This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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You could reduce last night’s game to its simplest elements. The Rangers hit two home runs, the Mariners didn’t hit any. Ball go far, team go far. Rangers pitchers struck out nine men, Mariners pitchers struck out four; starter Bryce Miller did not strike out a single batter, the first time in 85 career starts he’d failed to get strike three. Miller’s velocity was down and he got just five swings-and-misses on the night, none on his four-seamer.
Miller’s inability to put hitters away was costly. In the fourth, with two out, one on and an 0-2 count on Jake Burger, he tried to put Burger away with a fastball up. It wasn’t nearly up enough for an 0-2 fastball, and Burger jumped on it for a two-run homer to right. Two innings later, Miller got ahead 0-2 on Brandon Nimmo before allowing a 1-2 single, then got ahead 0-2 on Evan Carter before throwing four straight balls, none all that close. Both players would score, breaking a 3-3 tie and providing the decisive runs. Miller has returned to being the pitcher he was in 2024, but his bad night last night was a big part of the Mariners’ loss.
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