Mariners comeback bid ends in frustration as missed strike call and odd plays spoil City Connect debut
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – It was a big game feel on Friday inside of T-Mobile Park as the Seattle Mariners were holding their on-field debut of their first ever City Connect jerseys against their division rival, the Houston Astros. All the necessary aspects were in play for an electric game, but things went in Houston’s favor through the first four innings as the Astros got a big three-run homer from Yordan Alvarez off Seattle starter Luis Castillo to take an early lead. The Mariners were able to get right back into the battle as second baseman Kolten Wong came through with a bases-loaded clearing double, but things got bizarre in the final inning. A blown call on a would-be third strike gave way to a Kyle Tucker go-ahead homer, and Seattle had base running trouble in the bottom of the ninth to snap their four-game win streak.
The Seattle Mariners debuted their City Connect jerseys, with the pregame festivities (including anthem performer Nikhil Bagga, group first pitch thrower Mark A. Bragg, and ceremonial first pitcher Harold Reynolds all wearing the jersey) being decked out too (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Castillo deals with rocky third inning to have an otherwise solid day
Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo has been excellent in his starts at T-Mobile Park during his career, and the second player ranked by WAR (Wins above replacement, effectively measuring how valuable a player is to his team as compared to an average player) on Seattle’s roster. Coming off an okay outing in Toronto against the Blue Jays, La Piedra was able to get through the first two innings clean as he only allowed a single to Kyle Tucker. Trouble arose in the third inning when Astros center fielder Jake Meyers belted a leadoff double, but seemed fine as Castillo retired the next two batters. With two outs, Alex Bregman drew a walk to put runners on the corners and that brought up slugger Yordan Alvarez, who again terrorized Seattle fans with a three-run homer to center field. After putting a changeup on the bottom of the zone, Castillo threw another changeup that didn’t land where it was supposed to and sat in the middle quadrant. Alvarez swung his big bat, and once again the Mariners were in a hole against their rivals.
“I never say there’s a difficult team. I always say you just got to learn from your mistakes. There was one bad pitch that I left there, and that’s what earned the first three runs. But after that, I was able to adjust myself, attack the zone, and I was able to make it clean to the 7th inning.”
Outside of the three-run homer to Alvarez, Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo pitched well (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Kolten says Aloha to give Seattle a fighting chance
Following the three-run blast by Alvarez in the third, Houston was able to tack on a fourth run in the next inning as Kyle Tucker was driven in after his leadoff double, furthering Seattle’s uphill climb. Considering that Astros starting pitcher Cristian Javier had held the Mariners hitless through four innings with only one base runner, a Ty France walk, things were not looking good for Seattle. It seemed that just as they have for the majority of this season, the Mariners were able to find a response burst of offense to pull them back into the game. A leadoff single by Cal Raleigh broke up Javier’s no hitter, and Seattle was off and running from there.
Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh recorded the first hit of the day for his team (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Right fielder Teoscar Hernandez barely dropped a single into right field, chasing a slider that would’ve gotten him for a strike but Hernandez got just enough bat onto it to bloop it into the outfield. JP Crawford struck out in four pitches to get two outs, and while Taylor Trammell drew a walk after, it seemed like Seattle might fail once again with runners in scoring position. To the plate came second baseman Kolten Wong, who’s been heavily criticized for a slow start to the season but had seen success in the past ten games. That success continued as Wong belted a double right the right-center gap to clear the bases and bring the Mariners within a run. A big moment in his new career with Seattle, and Wong was able to keep things going in the right direction at the plate. While runs had been scored in three consecutive innings by the two teams, things went quiet for the next few frames as Castillo and Javier locked back in.
“I think it’s been coming for a minute now. Had a pretty decent trip, starting to find some base hits. It was just a big situation. It kind of got down too quick and we were down four nothing at a time, so it was a big situation, big swing of events. So I definitely got a little excited, for sure.”
The three Mariners involved in the teams run to tie the game in the 8th: Jarred Kelenic stands at second after Eugenio Suarez’s double, Ty France celebrates being the tying run in the dugout, and Eugenio Suarez celebrates that RBI-Single (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Geno gets the Mariners back even
With his team down a run and an opportunity afoot, Seattle third baseman Eugenio Suarez was able to come up in a big moment for the Mariners. With his team still down by a run, it was looking like Seattle was going to go down once again in order as Wong and Julio Rodriguez had gone down in a strikeout and groundout, respectively. Ty France fought back with a single to right field, and Jarred Kelenic did the same to push France to third and put runners on the corners. Eugenio came to the plate, having gone 0-3 on the day to that point, and broke through with an RBI-Single into right field to score France easily from third. Suarez, one of a few players who are nearly strikeout or bust in this Mariners lineup, came through in the clutch to tie this game up in the eighth.
Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez watches the ball sail over the outfield fence on Kyle Tucker’s home run to give Houston the lead (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Missed call looms large as Astros take advantage
With all the momentum looking like it was on the side of Seattle, there was a buzz inside of T-Mobile Park as all those elements I mentioned in the beginning were amplified by the team's comeback effort. Despite going down early to the same old Astros that seemed to be re-establishing dominance, coming off the bottom of the eighth where Suarez tied things up, the Mariners came into the top of the ninth riding high and ready to get a big victory over Houston. Seattle reliever Matt Brash entered the game, and given his recent streak of outings, it looked like he’d be able to get the Mariners to the bottom of the ninth to seal things. That wouldn’t be the case, and that ninth inning was about as Seattle baseball as it could’ve been.
Seattle Mariners reliever Matt Brash couldn’t keep the score at 4-4 (Photo by Mathew Bermudez)
Brash walked Jose Abreu to lead off the inning on five pitches, the four balls being far off all in different directions. That brought up Kyle Tucker, and while Brash mostly kept his pitches inside, but with his seventh pitch he went to the outside of the plate and was able to throw a slider that was a strike on the outside third. Home plate umpire Shane Livensparger called it ball three, bringing it to a full count. Forced to now throw a strike, Brash had a slider land on the lower quadrant of the zone, and Tucker blasted it to deep center field to retake the lead for the Astros. Brash got the next two outs but then allowed a single to Jake Meyers, and Tayler Saucedo had to come in to get the final out.
The air had been let out of the building when that Tucker homer flew over Seattle center fielder Julio Rodriguez and landed in front of the batter's eye in dead center, but the Mariners offense wasn’t going to go away immediately. The shenanigans continued when Teoscar Hernandez lined a single into center field and Astros center fielder Jake Meyers did a spin to throw to second. Hernandez seemed to believe he had a chance at making it to second base, hesitating before running towards the bag and almost getting under the tag but upon review was ruled out. With that base runner off the paths, JP Crawford singled and stayed at first to keep hope alive with one out. Then, in the most Mariner way to end the ballgame, Taylor Trammell grounded out to Houston first baseman Jose Abreu, catching JP Crawford in a pickle to end the game and deal Seattle the loss.
“Maybe, yeah. I mean, it’s May and that’s one of the things. It’s like April is always kind of the month of the pitcher. They kind of have that advantage, I would say. But, man, it’s tough. This league is tough when you got guys throwing 100 and that’s their secondary pitch. It’s hard to sit slider when the guy is throwing 100 miles an hour. So it’s just one of those things. We’re constantly building up ourselves. We’re constantly, like I say, stacking bricks and this seems good, man. We understand what we can do. We’re just finding our rhythm, that’s all. Once we find our rhythm, we can roll.”
Things went downhill for the Mariners as soon as the ninth inning started, and they drop the first game of the series to the Astros (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Quick notes
The Mariners 6-4 loss moves them to 6-5 in series openers this season.
Despite the loss, Seattle has won 4 of its last 5 games.
Seattle is now 72-119 All-Time against Houston (33-57 at home).
Kolten Wong’s 3-run double in the 5th inning, which opened Seattle’s scoring, extended his hitting streak to 4 games (4/29-c).
In his last 7 games (4/23-c) he is batting .435 with 2 runs, 2 doubles, 5 RBI, and 2 walks with a 1.002 OPS.
Cal Raleigh scored on Wong’s double after snagging Seattle’s first hit of the night, a ground-ball single to right field.
Raleigh went 1-for-3 tonight.
Eugenio Suárez tied the game in the 8th inning with a single that scored Ty France… it was his 19th RBI of the season.
France had gotten on base with his first hit of the night, a single to right field… the first basement reached base twice tonight with a walk and a single.
Luis Castillo pitched 7.0 innings for the 2nd time this season (last 4/16)…he allowed 5 hits, 4 runs (4 earned), 1 home run, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts.
He threw 96 pitches and 70 strikes in his 10th career start at T-Mobile Park.
The Mariners bullpen combined for 3.0 innings
Matt Brash allowed a home run for the first time this season…it snapped a streak of 52 games (49.1 IP) without allowing a home run dating back to last season.
His homerless streak was the 4th-longest active streak in the Majors.
It was Brash’s first home run allowed since April 29, 2022 at Miami (Jorge Soler).
What’s next?
Seattle unfortunately falls in their City Connect on-field debut and the first game of this series against the big-bad divisional rival Houston. Game two of this series takes place tomorrow, Saturday May 6th with a first pitch time of 6:40PM PST. The first 10,000 fans into the ballpark will receive “Electric Factory” inspired sunglasses as the Mariners will look to bounce back from today’s loss and potentially set up a rubber match against the Astros with Sunday’s matchup. Seattle will have starter Marco Gonzales on the mound, who’s looking to rebound from his last outing that saw him surrender eight runs in three innings against the Toronto Blue Jays. Houston will have JP France on the mound, who will be making his MLB debut.