Avast: Mariners shutout Pirates, 5-0, to setup rubber match
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Following last night’s five-run defeat at the hand of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Seattle Mariners got another stellar performance from ace Luis Castillo to take the second game of the series and set up Sunday’s rubber match. Offense wasn’t a question mark last night for Seattle, and that remained the case today as the Mariners got off to a hot-start with a three-run first inning. It’s a quality bounce back win for Seattle to shut out this Pirates team just a day after allowing eleven runs and seven homers to them, and it looked much more like the Mariners baseball that we’re used to. Seattle will aim at tomorrow’s rubber match with the intent to win their second of three series during this ten game homestand.
Solid as a rock
Seattle starting pitcher Luis Castillo, nicknamed La Piedra, was in rock solid form for a second straight outing to give his team an excellent chance to win this game. Outside of a double in the top of the first inning, Castillo didn’t give up any hits and walked two batters while striking out ten and forcing 24 swings and misses, two more than in his previous outing. Against this Pirates lineup, Castillo was able to use his fastball nearly half the time while working in his slider more than his changeup or sinker. The ability to dominate that fastball isn’t just due to Castillo’s velocity, but the amount of movement he’s able to get on it that absolutely fools batters. A strikeout of Ke’Bryan Hayes had 17 inches of run on that fastball at 98 MPH, which is simply unfair and especially considering the heater was elevated. Seeing Castillo return to form and having that sort of command of filthy stuff is dangerous for MLB and excellent for the Mariners.
“He just went to war like he normally would. We all know how good his stuff is, he just put it all on display. It’s always just so fun to watch. You always want action in the bag and you want to catch some fly balls. Whenever you see a guy like that, just getting to work and the way that he did it? He’s amazing. That’s who he is. I know that we can get that, we have seen that consistently. It’s great to have him up there all the time.”
Swashbuckling Seattle batters
Although the Mariners were blown out in yesterday’s defeat, it wasn’t their offense that held them back, unlike how most of Seattle’s losses have gone. The Mariners saw Julio Rodriguez continue his upward swing in the month of May while JP Crawford demolished a two-run homer and Cal Raleigh collected two doubles. That positive trend of offensive attack continued in today’s win, as Seattle got the party started early with three runs in the first inning. Back-to-back doubles from JP Crawford and Ty France got things going quickly, and while the next two batters couldn’t get on, singles from Eugenio Suarez and Cal Raleigh kept the line moving before Teoscar Hernandez slammed the teams third double of the inning to push across the third run.
Seattle kept swinging the good wood into the second inning, as JP Crawford continues his quality start to the season with a single before Julio Rodriguez drove him in with the Mariners fourth double of the game. Ty France and Jarred Kelenic both added on to the team's double total in the following innings, but Seattle didn’t add their fifth and final run until the seventh. Eugenio Suarez hit a sacrifice fly to score Julio Rodriguez, but that was only counted after a review determined that the Mariners center fielder got under the tag of Pittsburgh catcher Jason Delay. Seattle was able to get ten “hard hit” balls off Pittsburgh pitchers, and eight of the Mariners batters recorded a hit. Those sort of all around numbers, in addition to the strong performances in May of Julio, JP, Cal, and Ty continuing, is great for a Mariners team looking to heat up.
“It’s definitely paying off; I feel like we all can see that. Definitely a lot of work, as I always say, I feel like going through tough times is fun. It’s fun to be able to come out on top. It’s definitely been a lot of work. A lot of work with people close to me. I feel excited where things are heading to, I think things are trending in the right direction.”
Not letting a down game ruin their spirits
Last night’s game where the Mariners were blown out could’ve easily been demoralizing, considering that one of their starters (tried to say better starters, but all five in Seattle’s rotation are excellent) got thumped and a strong offensive night was essentially wasted. Thankfully, whether it be due to the tightness of this clubhouse or the way the team is built, the Mariners don’t typically find themselves in a rut for long and have been resilient for the past few years, and it’s a big reason that they made it to the playoffs and ended the drought. Heck, their resiliency helped them complete a historic comeback to win the Wild Card series in Toronto. It’s a trait that’s stuck with them, and it’s very good that it has considering how teams can really jump on Seattle as they attack the strike zone so heavily.
While the Mariners aren’t totally running on all cylinders yet, but they’re getting close. Luis Castillo is back in prime form; Logan Gilbert has been rolling as of late. Bryce Miller has had an incredible start to his young career, Marco Gonzales has minimized his “blowup” games so far, and George Kirby has been stellar outside of his last start yesterday. Julio Rodriguez appears to be turning things around since this homestand began, same with Ty France. JP Crawford and Jarred Kelenic have been huge contributors on the offensive end, with Cal Raleigh also coming along nicely. If most of the lineup can begin hitting consistently, paired with this current pitching staff, then Seattle will be rolling sooner rather than later.
