Seattle pitchers meet their match against Blue Jays

SEATTLE — At the lowest levels of the Seattle Mariners organization, pitchers have one command: throw it down the middle. That’s it. That’s where it starts. If they master that, they earn the right to focus on smaller targets within the strike zone, to spot it like the big league masters.

Even in the majors, though, the directive is strikingly similar, pun intended. Hitting is hard, your stuff is good, throw strikes. Seattle pitchers do so relentlessly, especially at their pitchers’ park by Elliott Bay.

For the last two nights of this American League Championship Series, the Mariners have met their match in the Toronto Blue Jays. The swing-first Toronto hitters have pounded the strike-first Seattle pitchers. Game 4 on Thursday was another rout, 8-2, as the Blue Jays pulled even, two games apiece.

“Baseball is a cruel game sometimes,” said J.P. Crawford, the shortstop for the Mariners, who lost 13-4 in Game 3. “But we’ve got to keep pushing forward.”

For Crawford, especially, that’s a better idea than looking back. He is the only current Mariner who was here in 2019, the last time before now that the Mariners allowed more than 20 runs in consecutive home losses to the same team.

It happened in May of that season against the Minnesota Twins, in box scores filled with pitchers who never appeared for Seattle after that last-place campaign: Parker Markel, Mike Wright Jr., Ryan Garton and so on.

As the roster improved, the Mariners never let a team march into T-Mobile Park and beat them that way again — right up until this ALCS.

“We fell behind, gave up that big crooked number, and then let the starter get comfortable — and that’s kind of happened the past two nights,” catcher Cal Raleigh said. “So we’ve just got to keep the pressure on. Even if there is a (big) number given up, we have to keep the pressure on and play our game and we’ve got to have tough at-bats like we (did) the first two games.”

The first game here was a dud for the home fans — and the sequel followed the same failed script. George Kirby served up five runs in the third inning of Game 3. Luis Castillo served up three runs in the third inning of Game 4.

Both pitchers’ performances ranked among the worst of their careers. Kirby matched a career high (and tied the all-time postseason record) by allowing eight earned runs. And Castillo’s start lasted only 2 1/3 innings, the second shortest of his career.

The Mariners call Castillo “The Rock,” his childhood nickname, which also connotes dependability. But because his top relievers had not pitched in Wednesday’s rout, manager Dan Wilson was eager to use them in Game 4. He explained this to Castillo on the mound in a longer end-of-start conversation than usual.

“It’s a tough decision, and it was not an easy one,” Wilson said. “And not an easy one to tell him.”

Whatever Castillo thought of it, he kept to himself. He left the clubhouse before talking to reporters, an unusual decision for an affable veteran. Just like in the game itself, Castillo left the task to lefty reliever Gabe Speier.

“I’d say it comes down to: we need to pitch a little bit better,” said Speier, who walked in a run, struck out two, then allowed two runs in the fourth. “Just continue to attack, but maybe (have) a little more intent with what we’re doing. But nothing really changes. I mean, this is who we are and we’re going to continue to play this way.”

In the past four seasons, beginning with their 2022 playoff team, the Mariners have issued the fewest walks in the majors. And their stuff, indeed, has usually been good enough to survive; they rank 24th in hits allowed.

In the Division Series, the Mariners matched up well with the Detroit Tigers, whose offense ranked fifth in the majors in strikeouts this season and 16th in hits. In the ALCS, they are struggling with a Blue Jays offense that ranked 29th in strikeouts (only the Kansas City Royals had fewer) and first in hits.

It wasn’t so bad in Toronto, where Seattle won twice by making better pitches in the zone and getting quick outs. Here, though, the aggressive Blue Jays hitters are hammering the first hittable pitch from a staff that hates to nibble around the edges.

“We know they’re gonna attack,” Toronto hitting coach David Popkins said before Game 4, referring to the adjustments the Blue Jays have made here. “Like, we’ve got to make them a little more uncomfortable with throwing their stuff (over) the plate.”

The Blue Jays have hit seven home runs in two games here. The Mariners have hit four. And it wasn’t just power on Thursday; the Blue Jays used sacrifice bunts to set up two-run rallies in the fourth and eighth innings.

Both teams have eight homers and 15 walks in the series. But Toronto is hitting .262 with 25 strikeouts, while Seattle is hitting .226 with 43 strikeouts. The Mariners’ vaunted rotation has an 8.04 ERA, and that’s including a Game 1 gem from Bryce Miller, who starts again in Game 5 on Friday.

Wilson has yet to deploy Bryan Woo, the All-Star starter who is active now but has not pitched since Sept. 19 because of pectoral inflammation. After using every other reliever (besides closer Andres Muñoz) in Games 3 and 4, it seems imperative that Wilson find a way to try Woo, a pitcher Toronto has not faced in six months.

“I think that we’re still in good shape in terms of our bullpen,” Wilson said. “And also, we have Bryan down there as well and we’ll utilize him when the time is right.”

Wilson rarely reveals much about his strategy and does not offer deep analysis. Of Josh Naylor’s base running that ended the sixth inning — when right fielder Addison Barger threw him out at third base just after Jorge Polanco scored — Wilson said, “We tend to be aggressive. Sometimes when we’re aggressive, it can backfire.”

True enough, but making two outs on the bases — Leo Rivas was picked off first in the third inning — is never a good look. Naylor said he was trying to get in the way of the throw from Barger, but instead got tangled with Ernie Clement, a former Cleveland teammate. (“I love that guy,” Naylor said. “I kind of felt really, really bad about it.”)

This is Naylor’s seventh career postseason series, and he is used to the type of wild momentum swing that has marked this one. The way to handle it, he said, is to keep perspective.

“You’ve just got to come to the ballpark every day ready to play, ready to work hard, ready to have fun,” Naylor said. “It’s a kid’s game, at the end of the day. I know it’s the postseason and crowds are a little bit louder, lights are a bit brighter, moments are bigger. But even today, it’s still baseball.”

It is. But it isn’t Mariners baseball, not the kind they play here. And if the team cannot reestablish its identity soon, Game 5 will be the home finale for a season that so recently seemed so charmed.