If you were hoping for a turnaround from the Mariners offense after they showed signs of life against the Padres before the All-Star break, those hopes were dashed tonight. The Mariners looked hapless against the Astros, holding Hunter Brown to a scoreless six innings and then getting dominated by Houston’s bullpen. Luis Castillo had a bad inning, but as we’ve seen time and time again, Mariners starters have to be perfect, and that’s usually not enough to win. Tonight, the Mariners surrendered the American League West lead to the Astros, and that’s what they felt like: capitulation, as they played uncharacteristically sloppy defense, threw uncompetitive at-bats and once again wasted a good performance from their starter.
Hunter Brown has another big hit and he put the Mariners on their heels tonight, even though they were able to leave out his minor secondary hits, which he used heavily in his last game against the Mariners in May, when he struck out a season-high nine batters. Despite throwing 26 pitches in the first inning, the Mariners got nothing, as JP Crawford and Josh Rojas both struck out. With two outs in the second inning, Jorge Polanco kept his hitting streak going with a double deep into the gap (102 EV) for the Mariners’ first hit of the night, but Ty France was safely retired on a hit to quell the threat. That would be the theme of the night.
“We’re only going to have a limited number of chances to score against good pitchers,” Scott Servais said after the game. “We have to take advantage of them, and we haven’t been able to do that here recently.”
Brown repeatedly managed to put the Mariners hitters in 0-2 counts by using the sinker for either called strikes or swinging strikes, and ultimately managed to win the battle even though the hitters damaged his pitch count. By my count, in four innings, the Mariners were in 0-2 counts four times, and 1-2 three other times, making seven of their 16 ABs at that point—a little less than half—in times when they were at a huge disadvantage in the count. In contrast, their three hits at that point came in 1-0 counts (twice) and 2-0 counts. I know that “hitters in good counts get more hits” is not the kind of incisive analysis you’d expect from Lookout Landing dot com, but the difference seems pretty striking.
The turning point of the game came early in the inning, when ninth-pitch hitter Trey Cabbage hit a fastball up the middle of the plate for a double. José Altuve then bunted and Rojas dropped the throw — already the infield’s second error on a rough night for the normally safe left side of the Mariners’ infield — to allow the game’s first run to score. Castillo then got himself into a bind, hitting Bregman with a pitch and walking Álvarez on four pitches. Yanier Díaz pounced on the first pitch he saw from Castillo, hitting a sinker across the plate for a two-run double to make it 3-0 Astros with no outs. Castillo was able to limit the damage at that point, forcing Singleton into a near double play on a grounder and then Peña into a true double, but the damage was done — both to the game and to the American League West standings.
“You have to play clean,” Servais said. “That’s what we usually do. That didn’t happen tonight. They put their mistakes together and gave us a three-point lead.”
The Mariners had a chance to answer in the next inning. Victor Robles, who always seems to be in the middle of something good, singled with one out and then drove to third on a single by Josh Rojas, finally using the 12 pitches he saw in his first at-bat that ended with a strikeout. Julio then walked to load the bases with two outs for Cal Raleigh, who hit a fly ball right to Altuve to fail the answer challenge. What’s more frustrating: the Mariners not hitting at all, or the Mariners putting on the pressure with two outs and not being able to get through? I’d say the latter because it’s so demoralizing when it doesn’t do any good, but getting crushed, especially by average to average pitching, is also pretty unpleasant.
The Mariners had another opportunity in the bottom of the fifth, with the first two runners reaching base after Luke Raley walked and Victor Robles reached on a bunt attempt, but JP Crawford grounded out and Josh Rojas hit into an inning-ending double play to crush any hope of anything happening. The boos rained down lightly; they grew louder with each inning as the Mariners continued to post a zero.
That one misstep would be enough to hand Castillo the loss tonight, despite good pitching, ground ball retention and seven innings of play, with the only damage coming in that third inning. Castillo cruised through the sixth inning without a hit, helping his own cause by handling a Jon Singleton (!) bunt attempt like a champ, coming off the mound and striking out Singleton, and Luke Raley made a great diving catch to catch Peña and rob Peña of a hit. After Meyers easily struck out on two pitches, Brown was back on the field for the bottom of the inning. Could this be the inning the Mariners finally got through after scattering traffic for five innings and running Brown’s pitch count up to 86?
It looked like a potential second turning point in the game, but the Mariners offense failed to step up when it mattered. After two quick outs, Mitch Garver drew a four-pitch walk, but here’s a good sign of how unafraid opposing managers are of Seattle’s offense right now: Espada let Brown make the final out against Polanco (who was actually one of the Mariners’ best hitters tonight), and Polanco obliged, popping out to end the inning and crediting Brown with six runs on 102 pitches.
Despite the efforts of Tayler Saucedo and Collin Snider to hold the Mariners’ line, the offense couldn’t match the Astros’ powerful relievers, with Bryan Abreu, Ryan Pressly and Josh Hader striking out hapless Mariners hitters with the calm precision of a lawnmower at a country club. At least it wasn’t an extra-innings loss; small consolation, perhaps, for the 41,000 fans in attendance, a number that will likely plummet tomorrow as quickly as the Mariners’ playoff chances did tonight.