Mariners offense tries to survive on homers, proves unsustainable in 6-3 loss to Twins
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – In a second straight disappointing offensive night amongst many this 2023 season at the plate, the Seattle Mariners once again failed to generate enough on the offensive end as they dropped game three of their four game set against the Minnesota Twins. Seattle’s offensive attack continues to look feeble as they made Minnesota starter Kenta Maeda look stellar in his second outing of the second half, after he only went three innings just five days ago. Mariners starter Luis Castillo had a confusing outing, striking out a season-high eleven batters but giving up three runs, with two home runs against. A homestand that looked promising towards the Mariners playoff chances, considering the momentum that had been generated prior to the All-Star break, is becoming a nightmare scenario where Seattle slips further and further.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo went six innings strong of three-run ball in this game (Photos by Sage Zipeto)
Castillo’s confusing outing
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo, making his second start of the second half, had a somewhat puzzling performance. The All-Star right-hander struck out eleven Twins batters, a season-high, but allowed two homers in the six-inning outing. Three runs against (all earned) isn’t necessarily the worst night for a pitcher in today’s MLB, as it qualified him for his tenth quality start of the season, it’s a steep hill to climb for this Mariners offense that for large periods of time fails to even get hits together. Early on, it seemed as though Castillo was going to struggle with walks as well, giving free passes to two batters through the first five batters, but Luis tightened things up and didn’t allow a walk the rest of the way.
“It probably won’t get talked about a lot because of the result, but their pitcher was excellent too, and we had excellent at-bats. That’s what an actual good, solid day at the plate looks like against a pitcher like Castillo…”
The first run he allowed was the result of a walk and two singles in the second inning, and the positioning of the pitches on those singles wasn’t bad as they were inside on the batters. Where Castillo got in trouble with his location was the two homers against, as the first one to Edouard Julien was a fastball down the direct middle of the strike zone and the second to Max Kepler was in the middle-outside of the zone. Both of those pitches can’t happen against a team that can still string hits together, even if they do strikeout at a league-worst rate. It was the epitome of the Twins offense, as Minnesota is the team that strikes out the most in all of baseball, but they have hit the eighth most homers in the league.
In terms of his pitch arsenal tonight, still managing to generate 22 swings and misses despite the two homers that seem to overshadow the strikeouts to an extent, Castillo mixed things up somewhat evenly. Throwing his fastball and slider for most of the time (33 and 30 percent, respectively), Luis mixed in his changeup and slider at a lower rate than those two but not by too much. Considering the Twins league-worst strikeout rate, it was a great opportunity for La Piedra to really mix things up across the board with his arsenal and toy with Minnesota.
Seattle Mariners third baseman Eugenio Suarez celebrates his game tying two-run homer (Photo by Sage Zipeto)
Homers in back-to-back innings isn’t enough on the offensive end
If we were to base how we thought this game was going to go for the Mariners, things would be good. Shortstop JP Crawford led the bottom of the first off with a single, as he continues a season where he leads the Seattle ballclub in wRC+. But, that’s not quite how things go in sports, basing success off the beginning of the contest, as Twins starter Kenta Maeda retired the next 15 batters that he faced before the Mariners collected their next hit. Seattle seemed to be having a contest with Minnesota to see if the two teams could out-strikeout themselves, as the Mariners went down on strikes in eight of those 15 plate appearances between their hits.
After the JP Crawford single in the first inning, that next hit by the Mariners was a big one in the sixth. Catcher Trom Murphy blasted a solo shot to straightaway center, taking advantage of a slider in the middle of the strike zone that Maeda nearly gift wrapped for him. Seattle didn’t keep the ball rolling in the immediate inning, but the Mariners offense woke up from their offensive slumber in the seventh as Jarred Kelenic singled (keeping his hitting streak alive) before Eugenio Suarez slammed a two-run shot into his teams' bullpen. While Maeda had been relatively strong throughout the course of the night outside of the Murphy homer, he left another pitch in the middle of the zone as Suarez took advantage of a sweeper.
