The Mariners amazingly performed some late-inning magic en way to a 2-1 walk-off victory over the Braves on Monday at T-Mobile Park. On a night when Bryce Miller flirted with perfection, then his teammates appeared like the ones who’d be no-hit.

Just after Jorge Polanco singled to start the game, Mitch Garver belted a 412-foot two-run home run off reliever A.J. Minter in the bottom of the ninth inning. That night, the Mariners were hitless going into the eighth, blew a bases-loaded opportunity in the inning, and appeared to be headed for a crushing defeat.

Miller withdrew to the training room when Garver took the field, but he quickly returned to join the crowd in celebrating the veteran’s first walk-off home run in his 12-year professional career, which included the Minors.

Miller stated, “I was doing arm care and had to run out there,” “And I threw my phone across the locker room so I wouldn’t have it, and ran out there and everybody’s fired up. So we had fun.”

Miller had a fantastic start, and Garver’s heroics kept him there. The Mariners are producing gems custom with this rotation.

After retiring the first 16 Braves he saw, Ronald Acuña Jr. broke up the no-hit bid with an infield single that took shortstop Dylan Moore’s glove off in the sixth inning. Subsequently, the defending National League MVP unleashed a barrage of hits on the basepaths, stealing second and then third base before scoring on a double by Ozzie Albies that cleared the wall in right center.

With the bases loaded in the eighth inning and Julio Rodríguez flying out too shallow for a sacrifice fly, the Mariners appeared to have Julio Rodríguez swing at strike three in the dirt, setting up a series opener between the top-seeded teams of Atlanta and Seattle that would decide the outcome.

However, in their second walk-off victory of the season, the Mariners ultimately had the last word.

“It was really a relief that the game was over,” Garver remarked. “I mean, we had an opportunity. We had plenty of opportunities to score in that game.”

To keep the game close, however, relievers Cody Bolton and Austin Voth combined to give up only one hit and record four strikeouts, pushing the Braves’ strikeout total to a season-high tying 14. Miller’s tally of 10 was a career high.

Miller stated, “I’m at my best when I attack with the heater,” “and then they have to adjust to the other stuff. … If it’s working early, we’re going to keep going with it and try to adjust as the game goes. But you could tell early it was working, so we stuck with it.”

Over the last three weeks, Seattle’s rotation has produced a plethora of outstanding performances; Miller’s gem is the team’s 18th consecutive excellent start, which leads the American League. The Giants are the only team in MLB with four pitchers with at least three quality starts, while the Mariners have only employed five starters. When that is accomplished by its starter, Seattle went on to win 15-3.

He outlasted Max Fried, who the Braves were behind 5-0 going into play and who pitched hitless through the sixth until reaching 100 pitches. Following Albies’ breakthrough, he pounded through the core of Atlanta’s order for three straight outs. After using his go-to pitch, a four-seam fastball, throughout his entire repertoire, he threw six strikeouts and 15 whiffs against a lineup that had defeated opponents 67-to-37 (+30 run differential) in their prior 13 games.

Additionally, Miller completed a game that he had not played in four innings due to a difficult start against Texas.

Regarding the Braves, Mariners manager Scott Servais stated, “They know that the heater is coming.” “And as a hitter, when you go up there and you know the guy is challenging you with the fastball, you’re going to be swinging — because everybody believes they can hit the fastball, otherwise they wouldn’t be in this league.”

Even if Seattle’s offense appeared to be more of the squad that struggled in its first two weeks than the one that has recently found life, players like Miller and the rest of the rotation demonstrate that the team’s starters should be able to keep them in every game, even when they are forced to walk off the field.