SEATTLE -- Randy Vásquez started it. Mason Miller finished it.
And when those two things happen on a given night, the Padres feel pretty good.
The equation has worked nearly perfectly this season, and helped San Diego jump out to an early lead in the division standings. Friday night at T-Mobile Park, it did the trick once again, as the Padres rode six scoreless innings from Vásquez and a four-out save from Miller to take a 2-0 win over the Mariners to open their three-game set in the Pacific Northwest.
The Padres improved to 8-1 in Vásquez’s starts, while Miller stayed perfect on the season with his MLB-leading 14th save.
For Vásquez, it was the same old stability that Craig Stammen and his staff have come to expect. For Miller, it was a bit more drama than normal with 34 total pitches -- his most in a game since Sept. 1, 2024.
For the second time this week, the Padres asked their closer to get four outs, plugging him into a two-on, two-out situation in the eighth inning.
“We’re playing a ton of close games, so it’s just answering the bell,” Miller said.
And Miller’s night didn’t exactly begin normally; Randy Arozarena chucked his bat at a 2-2 slider nowhere near the zone, somehow made contact and ended up on first base with an infield single to load the bases.
With the tying run in scoring position, Miller worked into a full count against Connor Joe before freezing him with a slider to end the frame. That put Miller back in the dugout with 12 pitches under his belt -- already the total of a quarter of his outings this season -- and another three outs to get.
“He’s as tough a guy as we’ve got, physically and mentally,” Stammen said. “I think that’s why he’s as great as he is, too. He’s able to not only be at the top of his game physically, but he can handle anything that’s thrown at him.”
The ninth wasn’t a breeze, either, with a leadoff walk and a one-out single putting the tying run right back on base. But with his pitch count rising and Jeremiah Estrada warming in the bullpen, Miller breezed past Mitch Garver on three straight sliders, then set Brendan Donovan up with three 100-plus mph fastballs before leaving him completely lost on one last back-footer.
“I guess we’ll never know. I don’t know if I’d decided yet,” Stammen said, when asked how much longer Miller’s leash would have been. “Definitely, you want to preserve him for the whole season, and yet you want to win the game in the moment.”
Last season, Miller worked more than one inning just once before the calendar flipped to June. This year, he’s done so three times already.
“Arguably the best pitcher in Major League Baseball right now, and it’s nice to have him on our side and bring him in in those type of situations,” Stammen said. “And to be able to depend on him in the ninth to go back out there and get the job done.”
Miller’s outing ended the equation. Vásquez started it. The right-hander went six scoreless innings, posting his fourth quality start of the season, with three strikeouts and no walks.
Vásquez’s fastball -- which has seen a jump in velocity this season -- was even faster on a cold night in Seattle, with all three of his heaters above their season average. That set up his deep bag of secondaries -- every single one of his seven pitches, save his changeup, got at least one swing-and-miss on the night.
“I felt like I was in control,” Vásquez said through translator Jorge Merlos. “I felt like I was able to execute all the pitches we talked about during our meeting, like it was all there.”
That set the stage for just enough offense -- one run in the fourth and another in the seventh -- to be sufficient for the bullpen to take it home and turn another Vásquez start into a win, which has just about become a given in San Diego at this point.
“You can’t always put a finger on it when a team wins behind a certain pitcher,” Stammen said. “You say, ‘Well, he must be nice to everyone in the clubhouse.’ And Randy is; we love having Randy, he puts a smile on everybody’s faces. The music he plays pregame is different than everybody else’s, and he plays it a little louder than everybody else. Maybe that’s the key.”
“It’s a lot of Dembow,” Vásquez clarified, when asked about the playlist in question. “Dembow is what we play in here. That’s the one that gets everything started, and just go crazy in here.”