Mariners create post-holiday traffic, carry home 2-1 win

Luis Castillo dazzles again, offense does just enough

Fresh on the heels of a commanding win at home on the Fourth of July, the Mariners followed that up with a less-commanding win that was still a win, edging out the Blue Jays and their legions of fans packed into T-Mobile Park 2-1. The Mariners didn’t score outside of in one inning, but they also never let Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman get comfortable, putting traffic on the bases constantly and ensuring the thousands of Blue Jays fans in attendance couldn’t take control of the momentum in the ballpark—which was backed up on the other end by Mariners starter Luis Castillo, who was excellent tonight.

“I kind of like [it],” said Luke Raley, history’s sweetest boy. “It’s fun to have fans of both teams here and kind of go back and forth with the cheering. It’s fun to play in that atmosphere.”

Castillo did his part to get the Mariners off to a strong start, dominating with thirteen pitches to strike out the side, including a strikeout of Vlad Guerrero Jr.—who had his 10-game on-base streak snapped tonight—where his bat levitated into the crowd (and found a Blue Jays fan wearing a Guerrero jersey, which is about the happiest end to that story that can be conceived).

Meanwhile, the Mariners put some pressure on Gausman early: in the first, with one out, Mitch Garver played a little croquet with Ernie Clement at third. Cal Raleigh followed with a base hit, but Julio struck out on a splitter, bringing up Luke Raley with two outs. Raley almost gave the Mariners an early lead, but Daulton Varsho—who is a center fielder playing left field—tracked down the ball at the warning track. The Blue Jays-slanted crowd really loved that, as did the cruelest of the BABIP gods: 105 mph off the bat, .860 xBA, a home run at 7/30 parks, but no joy for Raley and Mariners fans. Okay, here it is, just because it’s by definition not every day you see a catch with 5% catch probability, and Luke Raley probably should have had four RBI tonight and the Mariners, a much more comfortable win:

“I was confused,” said Raley, hearing the crowd holler after Varsho’s catch. “Like, I kind of kept running between second and third until the umpire made the out call.”

The Mariners kept the pressure on in the second and third, although with two outs; in the second, DMo singled off a splitter in a classic “not trying to do too much with it” and stole second to put another runner in scoring position, but Josh Rojas struck out to end the threat. In the third, Cal Raleigh walked with two outs, and Julio managed to beat out an infield hit despite an excellent play by Clement at third, atoning for his earlier mistake (and hat tip to Andy Bissell, the Mariners’ replay coordinator, for seeing this sliver of daylight between Spencer Horwitz’s foot and the bag). That brought up poor Luke Raley—and this time, Raley would not be denied.

If I were Kevin Gausman I would not have chosen to serve Luke Raley another fastball on the plate after he knocked the stuffing out of the last one I served up there, but I’m not mad about it. Also, let’s hear it one more time for Andy Bissell in the replay room, who found the one angle that showed that the first baseman’s foot came off the bag, setting up Raley’s big moment, which would become the turning point in the game.

After Castillo posted another scoreless frame in the fourth with another two strikeouts, working around a four-pitch leadoff walk, the Mariners fired up their two-out magic again, with Josh Rojas doubling on a splitter, working a seven-pitch plate appearance, followed by J.P. Crawford working a seven-pitch walk. Mitch Garver couldn’t deliver the KO, striking out swinging at 97 in on his hands, but the Mariners had pushed Gausman’s pitch count over 80 with some high-stress pitches.

