If the Mariners showed signs of recovery against the Padres before the All-Star break and were hoping for a late comeback, tonight put a damper on the last slivers of those hopes. They looked helpless against the Astros, getting held scoreless for six innings by Hunter Brown and then being overwhelmed by Houston’s relief staff. Luis Castillo had a bad inning, but as we’ve seen many times before, the Mariners’ starting pitchers have to be perfect, and that’s usually not enough to win. Tonight, the Mariners surrendered their lead in the AL West to the Astros, and it felt right. They played uncharacteristically sloppy defense, took some non-conquering at-bats and squandered another good starter performance.
Hunter Brown features a new hard sinker that cost the Mariners tonight. He struck out a season-high nine batters in his last matchup with the Mariners in May, but the Mariners were able to hold back on his less-than-stellar secondary pitches. Despite forcing Brown to throw 26 pitches in the first inning, the Mariners got nothing out of it as both JP Crawford and Josh Rojas struck out with three innings. With two outs in the second inning, Jorge Polanco continued his strong batting form, hitting a deep double (EV102) for the Mariners’ first hit of the night, but the threat was negated when Ty France grounded out harmlessly on the sinker. This was to be the theme of the night.
“Against good pitchers, you only have a few chances to score,” Scott Servais said after the game. “You have to take advantage of those opportunities, and we haven’t been able to do that recently.”
Time and time again, Brown used his sinker to call strikeouts and strikeout Mariners hitters into 0-2 counts, and even though hitters were breaking his pitch counts, he was ultimately able to win the battle. By my count, in the four innings, the Mariners were in 0-2 counts four times and 1-2 counts three times, meaning they were extremely behind in the count in seven of their 16 at-bats at that point, a little less than half. Conversely, their three hits at that point came on 1-0 (twice) and 2-0 counts. I know “better count hitters get more hits” isn’t the kind of incisive analysis you’d expect at Lookout Landing dot com, but I feel like the difference is pretty stark.
The turning point of the game came early in the third inning, when No. 9 hitter Trey Cavage hit a fastball high in the zone but down the middle of home plate for a double. Then Jose Altuve bunted and Rojas wasted the throw. It was already the second error from the infield and a tough night for the normally sure-hitting left side of the Mariners infield. That allowed the first run of the game. Castillo then found himself in a bind after hitting Bregman with a pitch and walking Alvarez on four pitches. Yaniel Díaz pounced on Castillo’s first pitch and smashed a sinker at home plate for a two-run double that put the Astros up 3-0 with no outs. Castillo limited the damage there, getting a near double play off Singleton and then an actual double play off Peña, but the damage was already done, both in the game and in the AL West standings.
“We have to play clean,” Servais said. “That’s how we usually play. It didn’t work out that way tonight. They were [the mistakes] Together they came out three places ahead of us.”
The Mariners got a chance to fight back in the next inning. Victor Robles, who always seems to have something good going, singled with one out and advanced to third on a single by Josh Rojas, finally capitalizing on the 12 pitches he saw in his first at-bat that ended in a strikeout. Then Julio walked and Cal Lowry loaded the bases with two outs, but unsuccessfully challenged for a comeback by hitting a liner to Altuve. Which is more frustrating: the Mariners not getting any hits at all, or the Mariners putting pressure on the team with two outs and not following through? I think it’s the latter. It’s very disappointing when you get nothing, but it’s also pretty awful to be overwhelmed by a pitcher, especially a middling one.
The Mariners got another chance in the bottom of the fifth. Luke Reilly walked and Victor Robles tried to bunt, but any hope of anything happening was dashed when JP Crawford flied out and Josh Rojas hit into an inning-ending double play. The boos rained down in small bursts, but they got louder as the Mariners continued to score without scoring.
That one wobble made Castillo the losing pitcher of the night, despite pitching well, not hitting a grounder, going seven innings and only getting hurt in the third. Castillo breezed through the sixth inning, fielding a bunt by John Singleton (!) like a champ, jumping off the mound to get the sluggish Singleton out, and Luke Reilly making a great diving catch to stop Peña from hitting. Braun was quickly brought in to pitch in the bottom of the inning after Myers got two easy grounders out of the starting line. After spreading out their pitches through five innings and pushing Braun’s pitch count to 86, could the Mariners finally break through this inning?
This could have been the second turning point of the game, but the Mariners offense again failed to come up when they needed to. After quickly getting two outs, Mitch Garver walked four pitches, a good sign that the opposing manager wasn’t afraid of the Seattle offense. Espada brought in Brown to get the final out off Polanco (actually one of the Mariners’ better hitters tonight), who responded with a popout to end the inning, holding Brown to six runs on 102 pitches.
Despite the Mariners’ relief pitchers Taylor Saucedo and Collin Snyder holding the line, the offense had no answer for the Astros’ strong relief corps, with Bryan Abreu, Ryan Pressly and Josh Hader mowing down Mariners hitters with the calm and precision of a country club lawnmower. At least it wasn’t an extra-innings defeat, but that may be cold comfort for the 41,000 fans in attendance. Just as the Mariners’ chances of making the postseason plummeted tonight, those numbers will plummet tomorrow.
