Marlins sink Mariners sweep attempt with 4-1 victory behind strong night from Eury Perez
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – After back-to-back offensive explosions from the Seattle Mariners, their bats flopped like a fish as they couldn’t complete a sweep of the Miami Marlins. 20-year-old phenom Eury Perez pitched an excellent game for Miami, holding Seattle at bay all night long and only allowing two hits on the night with only one walk against. With the winds a bit chillier tonight, balls weren’t carrying as well as the past two games, as Seattle had five potential homers die on the warning track. It’s a tough way to lose, the potential game-tying grand slam from Eugenio Suarez robbed by Marlins right fielder Jesus Sanchez after those other balls died at the track, but Seattle still takes the series win over a good Miami team. Racking those series wins up is a quick way to find yourself back on track.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo pitched 5.2 innings of 2 run ball, but gave up a career-high six walks (Photos by Chris Lu)
Not so rock solid
Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo didn’t necessarily have a bad night when you look at the box score, as La Piedra only gave up two runs off two hits, which should typically be fine in today’s game, if your offense produces. The two things to look at that were most noticeable from Castillo tonight were the six walks he gave up on 101 pitches, failing to finish the sixth inning. Those six walks are three-times more than the most he’s had in a single game this season (he’s walked two batters in seven games so far), and failing to get out of the inning while on 101 pitches isn’t spectacular either. Castillo gets hold to a different standard than say Marco Gonzales would, considering that he’s supposed to be the ace of this group. While this outing is on par with some of his better nights, Castillo must have better control of his stuff down this crucial stretch for the team.
The walks and high pitch count show exactly what was taking place throughout the course of the game: Castillo struggling with control, primarily on his normally wicked fastball. La Piedra can dot the corners and paint all around the zone, showing ace-level control despite what some on Twitter may tell you, but that was not the case throughout the course tonight. There were a few instances that displayed it throughout his 5.2 innings, including walking the first two batters, and a walk and wild pitch equaling the first run of the game in the third. While the strike zone tonight was a little bit here and there, Castillo’s control frustrated him, which is the biggest sign of not being fully honed.
After back to back days of offensive firepower, the Seattle Mariners bats went quiet in tonight’s loss (Photos by Chris Lu)
Offensive momentum halted
Before we get into the painful five balls that died at the warning track tonight, insert your marine layer comments here (Ty France believes in it), Seattle flat out must have more than two hits through the first seven innings of the ballgame to even be considered competitive. This goes exactly back to what has been an issue for the Mariners, and something that Scott Servais has honed upon: consistently having better nights offensively. That doesn’t necessarily mean slamming a ton of homers and hitting the ball hard all night, it means taking more quality plate appearances and getting on base, including walks. It was noted before, and I’ll include it here: some of Homeplate umpire Sean Barber’s calls at the plate were not great, including a bad called strike against Jarred Kelenic that turned a potential 3-1 pitch into a 2-2 pitch.
Taking that into consideration, you simply can’t lean back on bad calls as your lone excuse as to why you lost a ballgame. The Mariners registering only two hits through seven innings and four hits total won’t cut it, and only one walk on the day shows both impatience and poor plate vision. It’s a bit odd to see that sort of negative change in offensive presence, going from two big nights on the scoreboard where the team displayed such positive offensive awareness, to a disappointing and frustrating display, but it isn’t anything new to this year's team. They’ll absolutely take the series win over a Marlins team that has been good, but this loss shows areas that the Mariners need to be better in.
Seattle Mariners third baseman Eugenio Suarez has a potential game-tying grand slam robbed at the wall by Miami Marlins right fielder Jesus Sanchez (Photos by Chris Lu)
Quick notes
The Mariners dropped the final game of the series 4-1 tonight.
Seattle still won the series against Miami last night to move its series record to 9-12-1.
Despite the loss, Seattle is 9-4 over its last 13 games at T-Mobile Park.
Teoscar Hernández’s went 1-for-4 tonight and made it on base twice… his double in the 4th inning was the Mariners first hit of the night.
In June, Hernández is batting .359 with 5 runs, 14 hits, 2 home runs, 8 RBI, 5 walks, with a 1.074 OPS.
Cal Raleigh went 2-for-3 with a double and a base hit that advanced on an error.
He was left on second base twice tonight.
Raleigh broke a 6-game hitting drought last night with a 3-RBI home run… yesterday and tonight’s game are his first back-to-back games with hits this month (last: 5/30 & 5/31).
Ty France went 1-for-4 with a single… he scored the Mariners only run of the game in the 9th inning.
In 5.2 innings, starting pitcher Luis Castillo allowed 2 hits, 2 runs (2 earned runs), 1 home run, 1 wild pitch, 6 strikeouts, and 6 walks.
Castillo’s 6 walked batters tied his career-high… he also walked 6 on 7/11/21 and 6/17/19 − both times with the Cincinnati Reds.
Before tonight, he had not walked more than 2 batters through 13 starts in 2023.
He tossed 101 pitches and 56 strikes.
The Mariners bullpen (Matt Brash, Andrés Muñoz, Justin Topa, and Paul Sewald) combined for 3.1 innings.
Topa allowed 3 hits and 2 runs (2 earned) in 1 IP.
Brash recorded 2 strikeouts across 19 pitches and 12 strikes thrown.
In 28 appearances this season, Sewald is 2-0 and 12-for-13 in save opportunities with a 2.63 ERA (8 ER, 27.1 IP) with 9 walks and 38 strikeouts.
Eugenio Suárez drove in Seattle’s lone run of the game with a sacrifice fly in the 9th inning.
Geno had flyouts of 386, 385 and 372 feet tonight…he became the 7th player of the Statcast era (since 2015) with three 372+ foot outs in a game…he became the second Mariners player to do it, joining Dylan Moore on Sept. 5, 2021 at Arizona.
Miami’s Eury Perez drew a pitch timer violation (pitcher) during the 2nd inning.
The Miami Marlins avoided being swept with their win tonight (Photos by Chris Lu)
What’s next?
Following the series win against these Marlins, Seattle gets a day off in the middle of their six-game homestand before the Chicago White Sox come into town for a three-game slate. The White Sox have largely struggled so far this season, sitting at 30-39 which is still good enough for the third-place spot in the AL Central division. The Mariners will look to keep momentum rolling when Chicago comes into town for that three-game slate that begins on Friday, June 16th, with a first pitch time of 7:10PM PST. Seattle will have young starter Bryan Woo on the mound, coming off his solid outing against the Angels, dueling against Michael Kopech of the White Sox.