Mariners Take Off Day Early; Scrape 2-1 win against the Twins
Mariners' lineup is in lazy Sunday mode
In classic day game after night game fashion, the Mariners played a lackadaisical game today. With an off day tomorrow, it seemed the Mariners, or at least the lineup, had decided to start the off day a day early. However, with the bullpen drained after last night's game, Luis Castillo stepped up to give the Mariners six strong scoreless innings to start the game.
Despite the low put out by the lineup today, Luis Castillo came to deal. The 32-year-old righty had a vintage start on the mound today, flummoxing Twins hitters over six innings, giving up just four hits and two walks, combined with five strikeouts. Manager Dan Wilson has lauded Castillo often this season for his workhorse mentality and desire to take the ball and flip the team's fortunes on its head when they're on a slide. Castillo ended his outing today with a nice strikeout of Willy Castro, and a fist pump for all you The Rock fans at home.
Castillo seemed to find another tick of velocity coming into today's game. In previous starts, Castillo has been down to as low as around 93-94 on his four-seamer, and as one of his more-used pitches, this has led to some issues previously. However, today, for whatever reason, it seems Castillo was able to find an extra gear, adding another tick to his pitches.
“I thought the Rock had some of his best stuff he’s had all year,” said manager Dan Wilson postgame. “The fastball was coming out of his hand really hot, and he held them down for six...When you’ve got the two fastballs like he does, and he’s got the velo on it like he did today, it makes the changeup and slider so much better.”
Whatever it was seems to have worked as Castillo came in and dominated Minnesota over six innings.
Typically, the Mariners' lineup can fluctuate pretty wildly in terms of offensive performance; that's not unusual. But some credit goes to Chris Paddack. Paddack had a dominant performance over eight innings today, giving up one run and a walk but fanning 10 M's in the process. While I think the Mariners have a bad habit of making pretty average pitchers look good, I gotta tip my cap when a guy like Paddack gives his team 8 innings and 10 Ks.
“Paddack did an excellent job..” commented Randy Arozarena via Manny Acta postgame. “He was locating his pitches very well. He was mixing his fastball, changeup, and the slow curve with the slider, and he did an outstanding job to keep us to just the one run on the homer.”
The bullpen came out solid after Castillo gave the Mariners six strong. Eduard Bazardo spun a clean inning to keep the Twins off the board despite a questionable call on the last out of the inning. Still, Bazardo kept his cool and sent the Twins packing in the seventh.
Cal Raleigh got the scoring started at last in the bottom of the seventh with his 23rd bomb of the year off of Paddack. Big Dumper remains hot after a great May and continues putting his name in MVP conversations, at least given the chants at the park today. While he has for sure stamped his All-Star ticket by now, the conversation will start soon regarding the value of a catcher who plays everyday and hits between 40 and 50 home runs, an outfielder who has played questionable defense at times but hits 60+ home runs, or even a shortstop who has the potential to win the batting title and stolen base title in the same season along with hitting 30+ home runs. Regardless of how the rest of the season goes, if Cal keeps playing the way he does, there's no doubt he will finish high in the MVP voting.
Matt Brash came out for the second time this series for the eighth. The hard-throwing righty has slowly been integrating himself back into the bullpen after missing all of last season with Tommy John surgery; today’s appearance marked the first time he’s gone three times in four days, a typical reliever’s workload and another benchmark now cleared. Despite making the inning a little interesting for himself by giving up a hit to Trevor Larnach and hitting Matt Wallner with a pitch, Brash got a clutch strikeout on Carlos Correa to end the eighth, leaving the ninth for none other than El Jefe De Los Bomberos.
Who else but Andrés Muñoz would come in for the ninth? The soon-to-be All-Star wasted no time in striking out Willy Castro to start the inning, but quickly found himself in trouble with a walk to Kody Clemens (yes, related), and a single to two-time former teammate Ty France. A wild pitch allowed both runners to advance, leaving one out with runners in scoring position. A sacrifice fly from Harrison Bader allowed the runner to score, tying the game. Muñoz struck out Brooks Lee to end the inning, but the damage had been done.
Julio started off the bottom of the ninth with an infield single off Griffin Jax. Cal Raleigh struck out, bringing Randy Arozarena to the plate. Julio would take off for second, and an overthrow into the outfield would allow him to take third as well, putting a runner 90 feet from home with just one out.
With Julio on third, Randy Arozarena stepped up to the plate. After a frustrating game run, including only 2-10 in this series, one could be forgiven for thinking that Randy isn’t the person you want in this spot. But Arozarena prepares for these moments, speaking after the game, he spoke on his mentality stepping up to the plate: “I was very quiet in that at-bat. That was probably my quietest at-bat of the day. I didn’t feel any pressure or anything. All credit goes to Julio, that he was able to get on base leading off the inning and getting into scoring position. But that was probably the at-bat where I was most under control.”
The control showed. Randy cooly stepped up to the plate and worked himself into a favorable 2-1 count. Some other players might try to do too much, put it in the stands, get on ESPN; not Randy. “I was just trying to enjoy the moment. Instead of thinking about getting a homer, getting a single or whatever, just enjoy the moment and relax. I didn’t try to do too much, because I didn’t need a homer to win the game. So I just concentrated on seeing the ball and making good contact. Sometimes it’s going to go right at people, but this time it worked.”
As fans started chanting his name, “Randy, Randy,” Jax threw the 2-1 pitch, and Randy lined a hard grounder up the middle to bring Julio home. After the game, Randy commented on how much the chants mean to him: “It helps me out [hearing the fans chant his name]. I get emotional, and I concentrate a little bit more on trying to do good in my at-bats. And hopefully I can have a ton of at-bats like that...When they chant my name, they get the best version of me.”
Needless to say, next time you're at T-Mobile Park, make sure you get loud. Let Randy and the Mariners know you're there, through the rain, years of suffering, and the highs and lows. Let them know you're there through it all. Let them all know you want the best version of them.
Castillo and the Bullpen had plenty of help behind them today. Despite their subpar efforts at the plate, the Mariners flashed the leather in the field today. Julio Rodriguez continues to make his Gold Glove case in center field with a nice dive in the 5th to save a hit.
Ben Williamson also made some nice plays today, including a nice throw on the run from third to get Castillo out of a jam in the third.
All in all, a solid victory for the Mariners, and this series victory ends a bit of a slide for the Mariners over the past two weeks. While it's been great to see Cal playing well and Julio putting together a nice start to the year, the lineup remains inconsistent. My hope is that Randy Arozarena will shape back into form, and a cooled-down Jorge Polanco will still put up better numbers than he did last year. The addition of Cole Young also makes me think that the team is looking for someone to give this lineup a bit of a spark and have them play up to the level they are capable of. They’ll see the Orioles, a team definitely playing below the level they’re capable of, in the final series of this long homestand.