But given the Mariners’ endless quest to find lasting success on offense and their tendency to strike out and struggle against pitchers, as they faced Thursday night at Angel Stadium, an aggressive approach early on throughout the game. Been aggressive and results still matter. The same have been fully adopted.
And, well, beating the division rival Angels, and holding them scoreless at home is never a bad thing.
The Mariners had possibly their most impressive overall performance of the season, going into the All-Star break with an 11–0 loss to start a four-game series.
“Really good ballgame tonight,” manager Scott Servais said. “It was a great way to start this series, and we need to keep it going and finish really strong before the break.”
For the second time in three games, Cal Raleigh hit a homer from both sides of the plate and scored four runs. Playing less than 20 miles from where he grew up, J.P. Crawford added three hits and drove in three runs, including a two-run homer. The 11 runs scored were the most on the season, while the 15 hits were the second most runs scored in a game this season.
Luis Castillo, meanwhile, didn’t waste copious amounts of run support. He made his second consecutive quality start, while relievers Mike Baumann and Eduard Bazardo gave the remaining relievers in the bullpen a much-needed night’s rest, working the final three innings and earning Seattle’s 10th shutout of the season. The 10 combined shutouts are the most in the AL and second most in MLB behind the Braves’ 11.
The Mariners have started the road trip with three consecutive wins. The last time they won three games in a row was from June 14–18.
The Mariners made the major-league debut of Angels prospect Jack Kochanowicz a miserable experience, defeating him by five runs in three innings, including four in the first inning.
With most of the Angels’ starting day rotation either injured or performing poorly enough to be sent to the minors, the young right-hander, who was considered the No. 7 prospect in one of the worst farm systems in MLB Newbie Davis was called up to replace Daniel and was ranked 12th.th Different pitcher to start a game for the Angels.
Crawford greeted him with a leadoff double that bounced over the wall in right field. Josh Rojas scored Crawford with a hard single to right field.
The hits continued until Raleigh singled up the middle. Kochanowicz got momentary help from his defense when center fielder Mickey Moniak threw out Rojas as he was trying to move from first to third.
But that didn’t stop the parade of base runners. Julio Rodriguez singled to center to make it four consecutive hits to start the game. Luke Raley took a breaking ball off his foot to load the bases.
The Mariners made the score 2–0 when Luis Guillorme made an error throwing out Ty France’s ground ball to third. Jorge Polanco punctuated the inning with a line drive into the left-center gap that scored two runs for a 4–0 lead. Polanco would add another single in the game and now has five hits in his last three games.
With a 4–0 lead before he even threw a pitch, Castillo delivered a strong outing, throwing six scoreless pitches. He allowed only four hits with two walks and five strikeouts to pick up wins in back-to-back starts and improve to 8–9 on the season while lowering his ERA to 3.53.
“I’m going there with the same plan,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “It doesn’t matter if the game is close or not. You can never be overconfident when you go out there. So regardless of the score, I will go out there and stick to the same plan.”
After giving up a one-out single to Moniak and a double to Zack Neto to put runners on second and third in the second inning, Castillo came back to strike out Luis Guillorme and walk Anthony Rendon to center. This was the beginning of a stretch during which Castillo retired 13 of the next 15 batters he faced.
After getting a single from Kochanowicz in the first inning, Raley led off the third inning with his 18th homer of the season. He fired a 95-mph sinker up the middle and drove it toward the right-field foul pole.
“Usually when I hit them out there, they foul out,” he said.
The ball, which had a 113-mph exit velocity, stayed inside the pole for a 5-0 lead.
With Kochanowicz struggling, the Angels turned to Kenny Rosenberg in long relief. Called up before the game, he spent the entire season at Triple-A Salt Lake.
His performance was not very good. Crawford smashed a line drive off the wall in right field over the yellow line for a two-run homer in the fourth inning.
The Mariners turned the game into an upset in the sixth inning. Crawford drove in a run and Raleigh smashed a line drive into the left-field seats for a three-run homer. The exit velocity of the ball was 113 miles per hour.
For the third time in his career, and the second time on this road trip, Raley homered from both sides of the plate. The last time a switch-hitter accomplished this feat in a three-game span was Jeff Devon of the Angels, who did it in back-to-back games on June 3–4, 2003 in Montreal.
“The thing that excites me the most is that when he turns and goes right-handed, it’s just as effective as left-handed,” Servais said. “So the manager doesn’t know which way to go with him there. You cannot take it lightly. “It’s really hard to do that.”
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