A pitching duel ends up in the Mariners’ favor
Luis Castillo has never won a Cy Young Award; he never even got votes before coming to the Mariners, when he racked up some fifth-place votes in 2023. Tarik Skubal won his first Cy Young last season at age 27, receiving unanimous first-place votes after spearheading the Tigers’ rotation and launching Detroit into the playoffs.
Today, however, Castillo outdueled the reigning Cy Young winner—or at least outlasted him, going seven innings to Skubal’s 5.2, and leaving the Mariners with a favorable slot where they could deploy their best lefty arm, Gabe Speier, against Detroit’s lefty-heavy lineup. Opening Day starter or not, Castillo reminded everyone why he is The Rock: steady, unchanging, and a pillar of strength for this rotation.
“Gotta hand it to The Rock. Just a really gutty performance today when we really needed it. Seven strong, really handled that lineup very well from the first pitch all the way through,” said manager Dan Wilson.
Castillo needed just 92 pitches—one fewer than Skubal needed to go 5.2—to clear his seven innings, relying heavily on his four-seamer and going away from the slider some. He let the Tigers get themselves out, saying through interpreter Freddy Llanos that he had observed through the first two games of the series that the Tigers were a team that liked to swing a lot, leading Castillo to work the corners and try to elicit weak contact early in the count.
The Mariners lineup helped out their starter by getting some pressure on Skubal early. In the first, with two outs, Cal Raleigh dumped a little single off a Skubal fastball into left field and Randy Arozarena followed that up with yet another hard-hit ball, scalding a double off Skubal’s vaunted changeup That came to naught as Mitch Garver struck out on three pitches, but the Mariners kept up the pressure in the second. Dylan Moore worked a walk and J.P. Crawford reached when Tigers second baseman Colt Keith momentarily became Dolt Keith, failing to throw out either runner on a ball that didn’t leave the infield. Victor Robles then brought them both home, doubling off the changeup. Despite getting good results on the changeup with whiffs, Skubal made mistakes with the pitch, leaving some—like this one—in the fat part of the plate, where Victor was ready to pounce.
In the fourth, it was DMo again, reminding everyone that he is actually Quite Strong, taking one of Skubal’s few sliders on the day and depositing it into the right field seats for an oppo solo shot.
Unfortunately, the Tigers were able to get back in the game in the fifth. Trey Sweeney ambushed a first-pitch slider leading off the inning for one of the few hard-hit balls off Castillo today. Two batters later, Ryan Kreidler parachuted a little single into center (72.2 EV) followed immediately by Zach McKinstry taking a changeup low and out of the zone and replicating Kreidler’s hit almost exactly. Annoying. Riley Greene, the only batter of the day other than Sweeney with a hard hit off Castillo, then grounded out to bring the runner home on yet more soft contact—soft enough that Dylan Moore thought for a second he would have a play at the plate, only to wisely reverse course and get the out at first instead. Castillo capped the trouble there, striking out Torkelson on a changeup for a well-timed third strikeout of the day. Rock, cooking, things of that nature.
And that would be it for the Tigers, and it for the scoring in the game. Castillo locked in for two more innings after that, going seven strong on a day the bullpen badly needed a break after Emerson Hancock couldn’t make it out of the first inning in the series opener. He even left in a favorable spot, setting up Gabe Speier to carve up the lefties at the top of Detroit’s lineup – and a special shoutout to habitual over-manager A.J. Finch, who once again pinch-hit righty Andy Ibañez for Kerry Carpenter, who has been very tough on the Mariners and definitely probably wouldn’t have reached across the plate to make weak contact on a sinker for an inning-ending groundout.
But there was one hurdle left to clear (that’s a track and field reference, for those of you who really know your Andrés Muñoz lore). Muñoz can sometimes take a little while to lock in on the plate, but today he was really struggling. He opened with a five-pitch walk to Colt Keith where none of the pitches were particularly close, prompting a mound visit from Mitch Garver. He then walked Justyn-Henry Malloy, 0-for-3 on the day, on four straight pitches.
“Normally I am able to fix those things right away. Today, it took me a while to fix it, I don’t know why,” said Muñoz postgame.
Muñoz found his form a little after that, striking out Trey Sweeney on three straight pitches, getting him swinging over a slider. But then that bad batted-ball luck that’s gotten the Mariners all series against the contact-happy Tigers came for Muñoz, as pinch-hitter Dillon Dingler singled on a two-strike slider well below the zone to load the bases. Again, Garver made a mound visit to calm down his pitcher.
“That was a really special moment, because all the time I trust my catcher,” said Muñoz. “But what he did over there to try to give me the chance to breathe, to remind me how good I am, that was the key for me today to go out there and throw as hard as I can and trust my pitches.”
Whatever Garver said fired up Muñoz. He threw four straight 99 mph pitches at pinch-hitter Javier Baez, getting him to ground out—again, excellently played by today’s Sun Hat winner Dylan Moore, who charged the ball easily and threw home for the force, where Colt Keith slid into Garver hard but the veteran catcher held onto the ball. With the lineup turned over, Muñoz then trounced leadoff man Zach McKinstry on three pitches, getting him swinging after a slider, admiring a 99.7 mph fastball, and swinging over a slider. Muñoz was a little extra pumped in his postgame celebration.
I’m no Jomboy-style lip reader, but I think Andrés here is saying “You’re the man, Garv. You’re the man!”
“Sometimes when you give up two walks, you lose a little bit of confidence,” said Muñoz postgame, no lipreading needed. “But Garv coming to me and telling me how good I am, that was what got me out of that.”
Sometimes you’re lucky, and sometimes you’re good. The Mariners were a little of both today. They took advantage of mistakes made by the Tigers in the field, and didn’t make any mistakes of their own out there, with Dylan Moore holding down third base well and some strong outfield defense from Julio Rodríguez, who took away a hit with a diving grab. They took advantage of walks, as well, and didn’t beat themselves with free passes, as Muñoz locked in after his two walks. And some balls found grass that hadn’t.
“It’s been tough around here in terms of not having a lot of luck,” said Wilson postgame. True, but the Mariners also haven’t helped themselves out with luck, getting one-hit last night and making some mistakes in the field. Today, the Mariners got contributions both seen, like in Castillo’s strong start or DMo’s big day; and also unseen, like Garver behind the dish or Julio, working a walk after Robles’s double to keep the pressure on Skubal early. More of these contributions need to be consistent, and come up and down the lineup, but avoiding a sweep and defeating the reigning Cy Young winner does a lot in the confidence department. Contrary to the old adage, it’s better to be good than lucky.