Lack of clutch hitting again dooms Mariners to extra-innings loss, 2-1

Tonight’s starting pitching matchup featured two pitchers who couldn’t be more dissimilar in mound presence. Luis Castillo is nicknamed The Rock for a reason; his composure is the same if the game is going well or poorly. He might make a location mistake, but he will rarely if ever make a mental mistake. Framber Valdez, on the other hand, is easily rattled; put pressure on him early, and hitters can jar him out of his routine, force him to fight his command, and fluster him on the mound. The counterpoint to that Achilles heel: if teams allow Valdez to fall into his rocking-chair rhythm of easy groundouts, they can be in for short trips back and forth between home plate and the dugout. Tonight, Luis Castillo was his same self—more or less—but the offense didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.

“We just weren’t able to convert,” said Dan Wilson, after a night where the team went 1-for-19 with RISP (11-for-91 on the season so far). “And when you have opportunities to do it, you’ve got to take advantage of it. We just weren’t able to do it.”

The Mariners did do a good job of putting pressure on Valdez early, even if it was a frustrating first inning, as two well-hit balls found gloves instead of grass: first, Dylan Moore, after working a 3-0 count, scalded a ball that Cam Smith made an impressive diving catch on in right field (.910 xBA); then Julio got robbed by an all-out diving play by Jake Meyers in center field despite smoking a ball at 109 mph. So of course, it was Randy Arozarena who got on base first with an infield hit in the second; the Mariners got some traffic on against the easily-flusterable Framber, stealing bases, taking advantage of wild pitches and hit-by-pitches, but Ryan Bliss struck out on a curveball to end the inning. That would prove an early harbinger of an unfortunate trend. Even with more two-out pressure in the third, with Julio working yet another walk and stealing second, nothing came of it, and after that inning, the Mariners fell into the dreaded rocking chair zone against Valdez.

Meanwhile, Luis Castillo had his hands full with the Astros, who aren’t hitting much to start the season but are fouling off a lot of balls and battling. Castillo was able to keep them at bay but at the cost of his pitch count, which ballooned to over 80 after a particularly stressful fourth inning where he opened by walking Yordan Alvarez, made a location mistake to Jeremy Peña for a line drive single to put runners on the corners, and issued a two-out walk to Yainer Díaz to load the bases. It might have been worse, but Mitch Garver made a well-timed mound visit, calming down Castillo after he’d gone 2-0 to open an at-bat against Rodgers, which eventually ended in a strikeout. Castillo was eventually able to escape the inning damaging nothing more than his pitch count.

“He’s a great person, great pitch-caller, great at giving the signs,” Castillo said. “When he came out to talk to me, he gave me a little break and told me I was rushing a little bit, and that helped me a lot, to get through that traffic.”

Garver came through again for Castillo in the fifth, when Castillo gave up a ground ball single to Meyers to open the inning, but then Garver cut him down attempting to steal, allowing Castillo to make it through the fifth inning, punctuated with a strikeout of Isaac Paredes, which I would show you now if the MLB video makers weren’t all honk-shooing in their beds on East Coast time. After Castillo walked Alvarez to open the sixth, Eduard Bazardo came on and tidied things up, getting a double play and striking out Peña to keep Castillo from taking an ill-deserved loss. If there’s a bright spot to be taken from tonight, it’s the lights-out performance of the bullpen, all of whom deserved better.

After the Mariners again went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning, Collin Snider had the seventh to work against the bottom half of the Astros lineup. Snider has been a little shaky since the spring, but tonight he was unlucky: what should have been an easy groundout to make two outs in the inning was instead boofed, as Dylan Moore’s throw hit off the cut of the grass, unable to be picked by Solano, who had the ball zip past him, and allowing Yainier Diaz to freighter into second. Cam Smith then came up with a triple down the line to give the Astros a 1-0 lead and again put a runner in scoring position with just the one out. Snider got Meyers to fly out for the second out, and Altuve went after the first pitch he saw for an inning-ending groundout.

The Mariners were able to answer back in the seventh, though, once again getting to Tayler Scott for a run. Mitch Garver essentially manufactured a run himself, singling and stealing (!) second, and then hustling home on a Luke Raley single that Gold Glover Christian Walker couldn’t haul in at first.

Scott struck out Ryan Bliss, and new pitcher Bryan King walked J.P. Crawford to bring up Dylan Moore facing a lefty pitcher, which normally would work out but tonight King found the hole in DMo’s swing for a strikeout. Once again, lack of clutch hitting doomed the Mariners.

After Gabe Speier expertly put down the top of the Astros lineup in the eighth, it was time for the Mariners to get something going before the Astros deployed their HaderBomb—and, more importantly, so Andrés Muñoz could work the ninth. Alas, despite a Cal Raleigh double, Mitch Garver couldn’t come up clutch again, striking out to end the inning. Dan Wilson opted to go to Carlos Vargas in the non-save situation. Vargas fell behind Peña 3-0 before rebounding to strike him out on a nasty sinker, and then got the next two easy groundouts to tidy things up.

Joe Espada decided to deploy the HaderBomb in the bottom of the ninth, which feels very cruel to Dominic Canzone, in his second appearance of the game, and also very mean to lefty Luke Raley, and even meaner to noted smol bean Ryan Bliss. Joe Espada to the Hague, and this game to extras.

Andrés Muñoz was tasked with dealing with the inning where he’s stuck with an automatic double, and cut through his assigned batters, despite giving up a single to Altuve (I am once again asking you to stop booing). That single could have scored a run but for another excellent play by Bliss, who read a ball that hit the bag at second base perfectly and snared it, keeping the runner from scoring. The Mariners couldn’t score against a second inning of Josh Hader, meaning journeyman Jesse Hahn had to come out for the 11th inning to face the heart of the Astros lineup. After intentionally walking Alvarez, a swinging bunt from Walker moved the runners to second and third. Another intentional walk to Peña brought up Rodgers, who Hahn fell behind 3-1 and almost grazed with a pitch, almost forcing in a run. Instead, this happened:

They said you see something different every time you go to a baseball game. I don’t think that’s true, but I know for a fact I haven’t seen that one.

Unfortunately, that’s where the momentum for the Mariners stopped in this game. Ryan Gusto, a real person and not someone I just heard of today, had the bottom of the 11th, facing Cal batting from the left side. Cal was able to loft a ball in the air, moving Julio as the ghost runner to third, and Randy worked a long, patient plate appearance that ended in a walk (side note to cheer for Randy, who clearly wanted to hit the tar out of the ball, but didn’t chase and make an out). Unfortunately, Garver made two outs, grounding into a double play to quell the threat, and the Astros moved ahead in the 12th, with Victor Caratini coming up with the clutch single the Mariners couldn’t find in the bottom part of the inning. Nor could they find a hit against journeyman lefty Steven Okert, who won a spot in the Astros’ bullpen after coming over on a minor-league deal, leading to one of the more frustrating losses on the early season. Tomorrow doesn’t project to be much better for the Mariners: the Astros will be starting their #2, Hunter Brown, while the Mariners will rely on the other Luis Castillo for another bullpen day. Seems punishing—for the bullpen, and for fans.