ST. PETERSBURG -- Luis Castillo stared out toward left field, where Randy Arozarena had just come up a few feet shy of grabbing a foul ball from Rays outfielder Cedric Mullins in the fifth inning at Tropicana Field.
When Mullins homered off of Castillo’s next pitch, the veteran right-hander looked again toward his left fielder.
It was a hint of frustration from Castillo, an emotion that is spreading throughout the Mariners’ clubhouse after a 7-2 loss, their fourth consecutive defeat.
“We're all frustrated,” manager Dan Wilson said. “You're all frustrated when the results aren't good. I think we've all made mistakes. We can all correct our mistakes. We all need to take accountability, and we can do that.”
After the game, Castillo said his frustration on Mullins’ foul ball wasn’t with his teammate but rather the pitch’s location with two strikes. Arozarena said he’s playing with a little bit of precaution because of his left hamstring, which he strained last month and spent time on the injured list as a result, and Wilson admitted the outfielder isn’t 100% healthy.
However, he too noticed that Castillo didn’t seem pleased with something on that foul pop fly down the left-field line.
“We talked about it,” Wilson admitted.
Mullins’ home run was one of three allowed by Castillo, who had given up only two home runs in his previous 41 1/3 innings. The Mariners did get one dinger on the night -- a solo shot from Cole Young on a pitch he contacted at 0.92 feet above the ground, the second-lowest pitch hit for a home run by a Mariners player in the Statcast Era.
But Seattle’s issues with runners in scoring position, which plagued the offense throughout this week’s sweep at the hands of the Marlins, continued versus the team with the best record in the American League. The Mariners went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position on Friday and are now 3-for-40 with 12 strikeouts in such situations over their past five games.
“Nobody likes to lose, but it's a long season,” Arozarena said via team interpreter Freddy Lllanos. “You battle through negative periods and good periods.”
Seattle is stuck in a negative period right now, and in those times, it can seem like the little things don’t go your way. That was the case in multiple innings on Friday.
In the second inning, Cal Raleigh drove a high fastball from Rays starter Nick Martinez a Statcast-projected 346 feet to right field. It would have been a home run in seven stadiums, including T-Mobile Park. But at the Trop, it fell harmlessly into Victor Mesa Jr.’s glove as he had his left palm pressed up against the fence.
In the fourth inning, after J.P. Crawford led off with a double, Arozarena hit a line drive to right that had an .840 expected batting average. But it too found Mesa’s glove. Dominic Canzone followed with a grounder up the middle that was stopped by Rays shortstop Taylor Walls, who made a diving play to rob Canzone of a possible RBI. Then, with Crawford on third and two outs, Raleigh struck out.
The Mariners had runners on the corners with one out in the sixth, and although Canzone drove in a run with a groundout, Raleigh followed with his second inning-ending strikeout. One inning later, Josh Naylor was on second base with no out -- and remained there after Luke Raley and Young went down swinging. Then as Naylor broke for third on a 1-2 pitch with two outs, pinch-hitter Victor Robles stung a ball in that direction.
If Naylor wasn't moving on the play, perhaps that ball might have gotten past third baseman Junior Caminero and down into the left-field corner. Instead, Naylor’s dash brought Caminero right into the path of Robles’ grounder and leled ads to the third out.
Such are the breaks for a club that can’t come up with a clutch knock right now and owns an MLB-worst .597 OPS through its past 20 games.
“We definitely hit some balls hard tonight, and we don't have a lot to show for it,” Wilson said. “Kind of seems like that's been a little bit of a story.”