While the eighth inning was a quick and quiet frame, going down in order, the Mariners started the ninth inning off strong with a single by JP Crawford and Julio Rodriguez getting on base as he was hit by a pitch, and a 102MPH one at that from Twins reliever Jhoan Duran. With their top two batters in the lineup getting on base to lead off the bottom of the ninth, Seattle brought the tying run to the plate in Jarred Kelenic. Although he worked an impressive nine-pitch at bat, the 24-year-old outfielder struck out, Eugenio Suarez grounded out, and Mike Ford struck out to end the ballgame and another frustratingly feeble attempt of an offensive showing.
In this game, the Seattle Mariners deployed four of their relief arms out of the bullpen, including Andres Munoz, Gabe Speier, and Justin Topa (Photos by Sage Zipeto)
‘Pen report
With the bullpen taxed already over the course of this homestand so far, now six games in, the Mariners made a few roster moves prior to tonight’s contest to give them some fresh relief arms. Seattle sent right handers Isaiah Campbell and Ty Adcock back down to AA Arkansas and called up right handers Prelander Berroa and Devin Sweet from the same affiliate. Of those two that were brought up, Sweet would make his MLB debut tonight, but in a brutal spot to get his first Major League action. Outside of him, the Mariners called the bullpen on three different occasions beforehand, in mostly high leverage situations. On a night like tonight, the Mariners still had to expend more relief help than they wanted to, and it will continue to hurt them as the homestand drags on.
“…they have good relievers, their relievers are super, they’re tough, and to have those really good at-bats to force another run through by just, you know, keep making them make pitches… we did that to get the lead back.”
After Luis Castillo exited the game with his six-inning outing, Seattle called in Justin Topa to begin their bullpen arms. Topa got the first two outs of the inning while walking a batter, before Servais and the Mariners called on Gabe Speier to come in and get the final out of the inning against Alex Kirilloff, who recorded a golden sombrero (four strikeouts in one game) to end the seventh inning. With the game tied, a natural high-leverage situation due to Eugenio Suarez’s game-tying homer, Seattle called in hard-throwing reliever Andres Munoz to hold things down and send the team to the bottom of the eighth with a chance to win it. Instead, Munoz struggled a bit with control as he walked two batters and had to work out of a bases loaded jam, but not before the Twins got a run across to give them their lead back. That run came across as Max Kepler, who had singled to lead off the top of the inning, scored from third on a passed ball. Catcher Tom Murphy couldn’t handle a high slider from Munoz, as it slipped out of his glove and allowed Kepler to represent the go-ahead run.
After Munoz, Seattle made a fourth call to the bullpen as they hoped to hold the deficit at just a run and send things to the bottom of the ninth for a potential rally and walk off. The call was made for Devin Sweet to make his Major League debut, in a high leverage situation. Given the nerves that Sweet likely had, because it was his debut and since his family was in attendance, and that it was a high leverage situation, it’s puzzling that he was brought into the ballgame that the Mariners had a chance to win in. It's no disrespect towards Sweet, and Seattle obviously had confidence in him to put him out there, but it doesn’t seem like the right move in this situation. From the first batter he faced, a walk to Michael A Taylor, Sweet struggled as he allowed a two-run homer to Alex Kirilloff that extended the Minnesota lead to three. For some teams, that sort of differential isn’t a big deal, but with Seattle’s inept offense, it was far too much for them to overcome.
Seattle Mariners catcher Tom Murphy had a mixed game, hitting a solo homer while also having a passed ball that turned into a run for the Twins (Photo by Sage Zipeto)
Quick notes
In the 3rd of a 4-game series, the Mariners fell to the Twins 6-3…the Twins now lead the series 2-1.
In his 20th start of the season, Luis Castillo threw 6.0 innings and allowed 6 hits, 3 runs (3 ER), 2 walks, 2 home runs and struck out 11 over 104 pitches...it was the 2nd-most pitches he has thrown this season (highest: 109 on 6/9 @ LAA).
Castillo set a new season high in strikeouts tonight with 11 and the most he has recorded since joining the Mariners…his previous season high was 10 strikeouts (2x, last: 6/9 @ LAA) and his career high is 13 (last: 8/5/19 vs. LAA w/ CIN).
