Mariners’ offense no match for Shane Bieber in 5-2 loss to Guardians
SEATTLE – The Mariners didn’t pitch particularly well Tuesday night, highlighted (lowlighted?) by a second straight sluggish start from Luis Castillo to open the season.
They didn’t hit much off Cleveland ace Shane Bieber, the continuation of an alarming early trend for Seattle’s offense.
But the good news, at least, was that their defense was pretty darn shoddy, too.
Yeah, it was that kind of night.
No actual good news to report here in the aftermath of the Mariners’ lackluster 5-2 loss to Bieber and the Guardians before a crowd of 20,646 at T-Mobile Park.
Bieber dominated the Mariners’ lineup over six shutout innings, scattering six hits with no walks and nine strikeouts.
His fastball might only average 91.6 mph, but the 2020 AL Cy Young winner showed how adept he is at mixing in all five of his pitches, keeping the Mariners off balance (and off the bases) for most of the night.
In a matchup of two of the league’s top pitchers, Castillo looked the part for three innings, striking out six of the first 11 batters he faced to match zeros with Bieber.
Things fell apart quickly for Castillo and the Mariners in the fourth inning.
With two outs and Jose Ramirez at first, Castillo’s 0-2 change-up caught too much of the middle of the plate, and Cleveland’s Will Brennan turned on it for a hard-hit single to right field.
As Ramirez raced to third, the Mariners’ Mitch Haniger misplayed the bouncing ball in right field, allowing Ramirez to come all the way around for the game’s first run.
Two pitches later, in the biggest swing of the game, Cleveland’s Bo Naylor pulled a 96-mph fastball from Castillo — located in off the plate — out to right field for a two-run home run.
That pushed the Guardians’ lead to 3-0, and the Mariners never mustered much of a fight after that.
Cleveland added another run in the fifth inning to make it 4-0 after a wayward throw from Seattle third baseman Josh Rojas on a Steven Kwan bunt, allowing Brayan Rocchio to score.
It was the Mariners’ second error of the game, and Castillo never recovered from the fateful fourth inning.
Castillo surrendered four runs (all earned) on 10 hits, with one walk and seven strikeouts.
He has lost both of his starts to open the season, and he holds a 6.75 ERA in 10⅔ innings.
The Mariners didn’t score until Bieber was out of the game.
Rojas hit a broken-bat double just fair the other way down the third-base line in the seventh inning, driving in Cal Raleigh from second base.
J.P. Crawford grounded out to drive in Ty France from third base to cut the Guardians’ lead to 5-2, but Scott Barlow got Julio Rodriguez to fly out to left field to end the inning, stranding Rojas and ending the Mariners’ best rally.