The booing started with the Astros, particularly Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Yordan Alvarez, because that’s exactly what’s been happening to them in every MLB stadium since their pitch-stealing scandal went public in 2019.
During games at T-Mobile Park, the boos ranged from vicious to spiteful for this trio of players, and sometimes for Kyle Tucker and other players that Seattle fans may not like in their AL West rival.
But at the end of Monday’s dreary and dismal 5-1 loss to the Astros, a noticeable portion of those boos were also directed at the Mariners and their apathetic performance in their fourth straight loss.
In a game with so much at stake and one that drew 39,920 spectators to T-Mobile Park on a rainy and chilly evening, the fans’ disappointment and displeasure were palpable and then audible.
Seattle fell to 87-72 this season, 1.5 games behind the Astros (86-71), who hold the third AL wild-card spot, and four games behind the Rangers in the American League West.
“It’s really one game at a time right now,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “We can’t keep looking forward. We have to win tomorrow’s game. That’s exactly where we are in our season.”
A loss on Tuesday won’t destroy their postseason hopes, but it would be extremely damaging.
Unfortunately, the loudest cheer of the night came in the eighth inning when Dominic Leone hit Altuve on the elbow with a 96 mph fastball.
Even Julio Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly in the ninth inning off Ryan Stanek that kept the Mariners from being shut out didn’t spark as much of a reaction.
“We know what’s at stake,” shortstop JP Crawford said. “That (expletive) is now a thing of the past. We have to look forward to tomorrow. We have bigger games ahead of us at the moment. We can’t say anything about these games, terrible losses. All these losses suck right now, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. We have to keep our heads up, look on the positive and be ready to play tomorrow.”
Logically, Seattle would not win all seven games in this final home game against AL West opponents. The Astros and Rangers are above them in the standings for good reason.
The top three wild card teams advance to the playoffs / *Texas has the tiebreaker against Seattle
Mariners playoff odds (via Fangraphs), beginning Tuesday
Reaching the playoffs: 28.0%
Win division: 2.6%
Games remaining: 6
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But it was the way the Mariners lost that got the deserved negative reaction.
They watched their best pitcher, Luis Castillo, struggle to achieve anything close to dominance in such a big game and then were reminded of the team’s offensive liabilities against 40-year-old Justin Verlander for eight innings remained goalless.
Castillo pitched a forgettable six innings, allowing five runs on eight hits with one walk and eight strikeouts, although, as Servais said, he “maybe had as good stuff as we’ve seen all year.”
After a scoreless first inning, including a stunning strikeout against Altuve early in the game, Castillo’s outing imploded in the second inning.
Jose Abreu led the way with a line drive into the gap in right-center, which a sprinting Rodriguez couldn’t catch with a jump and hit the wall. Abreu was credited with his first triple since 2021.
It looked like Castillo was going to leave the lumbering first baseman on third base when he got Chas McCormick to go to second base without a run-scoring run and then struck out Jeremy Pena.
With two outs, Castillo went 1-2 against Mauricio Dubon with two elevated fastballs for swinging strikes. Under difficult circumstances, he was one hit away from a scoreless inning. But another 98 mph fastball remained on the outside half of the plate at 2-2. Dubon turned it into a line drive up the middle for an RBI single.
The Astros weren’t done yet. Light-hitting catcher Martin Maldonado took advantage of a sinker in the middle of the plate to make it 2-1 and sent a double into the gap in left-center, allowing Dubon to score to first. Altuve made it 3-0 with a single to left to score Maldonado.
“The position of the pitch was a big part of that second and actually the whole game,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “That’s how things are. Nobody is perfect.”
A three-run deficit was discouraging but not insurmountable. But Castillo couldn’t hold it to three runs. In the third inning, Yordan Alvarez hit a low slider below the strike zone deep into the seats in right-center for his 30th home run of the season.
Houston extended the lead to 5-0 in the sixth inning with a stunning solo home run by Kyle Tucker. A 96 mph fastball that stayed in the inside half was fired off the upper deck panel and was Tucker’s 29th home run of the season.
“Today I felt different,” Castillo said. “I felt healthy and full of energy. You can tell that the speed increases slightly. But it doesn’t matter how you feel, sometimes things don’t go the way you want them to.”
The Mariners had prevailed in Castillo’s last 10 starts.
Meanwhile, Verlander gave the Astros the kind of performance that was expected when they reacquired him in a trade at the deadline.
The veteran right-hander dominated Seattle, pitching eight scoreless innings and allowing three hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. Astros manager Dusty Baker had him start because of a shutout in the ninth. But after Josh Rojas hit a double to lead off the inning, Baker went to the bullpen. Rojas had two of the Mariners’ three goals against Verlander. The run on Rodriguez’s sac fly was credited to Verlander.
“You have to give credit where credit is due,” Servais said. “Justin Verlander, as many times as we’ve seen him over the years and as he’s on his way back in his career, he’s been outstanding. He really was. At the start of the game, we’ve seen him so many times in the past that we’ve talked about needing to go after him early, and once he gets going, you saw it tonight. He pitched very well.”
The Mariners’ best and really only chance to score a comeback against Verlander came in the third inning.
With one out, Dominic Canzone hit a single to right field and Josh Rojas also followed with a single to right field. A five-pitch walk to Crawford loaded the bases for Rodriguez.
The Mariners’ most dangerous hitter walked to the plate as the crowd stood and roared in anticipation.
But after refusing to chase a slider in the dirt, Rodriguez got too aggressive on a 1-0 curveball and a soft one-hop groundball to shortstop Pena, who flipped it to Altuve for the start of an inning-ending double play.
Ryan Divish: [email protected]; on twitter: @RyanDivish. Ryan Divish covers the Mariners in Seattle and on the road. Look out for his Extra Innings podcast and mailbags throughout the season.