Mariners Can’t Finish Comeback as Padres Even Series With 7-6 Win in Seattle
It’s not about how you start; it’s how you finish. And things certainly didn’t begin well for the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night against the San Diego Padres.
A two-out grand slam by Ramón Laureano off M’s starter Luis Castillo – part of a five-run San Diego first – put the Mariners down before their first at-bats. But Castillo settled in and turned in four scoreless frames afterwards, allowing an opportunity for Seattle to get back in the game, which they did. A six-run fifth inning catapulted the Mariners into their first lead of the game, but it was short-lived.
The Padres responded quickly with two runs in the sixth to regain the lead. It would be the last runs scored in the game as San Diego’s manager, Mike Shildt gave the keys to the rest of his vaunted bullpen to finish the job and even the series with a 7-6 road win.
Luis Castillo’s Rough Beginning and Rebound
Once again, Castillo’s velocity on his pitches was down across the board. His five earned runs allowed over five frames against San Diego led to his third straight outing without a quality start and his fourth of five starts in August of that variety, as he finished the month with a devilish 6.66 ERA.
It took him 34 pitches to get through the opening inning, as he faced eight Padres. Fernando Tatis Jr. greeted him with a 112-mph leadoff double that carried over Julio Rodriguez’s head in center, and after a Ryan O’Hearn walk, Xander Bogaerts brought in the game’s first run by dumping a ball just over Eugenio Suarez’s head and into left field. Both hits were off Castillo’s sinker. After another walk drawn by Gavin Sheets loaded the bases with two outs, Mariners’ pitching coach Pete Woodworth came out for a chat with Castillo. But the mound visit was to no avail as Laureano blasted a grand slam over the left-centerfield wall on a fastball at the top of the zone.
But things could’ve been a lot worse for Castillo and the Mariners. Over the next four innings, he retired 11 of the 15 Padres hitters he faced, allowing just two hits, a walk, and striking out five. It kept Seattle in the game, allowing its offense to cut into the lead, which is all Dan Wilson and his team could ask for.
“I give…(Castillo) a lot of credit for, you know, coming back out there and getting us four zeroes there after that first inning, and then, you know, just allowing our offense to come back,” Wilson said.
Mariners Break Through Against Cease in a Big Way
On the other side, the M’s offense didn’t have an initial answer for Padres starter Dylan Cease. He retired the first 11 batters he faced with five strikeouts. Cease’s slider was his bread-and-butter, returning a 59 percent whiff rate on the pitch on 22 swings.
But with two outs in the fourth, Julio Rodriguez laced a single into left-center field for Seattle’s first baserunner of the game. On the next pitch, Josh Naylor grounded a ball to a vacated shortstop position as Xander Bogaerts was shifting more up the middle. Eugenio Suárez worked a nine-pitch walk to load the bases with two outs, and just like Castillo in the first, he was visited by his pitching coach. Cease got Jorge Polanco to roll over to second after the mound visit to escape with no damage done, but the Mariners strung together quality at-bats that carried over into the fifth.
To begin the next inning, the bottom of the order got it done. J.P. Crawford pushed one through a deserted left side as Manny Machado was nowhere to be found on the shifted infield. Then Cole Young worked a walk on a full count, setting the table for Randy Arozarena, who turned on a 94 mph sinker on the inner half that sailed over Edgar’s in left field for a three-run shot, his 25th of the year. Cal Raleigh worked a base on balls after, chasing Cease and beginning the avalanche of elite relievers from the Padres bullpen, starting with right-hander Jason Adam.
But the carnage didn’t stop with Cease’s exit as Rodriguez greeted Adam with a single through the right side. Naylor flew out next, just missing a slider over the plate, putting the pressure on Suárez with two on and two out. Down in the count 0-2, Suárez was out in front of a slider in the heart of the zone and yanked it foul, even though it had home-run distance. Adam tossed another slider on his next offering – this time off the plate – but Suarez was more patient this time around and snuck it over the left-field wall for his 41st home run of the season, the Mariners’ second three-run homer of the inning, and their first lead of the game.
Seattle nearly batted around, sending nine hitters to the plate in the fifth inning. Wilson appreciated how his lineup battled throughout the game and passed the baton.
“…Getting in the hole early, guys fighting back -- like they do. And then just our at-bats, from beginning to end, really good at-bats…” he said. “…Getting the two three-run homers there after creating some traffic and getting on base, and then getting the big blows, and then, you know, continuing those good at-bats even after that.”
Padres Outlast Pen Battle to Even Series
After the Mariners grabbed a 6-5 lead, Dan Wilson went to southpaw Caleb Ferguson to get through the back-half of the Padres lineup, which featured lefties Gavin Sheets and Jake Cronenworth. But those two, plus Laureano, had no problem with Ferguson’s arsenal. Sheets and Laureano hit back-to-back doubles, with the Mariners getting a temporary break as Sheets went back to the second base bag to make sure Arozarena didn’t catch the ball in left. Cronenworth lined a single past third to knot the game up at six before Freddy Fermin laid down a safety squeeze, allowing Laureano to slide in easily with the go-ahead and eventual game-winning run.
Interestingly enough, another left-hander, Gabe Speier, was the next man out of the pen for Seattle, who retired the next two batters. Eduard Bazardo and Carlos Vargas combined for three scoreless innings after the sixth to hold the Padres to seven runs.
Adam was charged with the two runs, but that was all the San Diego bullpen would surrender in 4 2/3 innings of work. The quartet of Adrian Morejon (who got the win), Mason Miller, Jeremiah Estrada, and Robert Suarez allowed three baserunners across four innings, striking out six in the process. The Mariners did work good at-bats, specifically against Miller, who threw 30 pitches, but they couldn’t string together enough to even the game back up. Suarez worked a fairly quick ninth on 14 pitches to notch his league-leading 35th save.
It wasn’t the result Seattle wanted after coming back to take the lead at one point, but Wilson applauded his team for their approach against arguably the best group of relievers in baseball.
“They've got some great arms down there…our at-bats tonight were really good. And you know, we got some guys on base, and you know, we're trying to strike when we could, and we put up some good ones, but they've got some good arms, no doubt about it,” he said. “And you know, I just thought that the way our guys battled through, it was impressive tonight.”
The Houston Astros fell to the Colorado Rockies 6-1 at home, so the Mariners failed to pick up a game in the AL West standings. Seattle remains 1.5 games behind Houston for the division lead as it vies to break the Astros’ streak of four consecutive AL West titles. The Mariners and Padres will play a rubber game at T-Mobile Park on Wednesday, August 27 at 1:10 PT.