Tonight also marked a new season high in strikeouts by any Mariners starting pitcher (previously: 10 by Castillo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby and Bryce Miller).
Castillo recorded 7 strikeouts through 3 innings tonight…it is the first time this season that a Mariners pitcher has recorded that many strikeouts through the first 3 innings of a start this year...the previous season-high strikeouts through 3 innings was 6 (2x, last: Bryan Woo 6/27 vs. WSN).
Following tonight’s start, Castillo picked up his 10th quality start of the year…he ties Gilbert for the 2nd-most quality starts on the team (highest: Kirby, 14).
With only 3 earned runs allowed tonight, Castillo has now allowed 3-or-fewer earned runs in 17 of his 20 starts…entering today, Castillo tied for 3rd most starts with 3-or-fewer ER in the American League (also: Shane McClanahan-TB and Kevin Gausman-TOR) and trailed Sonny Gray-MIN and Geritt Cole-NYY with 17 such occurrences…he also ranked 14th among all Major League starters.
Castillo has not pitched fewer than 5.0 innings in any of his 20 starts this season…entering today, his 19 starts of 5.0+ innings pitched tied for the 2nd most by any pitcher in the Majors this season (also: 5 others) (highest: 20 games by Logan Webb-SFG).
Eugenio Suárez went 1-for-4 with 1 home run and 2 RBI in tonight’s game…his home run tonight marked his 3rd consecutive game with a home run (7/17-c)…it is the 6th time in Suárez’ career he has recorded 3+ consecutive games with a home run (last: 4 games on 8/25/19-8/28/19).
His homer in the 7th also marked his 8th go-ahead or game-tying home run in the 7th inning or later since the start of 2022, tied for the most in the Majors during that span (also: Aaron Judge-NYY, Josh Naylor-CLE and Kyle Schwarber-PHI).
Suárez now has an active on-base streak of 10-games (7/6-c).
Jarred Kelenic extended his hitting streak to 7-consecutive games (7/9-c) following a single in the 7th inning…he went 1-for-4 with 1 run on the night.
During his current hitting streak, Kelenic is batting .348 (8x23) with 3 doubles, 6 RBI and 1 walk…Kelenic’s season-high hitting streak is 10-games (last: 4/5-4/16).
Tom Murphy drove in the Mariners first run of the night on a solo home run in the 6th inning…it was the longest home run he has recorded this season at 423’ (previously: 422’ on 7/2 vs. TB).
J.P. Crawford picked up his 14th leadoff hit of the year following a single in the 1st inning…he has recorded leadoff hits in 3 of the last 4 games…Crawford has hit safely in 14 of the last 16 games (5/30-c), during which he is batting .350 (21x60) with 6 doubles, 2 home runs, 7 RBI and 11 walks.
Teoscar Hernández recorded the hardest hit ball of the game at 109.6 MPH on a lineout in the 2nd inning.
The Mariners bullpen (Justin Topa, Gabe Speier, Andrés Muñoz and Devin Sweet) combined for 3.0 innings pitched tonight and allowed 3 hits, 3 runs (3 ER), 3 walks and struck out 3.
Sweet made his Major League debut when he came in to pitch the 9th inning.
Julio Rodríguez’ hit-by-pitch by Jhoan Duran in the 9th inning tied for the 3rd fastest pitch (102.7) to hit a batter in the Statcast Era.
Seattle Mariners centerfielder Julio Rodriguez’s cleats (Photo by Sage Zipeto)
What’s next?
Following their second straight loss to the Twins during this series, Minnesota and Seattle finish things out tomorrow with a 12:40PM PST first pitch matinee game to settle the series. With a win tomorrow, the Mariners will split things with the Twins, and if Minnesota wins then Seattle will have lost two straight series out of the All-Star break. With what loomed like a big opportunity for the Mariners to really build off the momentum they had leading into the break, with three straight series wins against good, playoff level ballclubs, now seems like a spot where we see them dip all the way out of any sort of real playoff contention.