Mariners bludgeon Orioles in series opener, giving Luis Castillo plenty of run support in 9-2 victory
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – To kickoff Félix Hernandez weekend and a three-game series against the best team in the American League, the Seattle Mariners looked like the sort of team that we’d have hoped to see in the first half of the season. The Mariners jumped all over the Baltimore Orioles from the first inning of this game when Cal Raleigh’s two-run homer to right field got the scoring going. Mariners starter Luis Castillo only had one hiccup in his outing, a solo homer to Anthony Santander, as he was otherwise strong through six innings. Seattle’s winning streak is pushed to eight games and they are now just half a game out of an American League Wild Card spot. The Mariners are getting things done with internally, as the pieces that were predicted to carry the offense have been doing just that during this stream while the bottom of the order has chipped in too.
La Piedra knocks down several Orioles with one stone
Seattle starting pitcher Luis Castillo took the mound for the Friday showdown, donning the team's city connect jerseys, and was rock solid for the Mariners against a young Baltimore lineup that’s soared this year and added Cedric Mullins off the injured list heading into this contest. While there were numerous occasions where Luis got in trouble with the count and his pitch total climbed a bit, Castillo never dealt with any real danger outside of the Santander homer. Through his six innings, the only base runners he allowed were a single and two walks, and they were all in their own respective innings. While some may get dramatic about the counts he got into, Castillo sliced through this Orioles lineup and had plenty of run support behind him.
Through his six innings of one run ball, La Piedra saw upticks in velocity on all four of the pitches that he threw today, including an uptick in the spin rate of his slider. It was his fastball, of course, that got the most whiffs of the 16 total that he generated, with ten of those coming from the heater. While the Orioles were able to generate hard contract on six of the 12 pitches from Castillo that they put in play, only one of them was a line drive, with the rest being fly balls or ground balls. It’s a strong outing for La Piedra to kick off a big weekend against a more than capable lineup, and there are some things to work on, but Castillo did what was asked.
Cal loves to crush the AL East, chapter three
There just must be something about the American League East Division that Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh enjoys, because the North Carolina born switch hitter has absolutely mashed against their teams this season. Not only that, but since the beginning of the 2022 season, Raleigh leads Major League Baseball catchers in homers. For lack of better words, his job is mash. Cal continues his hot boy summer with a two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning to score teammate Eugenio Suarez, who had singled. In addition to the many tasks he has as a catcher, which have been added to with the debuts of numerous pitchers this season for Seattle, Cal continues to have a strong power season at the plate and is a big factor in why this offense is clicking since the month of July began. The catching tandem of Tom Murphy and Cal Raleigh continues to pay off in a big way for the Mariners.
Firing on (nearly) all cylinders
After Cal clobbered another baseball back in the first inning, the Mariners offense kicked into high gear in the fourth inning. The first three batters of Ty France, Dominic Canzone, and Cade Marlowe all reached on singles to load the bases up for Jose Caballero, who hit a sacrifice fly to score France and extend the Seattle lead. Josh Rojas tallied his first hit as a Mariner (previously 0-14 heading into this game) when he singled to score another run, before Julio Rodriguez put the exclamation point on the inning and really sent this game into the heavy favor of Seattle. Julio muscled an opposite field homer into the right field seats for a three-run homer.
Later in the ballgame, when it seemed like the pendulum had fully swung in the favor of Seattle, the Mariners were able to continue to pour things on. Ty France blasted a solo homer into Edgar’s Cantina in left field before Julio made another splash with a laser of a double into left field to score the ninth and final run of the night for his team.
‘Pen Report
After Luis Castillo’s six innings, the Mariners deployed three relievers, who all threw a scoreless inning of relief to shut down Baltimore and give Seattle a series opening victory. The fun part is that two of those three that Seattle used are guys that were not with the team to begin the season and are largely unheard of in the baseball world. The Mariners deployed Tayler Saucedo, Trent Thornton, and Ryder Ryan in this ballgame, with the third and final one of them making his Major League debut tonight. Saucedo’s inning of relief included an impressive bare-handed snag of the ball to get the second out of the inning, showing off a bit of that athleticism. Ryan had a strong debut, striking out All-Star catcher and PNW native Adley Rutschman and touted infielder Gunnar Henderson for his first two strikeouts at this level. Thornton struggled a little, allowing a double and a single to give Baltimore their second runs of the night, but was able to get the final three outs to end this ballgame.
Quick notes
The Mariners beat the Orioles 9-2 in tonight’s opening game of the series…the Mariners have now won 8-consecutive games (8/2-c) and are 11 games over .500 at 63-52…it is the first time they have recorded 8+ consecutive wins since their 14-game win streak from 7/2/22-7/17/22.
Seattle is now 23-15 in series openers
Seattle is 25-10 (.714) over their last 35 games since July 1, best record in the Majors during that span.
Tonight’s 4th inning was the 13th time the Mariners have scored 5+ runs in a single inning this season (last: 8/9/23 vs. SD)…it marks the last first time this year that Seattle has scored 5+ runs in an inning in back-to-back games and the most recent since 6/21/22-6/22/22 @ OAK.
