Bryce Miller pitched six innings and, along with three relievers, helped the Seattle Mariners achieve their 12th shutout of the season. Ryan Bliss hit a two-run home run, the second of his career, as the Mariners defeated the New York Mets 6-0 on Friday night.
Seattle’s pitching was strong again, with Miller (9-7) dominating the Mets before handing the game over to the bullpen. Key hits came from a couple of players lower in the batting order.
Bliss, hitting eighth, launched a two-run homer an estimated 410 feet into the Seattle bullpen on the first pitch he saw from Mets starter Jose Quintana (6-8) in the second inning. His only other home run was on June 7 in Kansas City.
“First home run was special, but especially here at T-Mobile (Park), it was a pretty cool moment,” Bliss said. “It was fun.”
In the seventh inning, No. 9 hitter Leo Rivas capped Quintana’s outing. After Mitch Garver walked and Dylan Moore reached on an infield single, Rivas hit a 3-2 pitch with two outs past diving second baseman Jeff McNeil to drive in two runs.
“Can’t say enough about the guys in the middle of the field tonight, the little guys,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “What Bliss and Rivas did, they didn’t get out of their game.”
Cal Raleigh added a two-run single off reliever Adam Ottavino later in the inning as Seattle sent nine batters to the plate and scored four times.
Quintana retired 13 straight batters before walking Garver to start the seventh. He allowed five runs on four hits and struck out eight.
“Obviously, when you look at the box score he gave up five, but he pitched way better than the line score,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He was one strike away from giving us seven innings in a two-run ball game.”
However, Quintana would have needed to be perfect to match Seattle’s pitching.
Miller gave up three hits, struck out six, and walked one. No base runner advanced past second base, and he retired 10 of the final 11 batters he faced. It was Miller’s sixth start this season with at least six shutout innings.
