Mariners encounter Florida men, come out victorious in 1-0 series opener over Rays
By Charles Hamaker
St. Petersburg, FL – Unlike the last two series on this ten-game road trip to begin a critical month of September, the Seattle Mariners won the series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays in nail-biting fashion. Against a loaded Rays lineup that has sat near the top of the American League for most of the season, Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo delivered six shutout innings before turning it over to the Seattle bullpen, who helped maintain the shutout effort in the narrow win. Seattle’s offense got a run in the second inning off base hits from Eugenio Suarez and Mike Ford, and that lone run was all that the Mariners needed to take the first of four games at Tropicana Field. It’s a sloppy win in many ways, but a much-needed victory regardless.
The Rock takes over Tropicana
Mariners starting pitcher Luis “La Piedra” Castillo was looking to get through an outing without leaving a pitch over the heart of the plate for a homer, an issue that he’s had over his past few outings despite going 7-0 during his starts in the month of August. Castillo had seen obvious success but chasing Cy Young consideration and getting into the thick of this division race, Seattle needed prime Luis with the potential of their own offense stalling. While Castillo faced some trouble on his own accord early, walking four batters across the first three innings, Luis was able to get out of the jams that he created by striking out Rays batters. There was still some anger on twitter at Castillo’s performance because of these walks, but those voices are silly and missing the larger picture of this start. Yes, I’d like for his control to be better too, but Luis has been the workhouse of this rotation and delivered a gem today against a top team in all of MLB.
Going into the pitch arsenal that La Piedra delivered in today’s outing, Castillo is credited with throwing four types of pitches over the 108 total that he threw today against Tampa Bay. Luis threw his fastball, changeup, slider, and sinker against the Rays and generated 17 whiffs (nine on the fastball) to lead the game. Interestingly, all four of those pitches saw decreases in velocity and spin rate, but thankfully not by large enough margins to be concerned about. The trouble today may lie with the fact that of those 108 pitches that he threw, 59 of them were outside of the strike zone. This may be because of the plate approach from Tampa Bay, but also factored into the four walks that he threw. Of the 13 balls that the Rays put into play against Castillo, only six of them were hit hard.
Mike up the middle was all they needed
As you can tell from the score, this was a low offense game in terms of production. All Seattle ended up needing was their second inning, when a Eugenio Suarez leadoff double saw him scored by designated hitter Mike Ford. The Mariners really didn’t create traffic along the bases, outside of that second inning as well as two singles in the first inning with two outs before a flyout snuffed that out. Former Seattle farmhand Zack Littell pitched eight solid innings for Tampa Bay, only allowing one walk and giving up five total hits to the Mariners, but largely dispatching them with ease. Once reliever Andrew Kittredge came in for the Rays, Seattle did nothing against him either, as the Mariners only sent the minimum to face him in the top of the ninth. Given the success that you got from your offense, this is “okay” for today’s win, but you’ll have to do much better the rest of this series and month if you want a real shot at the AL West title.
‘Pen report
The entire Mariners pitching staff involved in today’s win put on a masterclass, including the effort from the bullpen coming in after Castillo’s strong start. Isaiah Campbell, Matt Brash, and Andres Munoz were the three relief arms that Seattle deployed after La Piedra’s night was over, and they were all able to work strong innings against this talented Tampa Bay lineup. Campbell would have faced the minimum had it not been for the error on second baseman Josh Rojas that allowed Rays first baseman Yandy Diaz to reach, but Isaiah struck out Brandon Lowe to bring his total to three on the inning that he threw. Matt Brash made Tampa Bay left fielder Randy Arozarena look silly with his slider as he faced the minimum. That left things off to Andres Munoz, who got work in the series finale against the Reds yesterday, and while there were some bumps (hit by pitch and a walk), Munoz was able to lock things down and get the save. It also needs to be noted that catcher Cal Raleigh caught Luke Raley, the leadoff batter that had been hit by a pitch, trying to steal second for a crucial second out.
Quick notes
The Mariners are 41-19 (.683) over their last 60 games since July 1, best record in MLB
Teoscar Hernandez extends his hitting streak to 16 games, setting a career-high and also the longest active streak in MLB
It’s the longest hitting streak by a Mariners player since Mitch Haniger (17 G) in 2018.
Hernandez came into this game with the stat line of .409 AVG, 8 HR, 15 XBH, 26 RBI, 1.199 OPS since August 15th.
His current 22-game on-base streak is the longest in MLB.
Luis Castillo has recorded 5.0+ innings in all 29 of his starts this season, most in MLB.
Castillo has recorded 6.0+ innings 20 times. He's also gone 6.0+ scoreless innings 7 times, T-2nd most in the Majors.
Longest streak of 5+ innings starts by a Mariner since Félix Hernández in 2014
What’s next?
Following the series opening win over the Rays to begin this four-game set, the Mariners look to at least secure a series split with Tampa Bay when these two teams meet tomorrow, Friday September 8th, with the same first pitch time as today’s game, 3:40PM PST. In tomorrow’s matchup, Seattle will have right hander George Kirby on the mound as the second-year starter looks to avenge a slew (his past three outings and even missed one of his starts in that time frame) of less than stellar performances, at least from his standards. Kirby, facing off against the team that he made his Major League debut against, will duel with 22-year-old Taj Bradley of Tampa Bay, who the Rays recalled just four days ago. Getting the series split would be big, although you want the series win obviously, but especially because you will once again be jockeying with an AL West opponent (this time the Astros) after getting the win today when they were idle.
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