Julio Rodríguez picked up his 39th multi-hit game tonight and recorded 4 RBI over a home run and a double.
Tonight marked his 7th game of the year with 3+ RBI, the 2nd most on the team trailing only Eugenio Suárez’ 8 games…his 3 games with 4+ RBI lead all Seattle hitters.
Rodríguez’ double in the 6th inning was the 50th of his career.
He has now reached base safely in 17 of the last 18 games (7/22-c) during which he is batting .329 (26x79) with 7 doubles, 6 home runs, 16 RBI, 3 walks (1 IBB).
Cal Raleigh hit his 20th home run this season on a 2-run shot in the 1st inning, which leads Seattle hitters…Raleigh now joins Mike Zunino as the only other catcher in franchise history to record back-to-back 20 home run seasons.
With a home run this evening and in Wednesday’s game against the Padres, tonight marked the 2nd time in Raleigh’s career that he has recorded home runs in back-to-back games (also: 9/23/22-9/24/22).
At 112.6 MPH, Raleigh’s home run in the 1st inning was also his hardest hit home run at T-Mobile Park this season…both of his hardest hit home runs have come against Baltimore…his highest, 113.7 MPH, came on 6/25 @ BAL
Raleigh now has 13 HR against the AL East this season, the most in the Majors this year and ranking ahead of Aaron Judge-NYY (10) and Gunnar Henderson-BAL (9).
In is 24th start of the year, Luis Castillo threw 6.0 innings and allowed only 2 hits, 1 run (1 ER), 2 walks, 1 home run and struck out 8 over 101 pitches.
He recorded 1,000 career innings pitched after Adley Rutschman grounded out to first base to end in the top of the 5th inning.
With only 2 hits allowed over 6.0 innings this evening, it marks the 5th time this season that Castillo has thrown 6.0+ IP with 2-or-fewer hits…his 5 occurrences are the most by a Mariner this season and among all Major League starters, ranks tied 2nd most (also: Blake Snell-SD and Shohei Ohtani-LAA)(highest: 7 by Corbin Burnes-MIL).
In 19 starts at T-Mobile Park, Castillo holds a 2.35 ERA (30 ER, 115.0 IP) with 26 walks and 146 strikeouts…his 2.35 ERA is the best by a Mariners pitcher in ballpark history (min. 100 IP).
Tonight marked Castillos 13th quality start of the year, which ranks tied for 2nd most among Mariners starters this year (also: Logan Gilbert; highest: 16 by George Kirby).
Castillo has now pitched 6.0+ innings in 16 of his starts this year…among all American League starters, he ranks tied for 3rd for the most this season (also: Kirby, Shohei Ohtani-LAA and Chris Bassit-TOR).
Ty France picked up his 30th multi-hit game of the year after recording a single and solo home run in tonight’s game…he trails only Rodríguez’ 38 such occurrences for the most on the team.
France has now reached base safely in 15 of the last 17 games (7/23-c).
Cade Marlowe went 2-for-4 with 1 run scored and a pair of singles on the night, his 5th multi-hit game of the season.
Marlowe has reached safely in 9 of his last 10 games (7/29-c), during which he is batting .344 (11x32) with 6 runs, 1 double, 1 triple, 1 home run, 6 RBI and 3 walks.
Josh Rojas picked up his 1st hit as a Mariner on an RBI single in the 4th inning tonight…he doubled in the 6th inning to record his 1st multi-hit night with Seattle and his 12th this season…he went 2-for-4 with 2 runs scored, 1 double and 1, RBI tonight.
Eugenio Suárez went 1-for-3 with 1 run and 1 walk…he recorded the Mariners first hit of the game on a single in the 1st inning and has now hit safely in 15 of the last 17 games (7/23-c).
The Mariners bullpen tonight (Tayler Saucedo, Ryder Ryan and Trent Thornton) combined for 3.0 innings and allowed 2 hits, 1 run (1 ER), 2 walks and struck out 4.
Ryan made his Major League debut tonight, entering in the 8th inning…he recorded his first Major League strikeout against Adley Rutschman on a foul tip and struck out 2 of the 4 batters he faced.
Ryan is the 11th player (9th pitcher) to make his Major League debut with Seattle this season, joining INF José Caballero, RHP Bryce Miller, RHP Juan Then, RHP Bryan Woo, RHP Ty Adcock, RHP Isaiah Campbell, RHP Devin Sweet, OF Cade Marlowe, RHP Prelander Berroa and RHP Emerson Hancock.
What’s next?
Following tonight’s series opening victory and kickoff of Félix Hernandez weekend (including the Félix themed fireworks show after the win), the Mariners will play game two of the series against the Orioles tomorrow, Saturday, August 12th, with a first pitch time of 6:40PM PST. There likely won’t be many dry eyes in a sold-out T-Mobile Park leading into that first pitch, as prior to the start of the game, Seattle will be inducting beloved King Félix into the team’s Hall of Fame. The ceremony will allegedly begin at 6PM PST and the official first pitch will likely be around 6:50PM PST. The Mariners will be sending their best pitcher in franchise history into organizational immortality, before George Kirby duels against Baltimore’s Cole Irvin.