Bryce Miller has found himself on the wrong side of one of the strangest statistical records in Major League Baseball history, and it is a distinction that has not been seen in more than a century.
The Seattle Mariners recently endured a brutal stretch against two of the National League’s strongest clubs, the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs. Seattle managed to split the six games, going 3-3 overall, but two of those victories were overshadowed by historic blowout defeats. Miller happened to start both games.
The Mariners were demolished 22-0 by Milwaukee before suffering another lopsided 19-2 defeat against Chicago. Because Miller was the losing pitcher in both contests, he became part of an extraordinary piece of MLB history.
According to ESPN Insights, Miller became the first pitcher since George Van Haltren of the 1890 Brooklyn Wonders to lose consecutive starts in which his team was defeated by at least 17 runs. In other words, it took 136 years for another pitcher to find himself in the same remarkably unfortunate situation.
Miller’s individual performances were certainly not ideal, but the final scores were hardly entirely his responsibility. Against the Cubs, he surrendered six earned runs over 4.1 innings, while his outing against the Brewers ended with five earned runs allowed in 4.2 innings. However, Seattle’s bullpen gave up a significant portion of the damage in both games, turning difficult outings into historically lopsided losses.
The two defeats were especially painful for the Mariners because their offense provided virtually no support. Seattle was outscored 41-2 across the two games, meaning Miller and the pitching staff were left with almost no margin for error.
The historical comparison is equally bizarre. Van Haltren’s Brooklyn Wonders lost 22-4 to the Boston Reds on June 17, 1890, before being crushed 22-3 by the Chicago White Stockings exactly one week later. Although complete pitching statistics from those games are not available, Van Haltren is credited with being the losing pitcher in both contests.
That leaves Miller with an unwanted connection to a player from baseball’s earliest professional era. Both pitchers watched their teams surrender enormous run totals in consecutive starts, producing a statistical occurrence that had remained untouched for more than a century.
For Seattle, the bigger concern is that these games exposed serious problems beyond Miller. The Mariners’ pitching staff struggled to contain opposing offenses, while the lineup failed to generate enough offense to keep either contest competitive. One bad game can happen over a 162-game season, but consecutive historic blowouts are a much bigger warning sign.
Miller’s unusual record is therefore less a reflection of him alone and more an illustration of how quickly a baseball game can get out of control. Starting pitchers can be charged with the loss even when the bullpen and offense play major roles in the final result.
Still, the record will follow Miller. Losing consecutive starts by 17 or more runs is an extremely rare occurrence, and the fact that the previous example came all the way back in 1890 makes his recent stretch one of the most bizarre statistical chapters of the 2026 MLB season.
The Mariners will hope the two blowouts remain an isolated nightmare rather than the beginning of a larger problem. For Miller, meanwhile, the only consolation may be that his name is now attached to a piece of baseball history that few pitchers are ever likely to experience again.
Leave a Reply