Luis Castillo rocked as Mariners play a clunker in 9-4 loss to Red Sox

BOSTON – The dichotomy of the back-to-back performances was striking, but not completely unfamiliar to those who have followed the Mariners over the first 42 games of the season and largely indicative of their 21-21 record.
A day after perhaps their most complete victory of the season, getting their usual strong performances from the starting pitching and bullpen complemented with better-than-normal run production and solid defense, the Mariners followed it up with dismal clunker that was lacking in every way.
Seattle starter Luis Castillo got rocked by the Red Sox in his worst 2023 outing, giving up seven runs in five innings as the Mariners were drubbed 9-4 on Tuesday.
“Last night, we banged them around pretty well and tonight they swung the bats really well against us,” M’s manager Scott Servais said.
Boston banged out 11 hits, which included three homers all hit off Castillo.
Castillo’s final line: five innings pitched, seven runs allowed (five earned) on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts to fall to 2-2 on the season. Coming into the game, Castillo had allowed three homers all season.
“Boston’s already an aggressive team,” he said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “It was a bad night like any other athlete has. Unfortunately, today was my turn.”
But after dominating in his first six starts of the season, Castillo has been a little shaky in his past three outings, which have all been Mariners losses. In 17 innings pitched, he’s allowed 12 earned runs on 19 hits, including five homers, with three walks and 20 strikeouts.
“They were really aggressive in the first inning and right on Luis on basically whatever he was throwing up there,” Servais said. “And he left some pitches in the middle of the plate, but they were after him and attacking him.”
The struggles started in the first inning when Kolten Wong bobbled a routine ground ball off the bat of Alex Verdugo and couldn’t complete the play. The error loomed large when Masataka Yoshida hit a fly ball over the head of Julio Rodriguez in center field.
Off the bat, Rodriguez retreated to the deep and uneven spaces of Fenway Park, believing he could make the catch. But at the last moment, he turned to play it off the wall. The decision came too late as the ball ricocheted past Rodriguez back to the outfield grass. Verdugo scored from first and Yoshida raced around the bases for triple.
The lead quickly turned to 3-0 when Justin Turner crushed a fastball in the middle of the plate, sending it over the Green Monster and out of the stadium.
Castillo retired the next two batters, but rookie first baseman Triston Casas made it 4-0 with a line drive over the short fence in right field.
“He has left some pitches in the middle and he is one of those guys that can get away with it once in a while because he’s so deceptive and his delivery is so different,” Servais said. “Against a quality ball club like that with all of the left-handed bats, you can’t make too many mistakes in the middle of the plate and that’s what he did early in the game.”
For the first three innings, the Mariners looked listless against Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta, who came into the game with a 6.23 earned-run average, and was likely making his last start before being moved to the bullpen.
But Seattle scored four runs with two outs in the fourth inning.
Eugenio Suarez singled and Cal Raleigh worked a walk to start the rally. Teoscar Hernandez scored both runners when his sinking liner got past a diving Jarren Duran in center field, going for a two-run triple. Taylor Trammell tied the game moments later, pulling a homer to right field just inside the Pesky pole.
With the Mariners essentially getting a reset to the game, Servais stuck with Castillo, who retired seven consecutive batters going into the bottom of the fourth. He worked around a leadoff walk to Casas to start the fourth for a scoreless inning.
His teammates had a chance to give him the lead in the top of the fifth when Ty France led off with a double. He moved to third on Rodriguez’s groundball, but Pivetta came back to strike out Jarred Kelenic and later Raleigh to end the inning.
“I know the Rangers have put up numbers offensively, but this club in this ballpark is about as tough as we’ve seen so far, especially with all the left-handed bats,” Servais said. “You’ve got to keep adding on, whether it’s a run there or whatever.”
In the bottom of the fifth, Castillo’s outing fell apart for the second time and the Mariners never recovered. He gave up back-to-back doubles to Verdugo and Yoshida for a run. With one out and Yoshida on third base, he spiked a change-up in the dirt that got past Raleigh for a wild pitch that allowed Yoshida to spring home.
With two outs, Duran took advantage of a misplaced first-pitch slider, launching a solo homer to right-center to make it 7-4.
“It was pretty uncharacteristic of Luis,” Servais said. “He can usually make adjustments midgame. And I thought he’d kind of got it rolling.”
Servais had seen Castillo do that in previous outings. It’s why he didn’t try to shorten the game with his bullpen going into to the fifth inning.
“He had retired 10 out of 11 and he’s at 60 some pitches (61) going out for the fifth inning,” Servais said. “I felt really good about where we’re at, but he didn’t get through the fifth like we were hoping he would. They were on him there. He had of plenty of pitches after the first inning he had settled down. It was kind of what we’re used to seeing out of Luis.”
Boston tacked on a run off Paul Sewald in the seventh and another run off Juan Then in the eighth.