Mariners small ball offense earns series opening victory over Nationals
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Coming off a tough road trip that displayed their continuing offensive inconsistencies, the Seattle Mariners began a six-game homestand with a satisfying victory over the Washington Nationals. Through the first three innings of the game, things weren’t looking certain for Seattle as Washington got a run in each frame off Mariners ace Luis Castillo, despite La Piedra having decent command of his pitches. The aggressive approach at the plate for the Nationals net them some early success, before Castillo was able to lock in to ultimately through seven innings for Seattle as the offense put up eight runs through a combination of small ball and homers.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo threw 7 innings on 3 run ball tonight (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Luis overcomes a rocky start
Mariners starting pitcher and ace Luis Castillo has been trying to regain his early season form that saw his ERA top all MLB, but has struggled a bit with command in recent starts. His past two outings have seen Castillo allow four and six walks respectively, numbers that he’d like to cut down. Control is something to note for Mariners pitchers considering the team’s mantra on both sides of the plate to “Dominate the zone,” and for the overall majority of tonight’s game Castillo was able to do just that. Despite giving up solo homers in back-to-back innings to begin the game, the two pitches that Lane Thomas and then Dominic Smith hit were well located, the Nationals hitters were just able to barrel the ball up.
It was noted by Seattle manager Scott Servais ahead of tonight's ballgame that the Nationals are an aggressive team that doesn’t strike out a ton, but as a result does not walk much either. Castillo did experience that firsthand to begin the ballgame, and after a few innings where Washington got two baserunners on in back-to-back innings, Luis was able to get out of those jams before delivering two 1-2-3 frames to finish out his night. Despite not having the “prettiest” outing or anything of the matter, Castillo still had the forced the most whiffs on the night (17) while using a strong trio of his fastball, slider, and changeup with a smattering of sinker. Perhaps an outing like this where Castillo overcame a tough start and went seven innings could be beneficial to his performance going forward.
Seattle Mariners reliever Andres Munoz came in for Castillo in the 8th inning (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Patient offense = winning baseball
As discussed just about everywhere: CSS on Converge, twitter, Instagram, our previous articles, etc, the Mariners offense needs to be able to string together quality at bats and base hits to be able to get an actual winning streak going. The team has been able to do so for brief periods, before entirely forgetting what the hell they had just accomplished and then chasing pitches way out of the zone and taking dumb hacks that result in them putting up a handful of hits on the game, which simply won’t help you beat anybody in Major League Baseball. It happened in the series finale win against the Yankees and series opener win against the Orioles on the last road trip, but the poor plate appearance games bookended those two nights. It’s unclear if tonight’s performance will be another spurt or the actual start of the team getting the offensive ball rolling, but things clicked tonight at the plate.
The Seattle Mariners offense found life throughout this game to total 12 hits on the night (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
While the night offensively started with a solo shot to right from lead off man JP Crawford, Seattle was able to play small ball in this ballgame and wear out Nationals starter Trevor Williams out by only the fourth inning, chipping into the Washington bullpen in the series opener. That should be something that helps the Mariners out over the course of this series, so we’ll have to revisit that in the coming days. The bottom of the third seemed to foreshadow the rest of the game, as Seattle got singles from JP Crawford and Julio Rodriguez to lead off before the next three batters went down in order. Unlike how it’s gone previously, Seattle wasn’t going to waste runners in scoring position for long.
The fourth inning is when the Mariners started to break through, as a lead off homer by Eugenio Suarez and a single immediately after by Jarred Kelenic got the ball rolling. With two outs, and with Kelenic on second after a stolen base, Julio Rodriguez belted a single into center field to score Kelenic. The next inning, Teoscar Hernandez was able to score after a single because of an error, getting pushed forward on a ground out, and then a sac fly. A Jarred Kelenic walk and Mike Ford single later, and another run was across. A Kolten Won’t double after the top of the center field wall scored Ford. With that, the Mariners had gotten the grinding and hard fought runs through not the prettiest of methods. That sort of approach and mentality is what got Seattle the win today.
Seattle Mariners shortstop JP Crawford and centerfielder Julio Rodriguez both reached base four times tonight (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Quick notes
Tonight’s attendance at T-Mobile Park was 23,329
The Mariners picked up an 8-4 win over the Nationals… they are now 14-12 in series openers (7-6 at home) and move to 38-39 on the season.
