Good, Bad, and Ugly: Poor Baseball Continues as Mariners Start Road Series With 5-4 Loss to Angels
Uh oh.
The Seattle Mariners have not played good baseball since their sweep of the San Diego Padres last month, and they got off to another poor start in this series with a 5-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Friday.
Per usual, let’s take a look at the good, bad, and ugly from Friday’s loss to the Halos in Anaheim:
Good: Julio Rodriguez bounce back
Simply put, Rodriguez played one of his worst games of the season in the loss to the Orioles on Thursday. At least offensively, anyway. He didn’t let that affect him Friday, as he went 2-for-4 with an RBI triple.
He also made this catch, and to be honest, even if he had gone hitless, he would qualify for a good game just for getting that baseball.
JULIOOOOOOOO 😯
Julio Rodríguez takes away a homer! pic.twitter.com/zaV28cbmGJ— MLB (@MLB) June 7, 2025
Rodriguez has not been as good with the bat as Mariner fans want. His OPS-plus of 111 makes him a slightly better than average hitter, but even his biggest proponents would note that there are still at-bats that make you wonder if he’ll ever reach that upper-echelon of offensive players. But when you combine that offense with upper-echelon defense and some of the best speed in the sport, you get a player who has “disappointingly” been one of the top players in baseball, ranking 25th in Wins Above Replacement according to FanGraphs.
Bad: Bryce Miller
Miller’s first three innings were fine. The rest? Not so much. He ended up allowing five runs over five innings in his second start off the injured list, and he gave up four of those runs over his final two frames.
Miller’s results would be disappointing regardless, but they’re especially so considering just how good Miller was in 2024, and in particular the second half. From the All-Star break on last season, he forged a 1.89 ERA, a .524 OPS allowed, and a K/BB of 73/16. He hasn’t come even close to repeating those numbers, and whether they’re related to injury or not, they’re still ugly.
It’s far from too late for Miller to turn things around, but nothing he’s shown in 2025 suggests he’s the same guy. At some point, you have to consider what’s best for this team in the short-term and what’s better for Miller in the long.
Good: Eduard Bazardo
I’ve seen a lot of Bazardo outings in my time. That’s partially because Dan Wilson is allergic to using him, and partly because the Mariners have had to use Bazardo so much because of bullpen injuries/ineffectiveness/both.
But I have not seen Bazardo look as good as he did Friday. He struck out four over two scoreless innings, and he was getting elite movement on his fastball while facing the heart of the Los Angeles lineup. It was a very encouraging outing, one that suggests that maybe, just maybe, Bazardo can be a high-leverage option someday.
Jackson Kowar fired a scoreless inning as well,, but needed that Rodriguez homer robbery to make that true. Still, the bullpen was good tonight after Miller was not.
Ugly: The Vibes
The vibes are bad, folks. And maybe that’s me overreacting or not getting a read on things. But this team doesn’t look like it’s having fun playing the game of baseball at all. And I’m not saying things should be; you’ve lost four straight to teams that are not as good as you (in my opinion).
One of the things that always impressed me about former Mariners manager Scott Servais, even when he made decisions that drove me bonkers, was that I never felt like the vibes were too bad until the very, very end. He clearly had lost the clubhouse by that point, but there was a reason Servais was there for as long as he was.
Dan Wilson, you gotta bring the vibes back, buddy. It won’t be easy, but it is your mission, should you choose to accept it.
