The old saying in baseball is you win 50, lose 50, and it’s what you do with the rest that counts, but what the adage doesn’t take into account is the number of games that are Cursèd. For the Seattle Mariners, those Cursèd Games seem to usually happen in spring in the Midwest, or in Angel Stadium. Tonight’s game might have started on time, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t start Cursèd.
Luis Castillo did not do anything to beat the warm-weather-pitching allegations, surrendering seven runs, although
not all of them were entirely his fault; the Twins got their first run on a wacky send of slow-footed Josh Bell from first after Rob Refsnyder couldn’t get a clean handle on the soggy ball, which had rolled itself under the padding in right field. A good relay from Cole Young almost had Bell out at the plate, but Mitch Garver couldn’t get the tag down cleanly, putting the Twins ahead 1-0.
The damage could have been much worse, as Castillo ran into trouble after that; he gave up back-to-back free passes to load the bases, once that wasn’t his fault (Matt Wallner leaning his pantleg into a slider) and once that was (walking the nine-hole hitter Tristan Gray), but got Byron Buxton to pop out to strand the bases loaded. But that aforementioned worse damage came in the third inning. Julio Rodríguez misplayed a ball hit deep to center, allowing a one-out triple to Trevor Larnach, and then Castillo walked Bell despite having him in a 1-2 count. Ryan Jeffers singled to bring home Larnach, and then Kody Clemens, my least favorite Twin and that includes both Winklevosses, turnt-and-burnt on an inside fastball for a three-run home run.
The beatings would continue but morale would not improve with a two-run homer from Byron Buxton in the fourth. Castillo managed to scrape through one more scoreless inning to at least give the bullpen a slightly smaller elephant to eat, but the hole was well and thoroughly dug.
Meanwhile, the offense struggled against Twins rookie Connor Prielipp and his dastardly slider; he took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, when his command finally flagged and the Mariners were able to small-ball a couple of runs off him with the bottom of the order once again producing. Shoutout to Mitch Garver, who quietly had a very good game on both sides of the ball, once again winning a clutch ABS challenge that turned into a strikeout and maybe bought Castillo an extra inning of work. The Twins bullpen, which is Not Good, took over from there, but the Mariners hitters were punchless against Andrew Morris in the sixth and seventh.
Cole Wilcox, still putting in his time in the former Eduard Bazardo role, drew the first assignment out of the ‘pen for multi-inning mop-up duty, and just in case you had forgotten this game was Cursèd, what should have been an inning-ending groundout instead bounced off the bag at second base for an RBI infield single instead, making it 8-2. As Angie pointed out on the broadcast, J.P.’s face was all of our faces after that.
Wilcox came back out for the seventh but issued a leadoff walk (bad Cole!) and a one-out infield single (not his fault on this rice paddy of an infield), and for some reason Dan Wilson decided that this was the moment to deploy Alex Hoppe for his big-league debut, and once again: you must hand it to Dan. In a rare feel-good moment for this game, Hoppe came out and demolished the first two big-league hitters he faced; Matt Wallner was so flummoxed by Hoppe’s vicious stuff he blew the Twins’ last challenge challenging Alex Hoppe’s first thrown MLB pitch, only to go on to strike out, which is the appropriate punishment for such tacky behavior. Hoppe then struck out Tristan Gray to end the inning.
The vibes threatened to turn positive after that, as the Mariners hitters finally got to Morris: Rob Refsnyder singled (yay Rob!) and Cal Raleigh checked in with his seventh homer of the season, a towering blast to right field:
But that’s all the fun this game had to offer. Hoppe wasn’t as sharp in his second inning of work despite becoming the first Mariners reliever in team history to open his Mariners career with three straight strikeouts and gave up a couple more runs; Hoppe’s command remains a work in progress, but hey, he’s not learning anything on the bench, so at least this game offered an opportunity for his debut. Unfortunately, this might be another case of bad sequencing for the Mariners, as the Twins send their ace Joe Ryan to the mound tomorrow, matching up against Logan Gilbert. Just keep the field dry and maybe pass a little black tourmaline over the mound pregame.
