The vibes weren’t good. They were incredible. And a boisterous T-Mobile Park crowd of 35,910, which was unusually large for a Tuesday night, exalted in the cacophony it had created.
They had every reason to celebrate.
Down 5-0 since an awful top of the first inning, the Mariners seemed destined for defeat before even taking their first swing.
And for nearly five innings, it wasn’t a question of whether they’d lose, but by how much. But in the bottom of the fifth, Randy Arozarena chopped the lead down to two runs, smashing a three-run homer to left off Padres starter Dylan Cease. And later with two outs, Eugenio Suarez clubbed a three-run homer to left off Cease’s replacement, Jason Adam.
From down five to up one, another magical win loomed.
Unfortunately, all those vibes turned into frustration and dejection in the next half inning and they would remain that way in what would be a disappointing 7-6 loss to the Padres.
Manager Dan Wilson brought in lefty Caleb Ferguson to start the top of the sixth, believing he would be effective against the bottom of the Padres order, which featured a pair of lefties.
Instead, Ferguson gave up a leadoff double to the left-handed hitting Gavin Sheets and served up a double to Ramon Laureano, putting runners on second and third with no outs. Jake Cronenworth, another lefty bat, singled home Sheets to tie the game at 6-6. The Padres retook the lead when No. 9 hitter Freddy Fermin executed a safety squeeze bunt, allowing Laureano to race home for a 7-6 lead.
Ferguson has now allowed multiple base runners in four of his last five outings.
“A couple of ground balls were able to get through and Nails (Josh Naylor) makes a diving play just off the glove there,” Wilson said. “That’s sometimes as they say, the way the ball bounces. It’s kind of a tough one. The bullpen has been so strong and Fergy just came up on the wrong end of it on a couple batted balls.”
Down a run, the Padres’ revamped bullpen, which might be the best in baseball, did the rest.
Lefty Adrian Morejon struck out Dominic Canzone, J.P. Crawford and Cole Young in the sixth. Mason Miller, the former A’s closer, worked a scoreless seventh despite allowing a pair of two-out base runners. Right-hander Jeremiah Estrada, a split-finger fastball specialist, worked around a leadoff single to Jorge Polanco for a scoreless eighth. Closer Robert Suarez worked a 1-2-3 ninth with two hard-hit balls caught in the outfield for his 35th save.
“Tough one to lose tonight,” Wilson said, repeating a familiar assessment. “It was a head-to-head ballgame tonight, and it’s a shame we didn’t get up on top of that one.”
Besides wasting such a tremendous comeback, the Mariners failed to capitalize on a night where the Astros lost at home to the lowly Rockies. Seattle (71-62) remains 1.5 games in back of Houston (72-60) in the AL West standings. The Royals moved to three games back of Seattle for the third and final wild-card spot.
The Mariners got a less-than-stellar start from Luis Castillo, who struggled for a third straight outing.
The veteran right-hander never looked quite right from the first pitch of the game. The third pitch of the game was scalded off the wall by Fernando Tatis Jr. for a leadoff double. He would later score on Xander Bogaerts’ looping two-out single to left field. A walk to left-handed Sheets loaded the bases for Laureano.
The well-traveled outfielder was a deadline pickup for the Padres. And with All-Star center fielder Jackson Merrill on the injured list, Laureano is seeing everyday playing time.
Castillo got up 0-2 immediately but couldn’t get the punchout. Laureano watched a non-competitive slider out of the zone and then demolished an elevated 94-mph fastball that needed to be at least three or four inches higher. Instead, the misplaced pitch was crushed for a grand slam and a 5-0 Padres lead.
“Incredible,” Castillo said through interpreter. “I wouldn’t say it was a bad pitch. But I definitely could’ve thrown that pitch a little higher up in the zone. Being up with two strikes and throwing that pitch and him being able to connect with it, you have give him all the credit on that.”
If the fastball is also a few ticks faster, it also might not have been hit out. But Castillo’s four-seam and two-seam fastball are down 2-4 mph over his last three starts.
Asked if it was a mechanical or a physical issue causing the decline in Castillo’s velocity, Castillo wasn’t sure.
“To me it’s a surprise a little bit, because I feel healthy. My arm feels good, my body feels good,” Castillo said. “When I go up there, I try to throw as hard as I can. So to me, it’s surprise. Hopefully it’s just part of those bad moments you’re going to have in a season. And hopefully, once we get out of this slump, we start seeing an increase in velocity.”
Perhaps, the Mariners feel that some of the issues is with Castillo’s mechanics and upper-body flexibility or lack thereof. The timing of his delivery has seemed off in his last few outings, making him throw across his body a little more noticeably while sapping his velocity. They’ve worked to try and remedy the situation of late, but the results haven’t followed.
It was a suboptimal start to a game. To Castillo’s credit, he made sure it didn’t snowball into something worse even with his velocity down for a third straight game and his pitch count climbing at a rapid rate. He worked the next four innings scoreless to give the Mariners five innings.
“You just have to go out there and battle,” Castillo said. “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. And we weren’t able to get the victory here, but you can see the team, you know, they fought and fought until the ninth inning, but unfortunately, we didn’t take the victory.
