Luis Castillo’s struggles continue in Mariners’ loss to Blue Jays

TORONTO — The Mariners didn’t expect Luis Castillo to replicate the overpowering dominance he displayed in that memorable American League Wild Card game back in October of 2022. Though they would’ve happily taken seven-plus shutout innings.

It didn’t happen.

Really, the Mariners just wanted Castillo to be something better than he’s been of late.

That didn’t happen either.

Instead, he delivered another uneven, pitch-filled performance in a disappointing 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays.

“Not consistent, we’re not putting a full game together either on the mound or at the plate right now,” manager Scott Servais said. “This is what happens. You’re not going to win many games unless you start doing that.”

A sold-out crowd of 40,069 crammed into the newly renovated Rogers Centre for the Blue Jays home opener and they reveled in seeing Castillo struggle.

He needed 101 pitches to make it through five innings, giving up four runs on nine hits with a walk and six strikeouts.

“I’m working, I’m working hard,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “Sometimes it doesn’t go your way, but the thing is, it doesn’t last forever. The most important thing for me is you know that I came out healthy.”

Castillo fell to 0-3 on the season with a 6.89 ERA. In 15⅔ innings pitched, he’s allowed 12 runs on 26 hits with four walks and 18 strikeouts.

“We’ not used to see him give up this many hits,” Servais said. “I think that’s the biggest thing is kind of what we saw his first couple times out. He’s getting ahead in the count and just not putting guys away. He’s picking up too much of the plate and the Blue Jays have a veteran line and put the ball in play and created a lot of traffic.”

Castillo gave up five two-strike hits, including two doubles.

“As far as getting ahead of hitters, he hasn’t done a terrible job of that,” Raleigh said. “It’s just putting away the hitters. It’s expanding with two strikes. It’s making sure that you’re missing to your spot and not missing to the heart of the plate.”

The pitches have plenty of life and movement and proper velocity, but the don’t have much command.

“It feels like when we want to go down, he goes up and when we want to go up, he throws it down,” Raleigh said. “It happens. You’d like to think it will work itself out. He’s a really good pitcher and he can make the adjustment. We just have to get that rolling sooner rather than later.”

If Seattle is to have any hope of rectifying this less-than-stellar start to the 2024 season, and also reaching stated levels of overall success, Castillo has to regain his form and command from seasons past.

Has he had a stretch like this before?

“I remember in 2021, I think I lost 10 in a row,” he said. “I just kept battling and battling.”

In that season where Castillo finished with a 8-16 record and 3.98 ERA, he had stretch of nine straight starts where the Reds lost the game. He was charged with the loss in seven of them.

Last season, he took the loss in four straight starts, but allowed three runs or fewer in three of those outings.

“I think anybody that has their top of the rotation guy that is struggling like that, you need him back,” Servais said. “He’s certainly capable of doing that.”

After working a 1-2-3 first inning on three ground balls to third baseman Josh Rojas, Castillo had runners reach base in each of the next four innings, including heavy traffic in the second and third innings.

In the second inning, he appeared to be pitching around Justin Turner’s leadoff double, retiring the next two batters. But Alejandro Kirk laced a two-out single to left field to give Toronto a 1-0 lead.

The Blue Jays benefited from a little batted balls in play luck in the third inning. With one out, Vlad Guerrero Jr. hit a swinging bunt that allowed him to reach first for an infield single. Castillo gave up a double to Bo Bichette to put runners on second and third and then pitched around Turner, walking him to load the bases for Davis Schneider.

Looking for a double play to end the inning or even a strikeout, Castillo fired a 2-2 slider off the plate meant for Schneider to chase and miss. Instead, he made an awkward lunging swing, trying to foul it off. Instead, the ball looped into center field for a single that scored two runs.

Guerrero Jr. added an RBI single in the fourth inning to make it 4-0.

To be fair, even if Castillo had been outstanding, the Mariners might not have prevailed. They were shut out for six-plus innings by Blue Jays starter Jose Berrios and his nasty sinker/slurve combo. They scored their two runs against the Blue Jays bullpen on solo homers from J.P. Crawford in the eighth inning off reliever Yimi Garcia and Cal Raleigh in the ninth inning off right-hander Chad Green.

Berrios allowed four hits in 6⅔ scoreless innings with a walk and six strikeouts.

Of those four hits, Ty France had three of them. In his first game back from the paternity list, he went 3 for 4.

Teams have shut down Seattle hitters with a heavy diet of off-speed pitches, specifically breaking balls. Berrios threw his slurve 39 times, more than any other pitch. Of the 27 strikes on the pitch, Berrios got nine called strikes while Seattle hitters swung at it 18 times, whiffing on nine, fouling off four and putting five balls in play. The only base hit off Berrios’ slurve was France’s broken-bat single in the seventh inning that ended his outing.

Seattle did hit six balls off Berrios that had exit velocities over 100 mph. But five of the six were outs.

“On the nights that we have had some decent at-bats and hit some balls hard, not a lot going our way,” Servais said. “We need to be more consistent having those type of at-bats throughout the entire game to keep pressure on. Our guys are fighting. They are a little frustrated. We all are. We are just not playing up to our capabilities.”