On May 14 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Mariners reliever Matt Brash was summoned from the bullpen in a tough spot. Teammate Gabe Speier exited in the seventh inning of a 3-3 game, leaving runners on first and second, just one out and the middle of the Tigers’ order due up. Brash got the second out of the inning, a warning-track fly ball from Javier Báez. Then it all went wrong.

Brash walked Spencer Torkelson on a 3-1 slider that wasn’t even close, loading the bases. The next batter, Nick Maton, took an 0-1 pitch to the leg to force in a run. Brash promptly walked Andy Ibáñez on four pitches before being pulled from the game. Final score: Tigers 5, Mariners 3.

Despite not being charged with an earned run -- both tallies were given to Speier -- it was a low point for Brash, who carried a 5.00 ERA off the mound that afternoon. But pretty much ever since then, things have been looking up.

Through Monday’s games, Brash’s ERA is down to 3.35. He has one of MLB’s highest strikeout rates. And he’s been dependable for a Seattle team aiming for an American League Wild Card spot -- all while leading the Majors in appearances.

Here’s what caused Brash’s early-season struggles, how he overcame them and what his resurgence means for a streaking Mariners club.

Elite stuff, spotty control

Name a Statcast pitching statistic, and the odds are pretty good Brash ranks among MLB’s elite. He’s not getting hit hard: He ranks in the 99th percentile in barrel rate and in expected slugging percentage. He misses bats: He ranks in the 98th percentile in whiff rate and in the 99th in simple strikeout rate, fanning 37.2% of batters in 2023 -- 84 of them in just 51 innings.

A top 100 prospect before his debut in 2022, Brash averages 98.0 mph on his four-seam fastball and has a nasty slider to go with it. Hitters whiff on nearly half their swings against Brash’s slider, and they’re batting just .184 with a .252 slugging percentage against the pitch.

But as can happen for pitchers with elite stuff, Brash struggled to control where his pitches were going. He issued 33 walks in 50 2/3 innings as a rookie last season, good for a 14.9 walk rate that ranked third highest in MLB among pitchers who threw 50 innings or more.

This year, in almost the exact same amount of innings as he totaled last year, Brash has cut his walk rate down by a third. But at 9.7 percent, it still ranks in the 30th percentile -- far from where Brash would prefer to be.

That wildness has hurt Brash in key moments this year. With Brash trying to protect a 3-1 lead in the ninth inning on April 9 against the Guardians in Cleveland, for example, a one-out walk to Josh Naylor proved crucial. 

After an Andrés Giménez single, Will Brennan crushed a tying two-run double off Brash with two outs in the ninth; Brash then uncorked a wild pitch to move Brennan to third and nearly end the game there. The Guardians walked it off in the 12th inning.

Tough luck early on

It’s not just walks that spelled trouble for Brash early in the 2023 season.

Some tough plays by the Mariners defense and some particularly poor batted-ball luck were also to blame. Take Brennan’s double, for example. While Brennan hit the ball hard at 98.4 mph, right fielder Teoscar Hernández had an 85 percent chance of making the catch, according to Statcast data. If he does, he keeps two earned runs and a key blown save off Brash’s line.

Alternatively, consider this chopper from Aledmys Díaz of the A’s against Brash on May 24. A softly hit ball at 82.8 mph, it skipped right under the glove of third baseman José Caballero to bring home a run -- and was scored a double.

As recently as Monday night, another play that could have been made hurt Brash. It would have been a tough play to get the out at home on a bunt by the Royals’ Dairon Blanco, but first baseman Dylan Moore misplayed the ball as Kansas City handed Brash and the Mariners a walk-off loss.

While the Mariners’ defense is seventh in MLB in Outs Above Average, some unfortunate plays have happened behind Brash. While starters Logan Gilbert (6 OAA) and George Kirby (4 OAA) have been the beneficiaries of strong defense, Brash is at a team-low -3 OAA.

Brash’s batted-ball luck hasn’t helped, either. Despite giving up just two barrels all season and ranking in the 77th percentile in hard-hit rate, Brash has been the victim of a sky-high BABIP. More than 40 percent of batted balls against him in 2023 have turned into hits, and that’s not normal.

Highest BABIP, min. 40 IP, 2023
1. Matt Brash, Mariners: .416
2-T. Dylan Floro, Twins: .398
2-T. Pierce Johnson, Braves: .398
4. Adam Wainwright, Cardinals: .396
5. Michael Grove, Dodgers: .378

There are plenty of examples of cheap hits against Brash in 2023, but this one from April 19 against the Brewers might be the most unfortunate. With two on and nobody out in the seventh inning, Brash got Brian Anderson to swing at a slider that dotted the corner, low and away. Anderson hit a weak fly ball to the left side at just 63.9 mph.

Brash pointed upward to signal a popup, but the ball dropped in shallow left field, over the head of shortstop J.P. Crawford. Instead of a big first out, Milwaukee had the bases loaded. The Brewers rallied for five runs in the seventh, taking the lead for good in a 5-3 win.

‘He’s not afraid’

Brash’s disastrous mid-May outing in Detroit was the low point of a season that soon turned around.

Brash lowered his ERA from an even 5.00 to a solid 3.94 by June 17 -- barely over a month. He struck out 22 batters in 11 2/3 innings in that span, walking just three. In July, Brash recorded holds in each of his first six outings -- all of them scoreless -- as Seattle won all six games. 

The Mariners had placed their trust in Brash in higher-leverage situations, and he had come through. No longer was he appearing in the fourth or fifth inning; Brash entered to pitch a hitless eighth in three of the six games in question.

Manager Scott Servais recently praised Brash’s ability to rebound from tough situations with the help of Seattle’s coaching staff.

“He's been able to simplify it,” Servais said. “Our pitching coaches have done a really good job of making sure when it starts to get awry or whatever you want to call it, gear it back in.”

On July 31, Brash’s bounce-back ability became especially important.

That day, the Mariners traded reliever Paul Sewald -- one of the top pitchers in MLB by expected wOBA -- to the D-backs for a three-player package. By default, Brash’s role in Seattle’s bullpen had significantly expanded. 

Given his recent success, the Mariners’ decision to trust Brash made sense. They’d also seen him shine on the postseason stage, pitching 3 1/3 scoreless innings with four strikeouts -- and zero walks -- across the 2022 AL Wild Card Series and ALDS.

“He is competitive as heck,” Servais said. “I mean, he's not afraid. We've seen him strike out the biggest hitters in the biggest moments, in playoff games and all the stuff he has done throughout the course of his career.”

The night Sewald was traded, Brash got four big outs in the seventh and eighth, earning credit for a win against the Red Sox. In his next six appearances in August, Brash’s stats were impressive: two wins, two holds, one save and zero runs allowed. Monday marked the first time Brash allowed a run since July 26.

Despite his blown save Monday, Brash has been a big reason why the Mariners are 9-4 since dealing Sewald, sitting just two games out of the third AL Wild Card spot. By all accounts, Brash has turned things around since his worrisome start to 2023. If he can keep it up, he will continue to reward the Mariners’ faith in him -- and play a big role in Seattle’s playoff chase.