“It was definitely a party over there. The energy was unmatched on the field, I definitely love every time that the mariners fans show up like that and we’re able to play the game like we did today for them. 44,000 people? That’s a lot of people. A lot of people cheering us on. We’re always glad as a team to be able to provide for them.”
Quick notes
The Mariners won today’s game 5-0 and tied the series with the Pirates 1-1. It marks the team’s 6th shutout win this season.
Seattle is 5-1 through 6 games on the 10-game homestand, with a chance to win its second consecutive series tomorrow vs. Pittsburgh.
In his start today, Luis Castillo threw 6.0 innings and allowed 1 hit, 2 walks and struck out 10.
His 10 strikeouts today marked a new single-game season high. It also matches his career high as a Mariner, with his last 10-stirkeout outing on 8/27/22 vs. CLE.
In each of his 11 starts this season, Castillo has not allowed more than 2 walks. He and Zack Greinke-KCR are the only starting pitchers this season to have an 11-game streak of starts and allow 2-or-fewer walks.
Castillo is currently the only pitcher in the Majors with an 11-game streak of 5.0+ inning starts with 2-or-fewer walks.
Today was Castillo’s 5th scoreless outing this season so far. He is tied for the lead for most shutout outings (min. 5.0 IP) by a starter this season in all the Majors (also: Drew Rasmussen-TBR and Kevin Gausman-TOR).
Julio Rodríguez went 2-for-4 with 1 double and 1 RBI. He has now hit safely in the last 6 consecutive games (5/22-c).
During his hitting streak, Rodríguez is batting .480 (12x25) with 4 doubles, 4 RBI, 1 home run and 1 hit by pitch. He has also recorded multiple hits in 5 out of the 6 games.
He picked up his 9th stolen base of the year in the 7th inning, which leads the Mariners.
J.P. Crawford went 2-for-4 with 1 double and 2 runs.
Crawford’s double marked his first leadoff double this season. It was also his hardest hit double of the year so far at 106.0 MPH.
He has hit safely in 5 out of the last 6 games, during which he is batting .308 (8x26) with 1 double, 2 home runs, 5 RBI and 1 walk.
Ty France went 2-for-3 with 2 doubles, 1 run and 1 RBI and 1 walk in today’s game.
He has now reached base safely in each of the last 5 games (5/22-c). During this on-base streak France is batting .412 (7x17) with 2 doubles, 3 home runs, 4 RBI, 3 walks and 2 hit by pitches.
Today marked the 2nd time this season France has had a multi-double game (last: 5/15/23 @ BOS). He currently leads the Mariners in doubles with 15 and is tied for 4th in the American League.
Eugenio Suárez picked up 1 hit, 1 run and 2 RBI today. Suárez now has 31 RBI this season, which leads the Mariners.
Teoscar Hernández and Jarred Kelenic both collected 1 double on the night.
Hernández’s RBI double marked his 26th of the year. He trails only Suárez (30) and Rodríguez for the most RBI on the team this season.
Kelenic’s double was his last since 5/17/23 @ BOS. He has reached base safely in 8 of the last 10 games.
With 6 doubles in today’s game, the Mariners set a new season high. The last time the team combined for 6 doubles in a 9-inning game was 6/22/22. Entering today, they had 3 games with 4 doubles this year.
The team’s 3 doubles in the bottom of 1st inning tied their season high for the most doubles hit in a single inning (last: 4/14/23 vs. COL). 2 of them were hit back-to-back.
Each batter in the starting lineup reached base safely tonight, with 8 out of the 9 reaching on a hit.
The Mariners bullpen (Gabe Speier, Matt Brash, Trevor Gott and Justin Topa) combined for a scoreless 2.0 innings to maintain the Mariners shutout win. They allowed only 1 hit, 1 walk and struck out 7.
There were two pitch clock violations called in today’s game: Velasquez-PIT (pitcher), Moreta-PIT (pitcher).
The Mariners challenged a tag play a home plate in the bottom of the 2nd. The call was overturned and Julio Rodríguez was ruled safe and scored.
What’s next?
With today’s win, Seattle sets up a rubber match to decide the series in tomorrow’s Sunday day game, with a first pitch time of 1:10PM PST. All kids in attendance (14 & under) will receive a Julio Rodriguez poster as the Mariners and Pirates duel to decide the winner of this series. Seattle’s Marco Gonzales aims to get his team in the best position to win the team's first series over the Pirates since 2019 while Pittsburgh has Luis L. Ortiz on the mound. It’ll be a big battle for the Mariners not only to decide this series, but also considering that the team will begin a three-game slate against the New York Yankees the next day.