Teo time, Julio homers and a rock-solid performance: Mariners sweep Royals, sit alone atop AL West
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Since the month of July began, no team in Major League Baseball has been as hot as your Seattle Mariners. A team that once hung around in the third and fourth spots of the division for the majority of the first half of the season is now surging, taking sole possession of the top spot in the AL West with today’s 3-2 win over the Kansas City Royals to complete a three-game sweep. A Texas Rangers blown lead and subsequent loss during this contest opened the door for Seattle to take sole possession with a win, and Andres Munoz struck out the side in the top of the ninth to hold on to a one-run lead and keep the party at T-Mobile Park rocking. The Mariners continue to break records, and they’ll need to maintain this flaming hot pace to clinch the division, as there is still lots of work to be done.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo was rock solid for his team in today’s outing, throwing seven shutout innings (Photos by Liv Lyons)
It doesn’t matter what your name is, you can't handle La Piedra
Mariners starting pitcher and ace Luis Castillo was back to that true “Ace” form in this win, going seven stellar innings as he efficiently sliced and diced his way through the Royals lineup while also giving the Seattle bullpen more of a breather after they were heavily taxed in the series opener back on Friday. La Piedra faced the minimum in six of the seven innings that he pitched, only allowing two base runners on a walk and a singular hit with both of those coming in the third inning. While Castillo saw decrease in velocity and spin rate in all four pitches that he threw, it wouldn’t matter as he dominated the Kansas City lineup and generated 16 whiffs, nine of them coming on that blazing fastball.
The four pitches that Luis deployed in today’s outing were his fastball, slider, sinker, and a very small sprinkling of his changeup as he worked almost seamlessly through the Royals hitters. Of the 16 balls that the Kansas City batters put into fair territory, only four of them were hit hard. Castillo continues to have a strong year, now having recorded a win in four of the five August outings he’s had, while also keeping his name in the Cy Young running.
Seattle Mariners right fielder Teoscar Hernandez continues his torrid month of August at the plate, racking up two hits today including a solo homer (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Teo time
The Mariners offense can largely be summed up with two halves, as all three of the runs that the team scored today came on homers from right fielder Teoscar Hernandez and centerfielder Julio Rodriguez. Both Seattle outfielders continue to have hot summers, carrying the offense in a way that the front office had hoped would happen in the offseason. To be fair, though, I’m unsure if anybody could expect the level of production that the Mariners are getting from both Teoscar and Julio, but it’s exactly the sort of thing that this team needs to make their way back to the postseason and potentially clinch the AL West. The biggest offseason acquisition that the ballclub made was trading for Hernandez, and he had a slow beginning of the year as he always does, but he’s truly taken off since the summer has come along and that’s what Seattle has required to win the ballgames like they have.
Teo got things started on offense in this contest in the bottom of the second, leading the latter half of the frame off with a solo homer to deep center field and off the batter's eye. Royals starter Alec Marsh had hung a slider in the dead center of the strike zone and Hernandez was more than happy to send the meatball of a pitch over the fence in center field to give his team the early lead and push his home run total to 22 on the season. Adding that to Teoscar’s two-homer total from yesterday, the right fielder has tallied three in these past two games against Kansas City and is displaying the sort of power that the Mariners were hoping to see when they sent valuable reliever Erik Swanson to Toronto for him.
Seattle Mariners centerfielder Julio Rodriguez continues to crush the baseball during the summer months, hitting a two-run homer to give his team a crucial lead (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Julio just keeps crushing
You’d think that it’d be hard to say much else about Mariners centerfielder Julio Rodriguez, but he continues to make history and push the limits of what we may think possible of the 22-year-old out of Loma de Cabrera, Dominican Republic. While there was much discussion, talk, and anger about the struggles that Julio had to begin the 2023 season, much like many of his teammates in those early months of the year, Rodriguez has found his groove and in doing so is helping to carry this Seattle offense forward as they run through the dog days of summer and the playoff push as well.
Today’s feat of strength from the JROD Show was a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning, as Julio turned on a pitch that sat in the inner third of the strike zone. Rodriguez powered the ball over the left field fence and into the Kansas City bullpen, almost as though he was sending the Royals relievers a present and reminder of what he did to their pitching staff during the Mariners series win in Kansas City just this past week. That homer proved valuable, as Julio scored Josh Rojas who had reached on a walk, as Kansas City would have taken the lead later in the ballgame if not for Rodriguez’s two-run blast.
Seattle Mariners first baseman Ty France attempted to score on a double from outfielder Dominic Canzone, but was thrown out at the plate (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Sweeping aside Kansas City
As expected, when this series began, the Royals weren’t just a speed bump for the Mariners, with the exception of the second game when Seattle won by a 13-run margin. Kansas City put up a fight in games one and three, pushing the limits of this Mariners team that remains the hottest in all Major League Baseball, and thankfully for Seattle they passed the test. The aggressive plate approach that the Royals hitters employ challenged the Mariners pitching staff at points, and the Seattle offense was able to do just enough to keep Kansas City at bay and complete that three game sweep. The key over this August stretch for the Mariners has not been to just go and mow all these “weaker” teams down, because that isn’t always necessarily easily doable. The goal for Seattle has been to remain focused, as this roster can and should win these games as long as they play smart baseball and remain locked into their game plain. When the Mariners hitters get too aggressive and start to chase, start to take poor plate appearances, then that’s where they fall behind. So far, they’re doing that. But the job isn’t finished, so they must continue on.