Unfortunately, the Mariners couldn’t take advantage of a tiring Gausman in the fifth, going down in order on just 11 pitches even after Castillo had worked a quick-and-tidy top of the fifth (shoutout here to Cal Raleigh, who did hit a ball hard and with home run distance, but hooked it just foul before striking out). That brought Castillo right back to the mound, and after getting Clement to ground out on a nice play by Rojas, he lost both the shutout and his no-hitter on one pitch, letting a fastball leak into the heart of the plate for Kevin Kiermaier to pull over the right-field fence. A BABIP-fueled ground ball base hit from Spencer Horwitz in an 0-2 count threatened to tip the momentum to the Blue Jays, with a crowd of 34,493 that was likely 70% Blue Jays fans hungry for some runs, but Castillo extricated himself from the jam by getting Bichette to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Ty France immediately went to work on Gausman in the next inning, leading off with a single, but the Mariners again made two quick outs, putting Rojas in the spot of needing to get a clutch hit once again. Instead, he struck out, allowing Gausman to complete the sixth inning and saving the dreadful Blue Jays bullpen at least one inning of work.

Castillo got his first two outs in the seventh before walking pesky, pesky Dalton Varsho. Servais brought in Austin Voth to face Davis Schneider, who got spotted an automatic ball and still struck out, hopelessly flailing after a curveball. Castillo was apparently trying to plead his case with Servais to stay in, but as Servais said postgame, sometimes you have to be the adult in the room, as Castillo’s pitch count had climbed to a season-high 104 before issuing the walk. Castillo finished his day with just the one run, and two walks against eight strikeouts.

One thing that helped Castillo tonight: a new grip on his slider. Castillo’s slider was down over three ticks tonight, down to 79.9 - 84.1 as a range, and he was able to throw it for called strikes (7 of the 23 he threw), not including some check swings where the batter was ruled not to have swung. He also got a big, inning-ending strikeout on the pitch of Danny Jansen in the fourth. Even more importantly, the velocity difference created from the new grip has created some more separation between Castillo’s main three pitches: the new, slower slider; the harder changeup, and the even-harder fastball/sinker. The veteran made the change at the suggestion of pitching coach Pete Woodward, in whom Castillo says he has a lot of confidence.

The Mariners tried to get some breathing room in the bottom of the seventh against Nate Pearson, one of the Blue Jays’ better relievers: J.P. led off with a solid base hit and Cal hit a one-out single, but Julio flew out, getting just under a sinker. The Blue Jays brought in lefty Genesis Cabrera to face Luke Raley, who had done all of the damage in today’s game, and Servais countered by pinch-hitting Mitch Haniger, who we love but...has been on a real struggle bus this season. He struck out, for the Mariners’ twelfth strikeout of the night (they’d end with thirteen on the night. I do not like that I need to google AP style for 12th vs. twelfth in talking about strikeout numbers).

Handed a tissue-thin lead in the eighth, a phrase I’ve used way too many times this season, Ryne Stanek mowed through his assigned three hitters, including George Springer, pinch-hitting for Kiermaier, because it’s take out everybody who scored runs in today’s game o’clock, apparently.

The Mariners had one more chance to do some two-out magic in the eighth, when with two outs, Dylan Moore, Josh Rojas, and J.P. Crawford worked three consecutive walks off Zach Pop. That brought up Mitch Garver, who hit the first pitch he saw, a 98 mph sinker on the plate, but just a little too high, as it found its way into Daulton Varsho’s glove. With not-two-outs that could have been a much-needed insurance run. Stop procrastinating, Mariners!

So the Mariners once again had to turn to Andrés Muñoz to save the game, a sentence that feels truer than even on its surface level meaning. Facing the top of the order, Muñoz retired Horwitz, Bichette, and Guerrero Jr. on three straight groundouts, although with some help from Josh Rojas, who’s looking more and more like a Gold Glove candidate at third every day:

Postgame Servais said they’ve actually adjusted where Rojas plays, putting him more shallow, because of the tendency batters have to chop balls weakly over towards third base. Thanks to Rojas’s wizardry and Muñoz’s stuff, it brough a low-stress end to a game that had kept both fanbases on tenterhooks all night.

I would like to adopt Raley’s mindset of “I just hope everybody has fun,” but it would sure be nice if tomorrow there could be a little more breathing room for Mariners fans in a crowded stadium.