7/9/26

(Miami, FL) After a couple of massive flops to start the series, the Seattle Mariners were hoping to at least steal one game in their three-game series with the Miami Marlins. A lack of hitting with runners on base has been a big problem for the Mariners, not just in this series but pretty much the entire season. That issue had been magnified on the road so someone would need to be the stopper to right that ship.

Seattle would have the right guy on the mound to put an end to this skid as Bryce Miller took the ball for Seattle in the finale. A very reliable arm since coming of the IL in May, Miller would hope that we would need minimal run support to earn the win. For Miami, they would see the return of Federal Way native Janson Junk, who made his first start since late May in his return from the IL against his childhood team.

Marlins 8, Mariners 4 (Game Three, July 9th)

Jansen Junk did not have a great feel coming out of the gate and walked J.P. Crawford and Randy Arozarena to begin the ballgame. Dominic Canzone’s chopper up the middle turned into a double play on a nice turn by Otto Lopez which calmed down the threat with Crawford at third with two outs. Cal Raleigh would go down on strikes as Seattle squandered on opportunity which had been a common theme all series long with another runner left in scoring position

Bryce Miller had his own 1st inning issues with a walk and his own error but got a couple of fly outs to escape early damage. Finally after 19 innings of bad baseball and bad luck, the M’s caught a break. In the top of the 2nd, Josh Naylor got jammed on a little pop-up on the left side of the infield. It somehow dropped between Otto Lopez and Leo Jiménez for an infield hit. After Luke Raley struck out, Naylor swiped second for his 17th stolen base of the season. Naylor got caught with his hand in the cookie jar as he broke for third, but Junk’s throw to third was way high. The error allowed Naylor to end up scoring without a ball leaving the infield to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead.

The good luck and the lead lasted for just half of an inning for Seattle. Leading off the bottom of the 2nd, Griffin Conine launched his fourth home run of the season to right field to tie the game up. Two batters later, Jakob Marsee singled to left to put the go-ahead run on. After a fly out to Luke Raley in right for the second out, Bryce Miller got some bad luck. A chopper by Liam Hicks stayed just fair down the right field line and into the corner. Marsee scored all the way from first on Hicks’ ninth double of the season as Miami had taken a 2-1 lead.

Things completely fell apart for the Mariners and Miller in the bottom of the 4th. It all started with a one-out walk to Jakob Marsee which was followed by a single for Leo Jiménez to put two on. A grounder that looked to be an inning ending double play to Josh Naylor at first turned into nothing as Colt Emerson pulled his foot at second before making a second error on the return throw to first. Otto Lopez dealt the big blow with a two-run triple to left for his sixth triple of the season before scoring on a single by Kyle Stowers. In the blink of an eye, Seattle had gone from a tight game to trailing 6-1.

The M’s got one back in the 5th on Randy Arozarena’s 10th home run of the season. Miami got to Michael Rucker in the 7th to open it back up with an RBI by both Jakob Marsee and Leo Jiménez. Dominic Canzone mashed a two-run bomb in the 8th for his 15th of the season, but the deficit was too much to overcome. Seattle went 2-25 with runners in scoring position in the series and left 23 men on base as they were emphatically swept with an 8-4 loss in the finale.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Marlins

• Griffin Conine- 3-4, 2B, HR, RBI, 2 R
• Otto Lopez- 1-3, 3B, 2 RBI, R, 2 BB
• Janson Junk (W 4-5)- 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 SO

What’s Next

Seattle (47-47) falls right back to .500 as their road woes continue to really prevent the team from taking off. They are 20-27 on the road which is the second worst road record for a team .500 or better this season. To make matters worse, Texas won their finale against the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday so Seattle falls behind the Rangers by half of a game in the AL West. Houston is two back while the A’s lost their sixth consecutive game to drop to six games back. The first half wraps up with the Rangers hosting the Astros for three while the Angels visit the Twins and the A’s take on the White Sox.

For the Mariners, things don’t get easier as they will wrap up the first half with a three-game series with the Tampa Bay Rays. Holding the best record in the American League, Tampa Bay (54-37) has once again had one of these seasons where they completely overperform and become an American League contender out of nowhere. They turned a dominant reliever in Griffin Jax into a dominant starter while Yandy Díaz, Junior Caminero, and Jonathan Aranda carry the offense that has plenty of speed with veteran Cedric Mullins and the electric youngster in Chandler Simpson. The Rays returned to Tropicana Field after playing at Steinbrenner Field last season after Hurricane Milton destroyed the Trop’s roof in 2024.

There are obvious candidates for AL MVP. Aaron Judge is always in the mix no matter how many games he misses due to injuries while his teammates Ben Rice competes with Yordan Alvarez and Nick Kurtz as well. However, what Junior Caminero has done in 2026 is incredible and he is right there in that race for the MVP. He is tied for fourth in baseball in home runs with 27 while driving in 57. His OPS is up to .913 which is 9th in all of baseball. At just 23-years-old the best years are likely still ahead of Junior which makes him likely the face of the franchise for at least the next decade.

• Game One, Friday 4:10pm- Luis Castillo (3-7, 4.79 ERA) vs. Nick Martinez (7-2, 2.61 ERA)
• Game Two, Saturday 1:10pm- Logan Gilbert (7-5, 3.19 ERA) vs. Griffin Jax (4-6, 3.60 ERA)
• Game Three, Sunday 10:40am- Emerson Hancock (6-4, 3.23 ERA) vs. Ian Seymour (6-1, 4.11 ERA)

elisportsnetwork.com