Mariners Drop Fourth Straight as Randy Arozarena Mishap Causes Tension
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Seattle Mariners short stop Cole Young (2) misses catching the ball during the seventh inning against Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Pablo Robles-Imagn Images [/caption]
The Mariners are back under .500, with a 47-48 record nearly 60% of the way through the year, reeling from their fourth straight loss in Florida on Friday, this time by a score of 7-2. With the result, the Rays have won 12 of their last 16, while the M’s have lost 10 of their last 16.
The first inning was something of a microcosm of the way these two teams entered the game, one with tons of fight and firepower and the other limping along. The final line from that frame of zero runs for either team was reached two starkly different ways: from the Mariners, it was three ground ball outs, but for the Rays, it was a double, a walk, and an infield single to create a pickle for Mariners starter Luis Castillo.
Its greatest and most obvious microcosm was the defense. J.P. Crawford, on the first pitch of the game, dribbled a ball up the middle that Rays second baseman Richie Palacios snared on a falling run. Meanwhile, in the bottom half, the selfsame Crawford was unable to make a play on a ground ball hit directly his way and created the aforementioned infield single.
The obvious example of completely preventable defensive damage was when Randy Arozarena slowed to a trot on a fifth inning foul ball that was extremely catchable, after which Rays hitter Cedric Mullins cracked a home run to put the Rays up 3-1. That moment had infinitely more impact on the course of the game than what I’m about to describe - and caused plenty of tension between Arozarena and starter Luis Castillo - but there was another moment that summed up the energy (or lack thereof) among the Mariners.
The emotion of helplessness and utter lethargy the Mariners have been displaying on the field was encapsulated by the man least likely to be on a big-league roster. Buddy Kennedy, who had been added as organizational depth when the team realized Rob Refsnyder’s injury was no longer ignorable, caught the final out of the second on a pop-up in foul territory. It was a 0-0 game, not a situation that should have warranted such a sheepish reaction, but Kennedy motioned to toss the ball into the stands - and upon seeing the netting, he just hung his head and trotted into the dugout. He wasn’t willing to expend the iota of effort to toss the ball 20 feet high to some fan behind the netting.
That moment meant nothing on the field but said everything about the mental state of the Mariners dugout: hopelessness, sluggishness, defeatism.
Of course, it was that other moment that was more impactful.
What went on between Randy Arozarena and Luis Castillo?
Ensuing events in the game didn’t help things out in the clubhouse, that’s for sure. Luis Castillo gave Arozarena a pretty stern glare after the non-catch and after the home run, clearly frustrated with his left fielder. According to manager Dan Wilson, he discussed it with the players at hand, and when Castillo took questions after the game, he downplayed the incident and stuck up for his teammate.
“I wasn't bothered by the foul ball, but I was bothered because in that situation with two strikes, that pitch wasn't in the area we wanted,” Castillo said. “That annoyed me a bit because that's what you pay for missing your spot.”
Arozarena has been dealing with a lingering hamstring issue, but while Wilson said that Arozarena wasn’t “100%”, the left fielder specifically noted that he didn’t feel anything in his hamstring during that play. And he very visibly slowed down towards the end of his run, making clear that the out was indeed quite possible.
Arozarena couldn’t get to this pop fly then Mullins homers on the next pitch, nice pic.twitter.com/uAtVXnbIQy— BronxBmbrz (@BronxBmbrz) July 11, 2026
Time will tell what long-term effect this has. Arozarena is unlikely to be on the Mariners’ 2027 roster, with the 31-year-old set for free agency at the end of the year, but his bat has been integral to the team’s ability to even be treading water. Though he went 1-4 on Friday, his .286/.378/.453 slash line, 10 homers, 21 doubles, and one triple has given him the most offensive value of anyone on the team per Baseball-Reference.
Dominic Canzone, also currently dealing with a lingering hamstring problem, could very well be a better option in left after the All-Star Break, but his defense is also shaky at best in any case. The truth is that the M’s don’t have a lot of good defenders. Cole Young has a strong glove, Victor Robles is solid with the leather, and despite defensive struggles this year, both Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez have incredible skill with the leather that could well reappear at any point. But beyond them, there isn’t much defense to go around.
Luis Castillo gave up four runs and three homers during five innings of work.
