4/16/25

(Cincinnati, OH) A hot start in the opener quickly faded for the Seattle Mariners as they had their four-game winning streak snapped by the Cincinnati Reds. Of course, in baseball you have to have a short-term memory and the M’s looked to have just that when the two teams met in game two on Wednesday evening.

Seattle reshuffled their rotation to avoid using the currently vacated #5 spot in the rotation until the series in Toronto this weekend. That meant that Bryce Miller would take the ball for his fourth start of the season, still looking for his first win. For the Reds, Nick Martinez would attempt to right the ship after getting roughed up early on in 2025.

Mariners 5, Reds 3 (Game 2, April 16th)

Just like in the opener, Seattle came out aggressive as Julio Rodríguez smoked the first pitch with an exit velocity of 109.3 mph on the ground to Elly De La Cruz. The Reds shortstop booted it for an error, putting a man on immediately. J-Rod moved up to second on a wild pitch but remained there with two outs. Randy Arozarena came to the plate and jumped on a first pitch sinker, sending it off the top of the wall in left field. Despite missing a two-run home run by just inches, Arozarena still made his way to second with his fifth double of the season. Julio scored to once again give the Mariners a 1st inning lead, 1-0.

That lead began to grow just an inning later. In the top of the 2nd, Dylan Moore stayed red hot with his first double of the season to put a runner in scoring position with one out. Ben Williamson came to the plate and continued to check things off the list of his MLB firsts. Williamson parachuted one into right center that dropped for a base hit. Moore got a great read off the bat and came in to score easily, doubling the lead at 2-0.

Bryce Miller was rolling on the mound as he retired the first eight batters that he faced in the game. Jose Trevino ended that run with his third double of the season, putting a man on second with two outs. TJ Friedl came to the plate and sent a line drive to right field for another two out base hit. Luke Raley came up throwing as Trevino rounded third and Raley delivered a strike to the plate. Cal Raleigh laid down the tag to cut down Trevino and preserve the shutout to end the inning.

Seattle continued to pull away little by little. Dylan Moore singled again and stole second with one out. Ben Williamson moved him up to third with a groundout for the second out. J.P. Crawford then found himself in a 1-2 hole before getting jammed with a fastball. Crawford was able to muscle it out to right field for a two-out RBI single to make it 3-0.

Bryce Miller picked off Elly De La Cruz to keep the shutout alive. Cal Raleigh then flexed his muscles in the 5th. A first pitch cutter at the top of the zone was not missed by the Mariner catcher as he crushed his sixth home run of the season out to right center. Sitting on 99 career home runs, Cal made sure to make this a special night. In the 7th, from the right side of the plate this time, Cal took advantage of a hanging sweeper, lacing his 100th career home run out to left. Raleigh became the second fastest to 100 career home runs in Mariners history behind only Alex Rodriguez. It was the fourth time in his career that Raleigh homered from both sides of the plate as the power hitting catcher made it 5-0 Mariners.

After a struggle to start the season, Bryce Miller put things together this time out. Miller attacked the zone and only walked two batters in his five innings of work. Miller was still pulled after five and only 78 pitches due to some soreness issues after his previous starts. Miller was all smiles in the dugout as his final line read five scoreless innings with three hits and two walks allowed while striking out eight. Miller has continued to get better with each start and his best start so far in 2025 came in Cincinnati.

Troy Taylor made his season debut in the bottom of the 7th and things went real bad real quick. Singles by Gavin Lux and Spencer Steer put a couple of runners on immediately. Christian Encarnacion-Strand then sent a double down into the left field corner for his second double of the season. Lux and Steer scored to get Cincinnati on the board, trailing 5-2. Carlos Vargas then came in for Taylor and got a strikeout of Jake Fraley. Jose Trevino then got the Reds closer with a base hit to right, making it 5-3. TJ Friedl singled to put runners on the corners but Matt McLain hit into a 4-3 double play to end the inning and keep the Mariners up 5-3.

Seattle caught a break in the bottom of the 8th as a batters interference turned into a double play to negate an Elly De La Cruz stolen base. That sent the game to the 9th and brought in Andrés Muñoz to close things out. Muñoz got Spencer Steer to groundout and Christian Encarnacion-Strand to pop out for two quick outs. Jake Fraley didn’t fare much better as he grounded out to Crawford at short to end the game. Seattle survived the Reds late rally to earn a 5-3 win to force a rubber game on Thursday.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Reds

• Christian Encarnacion-Strand- 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI, R
• Jose Trevino- 2-3, 2B, RBI
• Nick Martinez (L, 0-3)- 4.2 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO

What’s Next

With the Mariners win on Wednesday, both Seattle and Cincinnati will enter the rubber game of the three-game series with identical records at 9-9. One team will make it three consecutive series wins and it will be a great pitching matchup to finish the series. After the Mariners reshuffled their rotation, Bryan Woo (2-0, 2.84 ERA) will take the mound in the hitters friendly Great American Ball Park. Woo is coming off his best start of the season when he got out of early trouble to go seven innings of one run ball against Texas on Saturday. Seattle will face one of the newest pitchers in the Reds rotation as Brady Singer (3-0, 3.18 ERA) takes the ball in the finale. Singer has only allowed 12 total hits in his first three starts with the Reds and nine of those came in one start against Milwaukee. Cincinnati has won all three games started by Singer. First pitch will be early on the West Coast as the game will get going at 9:40am Thursday morning.

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