Behind HRs and the 'pen, Seattle finding plenty ways to win

TORONTO -- The Mariners rolled to what was maybe their most dominant win of the young season on Sunday afternoon, at least in the context of striking so early, tacking on late and that it was on the road.

With an 8-3 decision over the Blue Jays, Seattle has now won four straight series including each of their first two on this three-city road trip that concludes this week in Boston.

Dylan Moore put the Mariners on the board immediately with a homer to lead off the game, then Cal Raleigh one-upped him with a two-run blast five pitches later.

And from there, they were off and running.

Rowdy Tellez tacked on a two-run insurance blast in the seventh, his third of the series -- and again in front of his 7-year-old superfan.

Moreover, the Mariners won convincingly despite a shaky start from Luis Castillo -- and despite their striking out 18 times, two shy of the franchise record of 20, done only twice.

Here are three takeaways from the road trip so far.

1. They’re living by the long ball

The sky-high K rate in Sunday’s series finale was mostly an outlier for the trip, as the Mariners had actually seen a dip in that category, from 23.4% in their first 17 games to 21.8% in their first five on this trip. But they were able to overcome those whiffs thanks to the long ball -- which underscored a greater trend this season.

Seattle has 13 homers over these past six games and now 32 for the year, tied for fifth-most in MLB. Raleigh has led the way, now tied with the A's Tyler Soderstrom for the individual MLB lead with nine.

Perhaps telling, Seattle is now 12-6 when hitting at least one homer and 0-4 when they don’t clear the fence, including Friday’s 3-1 loss.

Six players have homered in this weave through Cincinnati and Toronto, including unsung guys like rookie Ben Williamson, whose solo blast on Saturday -- the first of his MLB career -- tied a game that the Mariners eventually won in extras.

“The long ball has been carrying us a little bit,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “But I think we've also been in these games where we've had a lot of close games late -- the last game in Cincinnati, last night's game, where we've also had to put some at-bats together.

“Maybe it's a walk, maybe it's something else that gets us in a good position. So, yes, we've been scoring some runs on the home run, but we've also been doing a lot of little things outside of that as well.”

2. The bullpen continues to grind

Castillo overcame a ton of solid contact -- eight balls in play over 103 mph -- but the excessive traffic elevated his pitch count and he only cleared five innings, one day after Logan Gilbert came one out shy of clearing the fifth.

Overall, the Mariners’ rotation is averaging just over five innings per start (113 1/3 total, 14th-fewest in MLB after leading the league last year). Doing so has forced Seattle to make eight non-injury roster moves with their pitching staff, mainly for a bullpen that’s logged the second-most innings among relievers (just over four innings per game).

Making this stretch a little more strenuous is that the Mariners are aggressively avoiding All-Star closer Andrés Muñoz unless it’s a save situation or when they’re on the cusp of running out of arms in extras. But that’s allowed for other arms -- notably Carlos Vargas, who barely made the team out of Spring Training -- to elevate into a higher-leverage role.

“I feel like everybody's building off each other, too,” Gilbert said. “I feel like it goes on both sides of the ball, which sometimes is rare in baseball. But the offense is stepping up big, the bullpen stepping up big. Guys are making big pitches and everybody is just building off each other.”

3. They’re winning in all sorts of ways

Sunday’s win was via the homer, but Seattle has also found itself in two extra-innings games -- victorious by four runs in each.

Beyond the road trip, the Mariners have won eight of their past 10 games on the shoulders of their lineup -- and after a 4-8 start.

They’ve largely won with offense over pitching, but that itself has illustrated a more consistent showing of one portion of the roster picking up another -- and in years past, it’s been far more one-sided and leaning on the pitching staff.

“You see it,” Randy Arozarena said through an interpreter, “because in a lot of these games, we've been [trailing late] but we've been able to pull out these wins.”