Offense punchless again as Mariners lose game, AL West lead

One tough inning dooms Luis Castillo, Mariners

If you hoped for a second-half turnaround from the Mariners offense after they showed signs of life against the Padres heading into the All-Star Break, tonight was a cold sheet of water on the tender embers of those hopes. The Mariners looked hapless against the Astros, getting held scoreless by Hunter Brown for six innings, then dominated by Houston’s bullpen. Luis Castillo had one bad inning, but as we’ve seen over and over again, Mariners starters have to be perfect—and that still isn’t usually enough to earn them a win. Tonight the Mariners surrendered the AL West lead to the Astros, and that’s what it felt like: surrendering, as they played uncharacteristically sloppy defense, put up noncompetitive at-bats, and once again squandered a strong performance from their starter.

Hunter Brown features a new hard sinker, and it had the Mariners on their heels tonight, even as they were able to lay off his lesser secondary stuff, which he had gone heavy on in his last matchup against the Mariners back in May when he struck out a season-high nine hitters. Despite working him for 26 pitches in the first, the Mariners got nothing, as both J.P. Crawford and Josh Rojas struck out deep in counts. With two outs in the second, Jorge Polanco continued his stretch of hot hitting with a deep double to the gap (102 EV) for the Mariners’ first hit of the night, but Ty France grounded out harmlessly on a sinker to quell the threat. This would be a theme on the evening.

“You’re only going to get so many chances to score against good pitching,” said Scott Servais postgame. “You have to take advantage of it, and we haven’t been able to do it here recently.”

Again and again, Brown was able to get the Mariners hitters in 0-2 counts using the sinker either for called or swinging strikes, and eventually able to win the battle even as hitters damaged his pitch count. By my count, through four innings, the Mariners had been in 0-2 counts four times, and 1-2 counts another three, making seven of their 16 ABs by that point—so, slightly less than half—ones where they were at an extreme disadvantage in the count. On the contrary, their three hits at that point had come in counts that were 1-0 (twice) and 2-0. I know that “hitters in good counts get more hits” isn’t the kind of incisive analysis you’ve come to expect at Lookout Landing dot com, but the difference feels pretty stark.

The turning point for this game came early on, when in the third inning, nine-hole hitter Trey Cabbage turned on a fastball up in the zone but in the middle of the plate for a double. José Altuve then bunted and Rojas threw away the throw—already the second error by the infield, a rough night for the normally sure-handed left side of the Mariners infield—to allow the first run of the game to score. Castillo then dug himself into a hole, hitting Bregman with a pitch and walking Álvarez on four pitches. Yanier Díaz pounced on the first pitch he saw from Castillo, clubbing a sinker on the plate for a two-run double to make it 3-0 Astros with no outs. Castillo was able to cap the damage there, getting Singleton to ground into an almost-double play and then Peña to ground into an actual one, but the damage was done—both in the game and in the AL West standings.

“You’ve got to play clean,” said Servais. “Typically that’s what we do. Didn’t happen tonight. They bunched them [the mistakes] together and put a three spot up on us.”

The Mariners had an opportunity to answer back in the next inning. Victor Robles, who always seems to be at the center of something good, smoked a one-out single and then motored to third on a Josh Rojas single, finally making use of those 12 pitches he saw in his first at-bat that had ended in a strikeout. Julio then walked to load the bases with two outs for Cal Raleigh, who lined a ball directly at Altuve to fail the answer-back challenge. What is more frustrating: the Mariners not hitting at all, or the Mariners putting on pressure with two outs and failing to come through? I’d say the latter because it feels so deflating when it comes to nothing, but getting steamrollered, especially by mid-to-meh pitching, feels pretty bad as well.

The Mariners had another opportunity in the bottom of the fifth, with the first two runners reaching after Luke Raley walked and Victor Robles was able to reach on a bunt attempt, but J.P. Crawford flew out and Josh Rojas hit into an inning-ending double play to squash the hope of anything happening. Boos rained down lightly; they’d intensify each inning the Mariners continued to post a zero.

That one wobble would be all it took for Castillo to get saddled with the loss tonight, despite pitching well, keeping the ball on the ground and providing seven innings with the only damage coming in that third inning. Castillo cruised through the sixth, helping out his own cause by handling a bunt attempt from Jon Singleton (!) like a champ, scooting off the mound and throwing out the lumbering Singleton, and Luke Raley made an excellent diving catch to rob Peña of a hit. After an easy two-pitch groundout from Meyers, Brown was right back out there for the bottom of the inning. Would this be the inning the Mariners finally broke through after scattering traffic throughout five innings and pushing Brown’s pitch count to 86?

This felt like a potential second inflection point in the game, but the Mariners offense again couldn’t step up when needed. After two quick outs, Mitch Garver worked a four-pitch walk, but here’s a good sign of how unafraid of Seattle’s offense opposing managers are right now: Espada left in Brown to get the final out against Polanco (actually one of the Mariners’ better hitters tonight), and Polanco obliged, popping out to end the inning to credit Brown with six scoreless on 102 pitches.

Despite Tayler Saucedo and Collin Snider holding the line for the Mariners bullpen, the offense didn’t have an answer for the strong side of the Astros’ bullpen, with Bryan Abreu, Ryan Pressly, and Josh Hader mowing through the hapless Mariners hitters with the calm precision of a lawnmower at a country club. At least it wasn’t an extra-innings loss; cold comfort, maybe, for the 41,000 fans in attendance, a number that will likely drop off tomorrow as precipitously as the Mariners’ postseason odds did tonight.