I spent last weekend in Texas with my family. My dad is an avid Grand Turismo player so of course we had to sit down for an afternoon and race each other. During our generational grand prix, my sister asked the question that everyone who plays racing sims is eventually asked. “So, what’s the challenge here? Just braking at the right point?”
And, to a point, she’s right. Braking at the perfect moment to slow down just barely enough to complete a corner while carrying the most speed is one of the fundamental
aspects of racing. But, of course, once you know where all the braking points actually are, then it becomes a matter of rote repetition. The challenge shifts from one of limit pushing to one of consistency. If you drive slightly under your ability every lap, but drive smoothly and simply through every corner you’ll beat the driver who pushes hard in every turn but occasionally spins out or hits the wall. Do the little things right every time, don’t push too hard, and definitely don’t overcomplicate things. In other words, use the KISS Method. Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Baseball, too, is deceptive. Throw the ball, catch the ball, hit the ball, run the bases. Those are the fundamental tasks. But, just as any racing fan will tell you about driving, those simple tasks can become overwhelming quickly. As much as the Mariners have seemed either untouchable or the team of destiny during this recent run of success, today’s win came not from putting up 18 runs or extra innings heroics, but simply outperforming the Kansas City Royals in the fundamentals. Sometimes you just have to keep it simple.
Luis Castillo, at first glance, is a simple pitcher. He has 4 pitches: a four-seamer, a sinker, a changeup, and a slider. His pitch mix is like an auto-generated player in MLB The Show. Since coming to the Mariners in 2022, he has relied on his fastball, which is in the 83rd percentile for Fastball Run Value according to Baseball Savant (8). It’s a great pitch, and he throws it a lot — about 46% of the time. With his sinker as a ground ball pitch and his slider as a put away pitch, he has a simple approach to opposing hitters. He gets ahead with the fastball and then throws the breaking pitches. It’s textbook, it’s standard, it’s simple. And he’s great at it.
Castillo got 6 innings of work today and sat the side down in order in four of them. He allowed two singles in the second inning and a third hit in the fifth. And he didn’t even walk anyone. It was perhaps as dominant as any six innings with only 3 punchouts can be. He offered his best stuff to the Royals, trusting both in his ability to prevent hard contact and in his teammate’s abilities to make the plays behind him. In doing so he was rewarded with his 10th win of the season, no small feat against a typically pesky team that should be playing with desperation.
And while apt for the Royals, whose tragic number was lowered today to just one (1), no one would call the Seattle Mariners desperate after the two weeks they’ve had. Holding a 73-68 record and facing the very real possibility of missing the playoffs by one game for the third year in a row, they ripped off 10 in a row to put themselves in control of their own destiny. And while Cal’s historic homers, Julio hitting the cover off the ball, and incredible walk offs from Leo Rivas and Harry Ford have rightfully been the focus of everyone’s attention, Josh Naylor and Jorge Polanco have also been instrumental in every win.
And so it was today when, in the top of the second inning, Josh Naylor poked a changeup on the outer edge of the plate through the hole up the middle for a leadoff single. Jorge Polanco stepped into the box next, and one must wonder if he felt frustrated at being held double-less so far in this series because when Royals pitcher Stephen Kolek threw a sweeper to the bottom of the zone, Jorge reached down and thonked it into the gap for his regularly scheduled extra base hit. Naylor, with an almost casual confidence, took off and scored all the way from first, giving the Mariners a lead that they would never relinquish. Sometimes all you need is two hits from two of your most dependable bats. Put that way, it seems so simple.
Kolek would go on to find his groove, staying in the game and retiring all of the Mariners he faced until the 8th inning. But something strange happened in the eighth. With one away in the inning and Kolek still on the mound, Dominic Canzone smoked a hanging slider, sending 109 mph off the bat. Unfortunately it was hit to Royals second baseman Michael Massey, who was playing far back enough to coral the rocket of a ground ball. Perhaps a little too far back. Mariners Coaching Assistant and Replay Coordinator Andy Bissell had been watching Massey all game and noticing that he would occasionally take his position with his heels touching the outfield grass, something which is not allowed under MLB’s recent anti-shift rules.
Canzone’s ground ball was the first time during the game that the ball was hit to Massey while he was on the grass, which finally allowed Mariners Manager Dan Wilson to issue a challenge. To the best of our memories here at Lookout Landing, its the first time the Mariners have issued a challenge relating to the anti-shift rules. In this case, it worked out in Seattle’s favor, vindicating Bissell and awarding Canzone first base (for those curious, that base is scored as a “defensive shift violation error” on Massey). For his part, Massey attempted to argue that because he was standing on his toes with his heels in the air, he wasn’t technically “on” the grass. His argument did not change the umpires’ minds. Perhaps it wasn’t simple enough.
Canzone was replaced by pinch-runner Victor Robles, and Kolek was finally taken out of the game. Reliever Daniel Lynch IV received something of a rude welcome, however, with J. P. yanking a double down the line, scoring Robles and giving Seattle a two-run lead. Robles scored the run and J.P. was awarded the RBI, but Andy Bissell is the one who should be credited for it.
As one would expect, Andrés Muñoz pitched in the ninth inning to get the save, and although it was a little bit interesting thanks to a double by twitter user and occasional baseball player Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez being hit (grazed, really) by a pitch, Muñoz struck out the side and secured the win. Adam Frazier, the one-time Mariner and man responsible for last night’s loss, was the final victim, going down swinging on a slider in the dirt.
With today’s win, the Mariners are tied with the Houston Astros for the division lead and are currently on their way to Houston for a three game series. The series winner will sit alone atop the division, and with a 2.5 game lead in the wildcard race for both teams, a sweep would likely push the losing team out of a playoff spot altogether. And with the Detroit Tigers losing today, the Mariners, who hold the tiebreaker, are just one game behind them for the second seed in the playoffs and a first round bye.
This upcoming series in Houston is do-or-die. It is the series that will define the entire season for the Mariners. It’s a nerve-wracking time to be a Mariners fan. But if they can replicate what they did today and get a couple of timely hits combined with Piedra-solid pitching, Houston will have a problem on their hands.