Castillo’s final line wasn’t indicative of the effort he put in during the game, though he didn’t quite have his best stuff. The hurler relied largely on the fastball with aid from the slider, seemingly without a good feel for his changeup. But even as the Rays put the ball in fair territory 20 times against him, they only produced seven hard-hit balls.
But the hard hit balls the Rays did produce gave them enough runs for the win. Junior Caminero rocketed a double past Kennedy at third with one out in the third inning and got to third base on a groundout. Chandler Simpson put the Rays on the board with a chopper up the middle - only 81.8 miles an hour off the bat, but enough to get past an inward-drawn (due to Simpson’s speed) Crawford - and from then on, the hosts held the edge.
The Rays produced runs rather like the Mariners are known for doing, that being the home run. Palacios corked a high fastball over the fence in the fourth, and when Mullins’ shot went off into the seats, Castillo’s night began to draw toward its end. Victor Mesa Jr. fought off plenty of good pitches and took some weaker ones off the plate before Castillo left another slider right down the middle. Like Mullins, Mesa drove it out of the park, and though Castillo struck out Taylor Walls to end the frame, he was at 91 pitches by the end of the frame.
Seattle went 0-7 with runners in scoring position, dropping their RISP production lower than their overall production.
The M’s didn’t have quite as many chances as they’ve had in some of their recent losses, but there was still plenty of opportunity to score runs on Friday.
Crawford may have had a rough game with the glove (filling in for Colt Emerson at short due to a rest day for the struggling rookie), but he was one of the few Mariners to put together a good day at the plate. His double to lead off the top of the fourth gave the M’s an excellent chance to tie the game back up right after the Rays’ first run, but neither Arozarena nor Canzone were able to square up the ball and Cal Raleigh struck out to end the inning with no runs.
Seattle did get a run in the fifth as Cole Young golfed one over the wall in right center, but the sting of the missed opportunity grew in the sixth as the M’s only managed one run off a one-out, first-and-third situation, coming on a Canzone ground ball into a force at second that the M’s designated hitter legged out to prevent from being an inning-ending double-play.
Josh Naylor singled and stole second to lead off the seventh only to be stranded by two strikeouts and a groundout, and once the Rays tacked three more runs off Jose A. Ferrer in the bottom half, all the life escaped from the visiting dugout and the team went down with six outs by the final six batsmen.
By the end of the game, the Mariners’ season OPS had fallen to .689, tied for fifth worst in baseball. Their OPS with runners in scoring position fell to .688, giving the M’s the ignoble distinction of being one of the few teams in the league to hit worse with runners in scoring position than in general (MLB hitters as a whole have a .721 OPS overall and .747 with RISP).
Jose A. Ferrer gave up a trio of runs, putting the game away for the Rays.
Seattle was still only two runs behind their foes when the bottom of the seventh began, with Eduard Bazardo having tossed a quick sixth.
But after a weak liner by Jonathan Aranda fell in for a single, Ferrer fell victim to one of the league’s best mashers: Junior Caminero. The Rays third baseman whacked an outside sinker down the line the other way for a two-run homer, putting the game well out of reach of Seattle’s sleepy offense. Ferrer got Mullins out, but after two more hitters singled, Wilson pulled him out of the game and brought Nick Davila on for cleanup.
Davila balked the two runners into scoring position and Walls knocked one in on a sacrifice fly, bringing the game to its ultimate final score. Cole Wilcox spun a clean eighth, but it seldom mattered as the M’s dropped their fourth straight game.
On Deck
The M’s have two more games of the first half of the season, after which sits the All-Star Break. To say the team is limping along to that break is quite an understatement: Julio Rodríguez lingers on the concussion IL, Cal Raleigh can’t seem to hit the broad side of a barn, Luke Raley has cooled off as if quenched in liquid nitrogen, and in one road trip after another, the team leaves their fighting spirit on the Sea-Tac tarmac.
Anything can happen in the final two games, however. Perhaps there was a chewing-out of Arozarena’s mishap, perhaps not. But a message, at this point, needs to be heard in a way that will make the team wake up from their daze. Perhaps it may come organically from the players in the clubhouse, perhaps it may come from Wilson breaking from his usual demeanor. But the worst disruption that can happen to a squad sluggishly slipping off the map is no disruption at all.
