Castillo labors vs. Guardians: 'They have a lot of talent'

CLEVELAND -- There were some positives for the Mariners in Thursday’s series finale against the Guardians.

Mitch Garver threw out his first runner of the year behind the plate; Dylan Moore equaled his home run total from last year (eight); No. 9 hitter Ryan Bliss had a two-out, go-ahead double.

But in the end, the negatives ended up outweighing those positives, as Luis Castillo labored through five tough innings and the Mariners' bats fell silent late in a 6-3 loss in Thursday’s series finale at Progressive Field.

Nearly two months to the day that Castillo threw seven scoreless innings against the Rockies in the snow, he didn't have the same kind of success in 85 degree heat.

“I thought Luis settled in there in the third and fourth inning, but the fifth inning ended up being a huge inning,” manager Scott Servais said.

While Castillo was able to go at least five innings for the 25th consecutive time on the road, his outing was undone by a late fifth-inning rally by the Guardians. After Garver threw out Brayan Rocchio to empty the bases with two outs, Castillo walked Steven Kwan and missed on a changeup that Andrés Giménez smacked to right field for a two-run, go-ahead home run.

Castillo followed that up by walking José Ramírez before giving up an RBI double to Josh Naylor that extended Cleveland’s lead to 5-3.

In total, Castillo matched his season high with five runs allowed to go along with eight hits (the third-highest total he’s allowed this year), including two home runs. He’s allowed multiple home runs in four games this year.

The first home run he allowed came on a fastball to Will Brennan that Servais said was too high in the zone.

“He didn’t execute as well with the changeup as he’s usually doing and the slider was hit or miss,” he said.

Cleveland attacked Castillo with a lineup that featured five left-handed hitters and two switch-hitters, which allowed for them to feast on the platoon advantage. Left-handed hitters came into the game hitting .258 against Castillo, which was more than 40 points higher than right-handed hitters.

“They have a lot of talent in that lineup,” Castillo said through an interpreter.

“Leftys were on him,” Servais added.

Although Castillo was able to get four whiffs with his fastball, he was only able to get one with his changeup (26.7% whiff rate) and two with his slider (40% whiff rate).

“[You beat that lineup] by getting first-pitch strikes,” Castillo said. “Once you do that you’re able to get them to expand the zone. We wanted to do that; my location just wasn’t where it needed to be.”

The Mariners had a chance to tie the game in the seventh inning when they had runners on first and second with one out, but Cade Smith came in and promptly got Moore to ground into an inning-ending double play.

“He worked himself into a great count but their pitcher executed his pitch and got a good double-play ball,” Servais said. “It happens … They beat us with a ground ball and got a good double play.”

Castillo was staked to an early lead thanks to a two-run home run in the first inning from Moore, who is now hitting .271 with six home runs on the road this year. Their only other run came in the fourth inning on Bliss’ double.

After that, Guardians starter Logan Allen was able to settle in and get through the fifth and sixth innings unscathed.

“I thought we had great at-bats in the first couple innings but then you put together a couple five- or six-pitch innings and you look up and he’s cruising,” Servais said.

With the loss, the Mariners not only dropped the series to the Guardians but also the season series, which could end up having huge ramifications in October. The No. 4 seed Mariners (44-33) are now 4 1/2 games behind the No. 3 seed Guardians (46-26) in the American League standings, and would lose the first tiebreaker if the teams finished the year with identical records.

“When you’re playing really good teams like this every inning is critical and you can never let your guard down,” Servais said.