Pitch angry: Juan Nicasio turned it up a few notches in Mariners' bullpen bounce-back

That was not the same Juan Nicasio.

“Juan looked angry out there tonight.” Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais said following their 4-1 win against the Oakland Athletics on Thursday. “I think he wasn’t really happy with the way things went last night.”

Nicasio had allowed a game-tying home run in the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s loss.

He was more crushed for James Paxton, who struck out 16 batters and allowed no runs in seven innings. That’s the most strikeouts by a pitcher this year and the most ever by a Canadian-born pitcher.

So then Nicasio struck out the side in the eighth inning in Thursday’s win, touching 97 mph on a couple of pitches.

Keep in mind, Nicasio had averaged about 93 mph on his fastball entering the game and was once barely hitting 91 when his arm was feeling stiff against the Texas Rangers last month.

“I got a little adrenaline after what happened last night,” Nicasio said. “Pax threw an unbelievable game and I threw seven good pitches and two bad ones cost us the game. I was feeling bad for my teammates.

“Today I said, ‘Forget about that game. Today is a new day and I tried to do my job. But I had a lot of adrenaline.”

It’s the first time he’d touched 97 mph in a game this season. And he earned his 12th hold of the year, which is the most in the major leagues.

He and closer Edwin Diaz had been the two best relievers in the game and they finally had a hiccup in Wednesday’s 3-2 loss. Diaz earned the loss after Mark Canha hit the go-ahead home run against him in the ninth.

But Nicasio said he had a conversation with Diaz after the game, telling him to flush it.

“He just told me that can happen,” Diaz said. “That will happen and we have to bounce back and be ready for the next game.”

So they played catch before Thursday’s game. Nicasio said he was feeling it.

“He told me when we were playing catch that if he didn’t throw 97 today he would retire,” Diaz laughed. “And he threw it in the game and I told him, ‘You can’t retire now.’”

“I was feeling my arm today. I was saying that because I was feeling strong,” Nicasio said.

And the Mariners’ bullpen allowed one run in the final five innings to close out the win, starting with Chasen Bradford, who pitched 2 1/3 innings and worked around a first-pitch home run from Stephen Piscotty. James Pazos, Nicasio and Diaz closed it out.

The Mariners had been 13-0 when their bullpen had inherited a lead before Wednesday.

Any doubt it would bounce back on Thursday, especially Nicasio and Diaz?

“Not at all,” Servais said. “I went up to them in the outfield like I always do every day, checking in on them and you could tell right away they both wanted it in the game tonight. They were ready from the get-go.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2018 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Pitch angry: Juan Nicasio turned it up a few notches in Mariners' bullpen bounce-back."