Rookie Bryce Miller shuts down his hometown team as Mariners secure home series win over Astros

For those that couched the success of Bryce Miller’s first big league start, saying it was aided by playing the Oakland A’s, who might be one of the worst teams in the last 30 years of Major League Baseball, well, what is there to say now?

In his second MLB outing and his first at T-Mobile Park, Miller shut down the team he grew up watching as a kid in Mount Pleasant, Texas.

The rookie right-hander delivered another brilliant outing against the defending World Series champion Houston Astros and led the Mariners to a 3-1 victory.

The Mariners took the three-game series and have won six of their past seven games.

Using his four-seam fastball predominantly, Miller pitched six scoreless innings, allowing two hits with a walk and five strikeouts. Of his 85 pitches, 60 were fastballs. He got eight swings and misses and eight called strikes on his heater.

In his first two MLB starts, Miller has allowed one earned run in 12 innings with one walk and fifteen strikeouts. Opponents are batting just .103 against him.

The Mariners didn’t lack for scoring opportunities over the first six innings against Astros starter Brandon Bielak, but still only produced three runs. A baserunning mistake by Ty France in the first inning and costly strikeouts with runners in scoring position were the primary issues.

Julio Rodriguez put the Mariners on the board in the third inning with a much-needed swing and result.

After walking in his first plate appearance against Bielak, Rodriguez sat on a 2-2 slider and pummeled it into populated area known as The ‘Pen. The solo blast had a 111-mph exit velocity and traveled 454 feet.

It was Rodriguez’s first homer since April 26 in Philadelphia. Since that last home run, he’d had 34 plate appearances with four hits, two walks and 11 strikeouts.

Seattle added another run in the third. Eugenio Suarez doubled with two outs and scored on Jose Abreu’s fielding error on Cal Raleigh’s hard groundball.

The Mariners made it 3-0 in the fifth inning. Jarred Kelenic led off with a hustle double off Bielak. With two outs and J.P. Crawford at the plate, lefty Matt Gage, who replaced Bielak, was charged with a balk, allowing Kelenic to jog home.