After reliever Gabe Speier had an uncharacteristically poor outing, Justin Topa and Andres Munoz wrapped this game up for the Seattle Mariners (Photos by Liv Lyons)
‘Pen report
Thanks to Luis Castillo’s strong performance today, going seven innings, the Seattle bullpen was able to get even more relief (see what I did there) after Logan Gilbert did his part to do the same in yesterday’s win. The Mariners only had to deploy three relievers in this game, going with Gabe Speier, Justin Topa, and Andres Munoz in that order. Normally Speier is as reliable as they come, but he hit a rare snag against his former team as Kansas City collected two runs on three hits, including a Nelson Velazquez two-run homer to get the Royals on the board. Justin Topa had to come in to get the final two outs of the top of the eighth, before Andres Munoz struck out the side in the top of the ninth to collect his tenth save of the season. The performances from Topa and Munoz were exciting, as Topa got out of a jam and Munoz looked strong in that “closer” role for today’s win, and I won’t take much stock in Speier’s struggle. He’s been rock solid for Seattle all season, occasionally he’ll surrender something.
Quick notes
The Mariners recorded their 7th series sweep of the season with today’s 3-2 win.
The Mariners are in sole possession of 1st place in the American League West, the latest into a season (by games) that Seattle has been in sole possession of 1st since Aug. 24, 2003 (also through 130 games).
The Mariners are 36-14 since July 1, best record in MLB…it marks Seattle's best 50-game stretch since going 36-14 from April 23-June 18, 2003.
Seattle is 11-1 over its past 12 games and 19-5 in August, 1 win shy of tying the franchise-record 20 wins in a month (accomplished 5x)…Seattle has 3 games remaining in the month.
Seattle has won 10 of its last 11 series…Seattle has a 13-2-1 series record over its last 16 since June 30.
The Mariners improve to 19-23 in 1-run games this season.
With his single in the 1st inning, Julio Rodríguez extended his hitting streak to a career-high 12 games (8/13-c) … during the active streak, Rodríguez has hit .491 (28x57) with 10 runs, 5 doubles, 4 home runs, 18 RBI, 4 walks and 8 stolen bases.
Rodríguez recorded a 2-run home run, 2 RBI and a single today.
Teoscar Hernández opened scoring with a home run in the 2nd inning… after yesterday’s grand slam and home run, he has now homered in back-to-back games 3 times this season (also: 4/21-22 and 6/22-23).
Hernández went 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 6 games.
Over his last 12 games (8/15-c), Hernández is batting .434 (23x53) with 9 runs, 6 doubles, 5 home runs and 16 RBI, getting on base at a .456 clip, slugging .830 with a 1.286 OPS.
Luis Castillo earned his 11th win of the season and allowed just one hit in 7.0 scoreless innings pitched… he recorded 1 walk and 6 strikeouts across 95 pitches.
Castillo has pitched 7.0 inning games in 3 consecutive starts.
In 15 starts at T-Mobile Park this season, La Piedra is 7-3 with a 2.49 ERA (25 ER, 90.1 IP) with 21 BB & 110 SO.
Castillo is 4-0 in 5 August outings.
The Mariners bullpen (Justin Topa, Gabe Speier and Andrés Muñoz) pitched 2.0 innings in relief.
Speier allowed 3 hits, 2 runs (2 earned) and a home run in 0.1 innings.
Topa allowed 1 hit in 0.2 innings and struck out 2.
Muñoz struck out 2 to get the save.
Ty France set a career-high and franchise record after recording his 28th hit by pitch of the season.
France’s 28th HBP today beats his own record of 27 set in 2021…each his last three (2021-c) HBP season totals rank as the three highest in franchise history.
France went 1-for-2 with a single today.
Josh Rojas extended his on-base streak to 7 games with a walk in the 5th… he then recorded his 10th stolen base of the season…Rojas is 10 for 10 in stolen base attempts this season.
The Mariners challenged a tag out play at home in the 6th inning, the call stood and Ty France did not score.
What’s next?
Following this three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals, ending the season series with KC having won six of the last seven games these two teams have played against one another, Seattle continues their six-game homestand by starting a series with the lowly Oakland Athletics. Tomorrow, Monday, August 28th will witness the Mariners hand the ball to rookie right-hander Bryan Woo on the mound to battle against an opponent to be announced, as the Athletics have yet to choose who they will have duel with Woo. First pitch for tomorrow’s matchup is at 6:40PM PST, with the game being broadcast on Root Sports.