawford.
–Field Level Media