Tonight’s win marked the 997th regular season win the Mariners have recorded at T-Mobile Park.
Julio Rodríguez went 3-for-4 tonight with 3 singles, 1 walk, 1 RBI and 1 stolen base… he now has 25 multi-games on the season which continues to lead Mariners hitters.
It is the 5th time this season Rodríguez has had a 3+ hit night (last: 6/24 @ BAL)… he trails only Ty France (7) for the most 3+ hit games on the team this season.
Rodríguez has now hit safely in 4 out of the last 5 games… recording 2+ hits on 2 of those occasions.
His stolen base in the 4th inning was his 18th this year…it ties him for 5th most in the American League.
J.P. Crawford went 2-for-3 with 1 home run, 2 walks and 1 RBI in tonight’s game… it was his 16th multi-hit game of the season and 4th game with 2+ walks.
Crawford picked up his 5th career leadoff home run and 2nd this season to score the Mariners first run on the night… it marked the Mariners 3rd leadoff home run of the season.
With 42 walks this season, Crawford leads Mariners hitters…he ranks 6th in walks among hitters in the American League (highest: Ryan Noda-OAK and Adley Rutschman-BAL with 51).
In his 10th start at T-Mobile Park this season, Luis Castillo threw 7.0 innings and allowed 7 hits, 3 runs (2 ER), 1 walk, 2 home runs and struck out 7.
Tonight marked Castillo’s 8th quality start of the year… he is tied for 2nd most on the team (also: Logan Gilbert), trailing only George Kirby’s 12.
The Mariners lead the Major Leagues in quality starts with 40.
It is the 7th time Castillo has allowed 1-or-fewer walks over a minimum of 5.0 innings pitched this season… Gilbert and Kirby have each also accomplished this feat in 9 and 12 starts this season, respectively.
Eugenio Suárez went 1-for-3 with 1 home run and 2 RBI… he now has 46 RBI this season which continues to lead all Mariners hitters.
Suárez’ 4th career HR off Trevor Williams tonight is tied for the 2nd most he's hit against a pitcher (also: Matt Wisler), trailing only Jon Lester (7 HR).
Jarred Kelenic went 1-for-3 with 2 runs scored, 1 single and 1 stolen base in tonight’s game… his stolen base in the 5th inning marked his 10th this season.
Mike Ford went 2-for-4 with 2 singles, 1 run and 1 RBI on the night… it was his 3rd multi-hit game of the season so far.
Ty France picked up an RBI single in the 8th inning… he has now hit safely in 5 of the last 6 games.
Teoscar Hernández and Kolten Wong each drove in 1 run for the Mariners in tonight’s game.
The Mariners bullpen tonight (Andrés Muñoz, Tayler Saucedo and Paul Sewald) combined for 2.0 innings pitched and allowed 3 hits, 1 run (1 ER) 2 walks and struck out 4… in 11 appearances this season, Muñoz has not allowed a run.
Tonight’s game was the 1st time both the Mariners and their opponents hit leadoff home runs in a game since 8/13/13 @ TB (Brad Miller-SEA off Chris Archer-TB, Ben Zobrist-TB off Erasmo Ramirez-SEA).
It marks the 4th time this has occurred in franchise history: 6/26/23 vs. WSH (Lane Thomas/J.P. Crawford), 8/13/13 @ TB (Brad Miller/Ben Zobrist), 7/13/02 @ TB (Ichiro Suzuki/Randy Winn) and 9/25/96 @ CAL (Joey Cora/Randy Velarde).
Tonight was the first time in T-Mobile Park history that both teams hit a leadoff home run in the game.
Nationals starting pitcher Trevor Williams was called for disengagement violation (balk) in the 4th inning, advancing Jarred Kelenic to 2nd base…14th disengagement violation in the big leagues this season.
The Mariners challenged a tag play at 2nd base in the 5th inning… the call on the field was overturned and Jarred Kelenic was ruled safe and recorded a stolen base.
What’s next?
Following the game one win against the Nationals, Seattle will continue their series against the “other” Washington when the two teams meet tomorrow with the same first pitch time of 6:40PM PST. The Mariners will look to take their first series win since their last homestand after dropping both series on their previous road trip. Seattle will have young Bryan Woo, who has seemingly improved from every start since being called up from AA Arkansas, facing off on the mound against Washington starter Jake Irvin.
