The Mariners dropped a tough one tonight in Arlington, falling 5-4 to the Texas Rangers, but not before Dominic Canzone showed everyone exactly why he’s been playing every single day lately. It was a rollercoaster of a game, packed with frustration and a flash of pure grit that almost pulled it off for the Emerald City.
Canzone’s Wild Ride Against Lefties
We all know the M’s have been struggling against left-handed pitching this year, big time. For a while, the team was platooning Canzone, opting for right-handed bats like Rob Refsnyder, Víctor Robles, and Mitch Garver when a southpaw was on the mound. It made some sense, with Canzone coming into the season carrying a wOBA and xwOBA 50 points lower against lefties than righties. But with the team’s depth looking thin and Canzone’s bat just absolutely scorching, they’ve had him in the lineup daily. The results? Mixed, to say the least.
Tonight started rough against Rangers lefty MacKenzie Gore. Canzone struck out on three straight sliders in the first, then slowly jogged to first (he’s still being careful with that hamstring, gotta remember) and got doubled up on a super soft 68-mph ground ball in the third. When he faced Gore for the third time in the fifth inning, with Colt Emerson and Randy Arozarena on base after lead-off singles, he was quickly down 0-2, barely getting a piece of a hanging slider and swinging at a sinker above the zone. It looked like a repeat disaster. But then he battled! He fouled off a tough slider low and away. He laid off an uncompetitive four-seamer. Then he fouled off another tough sinker. Buying those extra pitches paid off big time because Dominic Canzone drilled a two RBI double, getting the M’s right back into the game! That’s the fight we love to see.
Bryce Miller’s Zero-K Night Had Seattle Fans Scratching Their Heads
While Canzone was battling, Bryce Miller was having a night of his own, and it was certainly a weird one. He fell behind early in the first, throwing a splitter that just didn’t split, and Wyatt Langford sent it to the left field seats. The M’s scratched that run back in a small-ball second inning thanks to some good at-bats from Josh Naylor, Cole Young, Weston Wilson, and Colt Emerson. But Miller just kept struggling to find his groove.
He never let things totally get out of hand, and his fastball was still sitting 96 mph for a good chunk of his outing. But here’s the kicker: he finished his 5.1 innings with *zero* strikeouts. That’s a career first for him. He only walked one, which is good, and while he gave up a ton of air contact, it only resulted in a single barrel. Even the two-run homer he gave up to Jake Burger in the fifth, which brought the score to 3-1, wasn’t a terrible pitch,a 96-mph fastball above the zone. Burger just muscled it, and it somehow kept carrying. It felt like a night of genuinely bad results for Miller, but in a way that just seemed fluky, you know? His velocity is a little down from his outstanding start to the season when he was hitting 98, but he’s been basically fine lately. Tonight just wasn’t his night, despite the underlying metrics.
It was a frustrating night for the Emerald City faithful, seeing the M’s lose a close one. While Canzone continues to prove his worth, the team’s struggles against left-handed pitching and Miller’s somewhat fluky but still costly outing leave us wondering what’s next for this squad. We need to see more of that fight from Canzone, but hopefully, less of these kinds of results.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Lookout Landing.
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