Castillo caps dazzling weekend of pitching in Mariners' sweep

SEATTLE -- The Rock cooked up something special for Sunday Night Baseball, and the rest of the Mariners’ cast was happy to pitch in.

Coming into the series finale against the Mets on a run of six consecutive quality starts, Luis Castillo hit another gear. He matched his season high with nine strikeouts and allowed just one run on four hits in six innings to lead the way in a 12-1 victory as the Mariners completed a three-game sweep.

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Prime-time baseball meant a rare 4:10 p.m. PT start time in Seattle. And that meant a wicked shadow line that crossed in front of home plate in the middle of the second inning -- making pitches go from sunshine into shade on their way to the batter -- and didn’t cross to behind the mound until midway through the top of the fifth.

“He’s got a good fastball, anyway, so it’s tough to hit,” catcher Cal Raleigh said. “You combine that with the shadows, with the game plan and with how well he was locating it, it was kind of a perfect storm.”

Castillo took advantage of that window to the absolute fullest, at one point striking out five batters in a row. The right-hander finished with 12 swings and misses, and ended his outing with a whiff rate of at least 30% on his fastball, his slider and his sinker.

Midway through that streak of strikeouts, Castillo got Jeff McNeil swinging for his fifth punchout of the evening and the 1,300th of his career. He’s the 24th active pitcher to reach that threshold, and the 14th Domincan-born hurler to get there.

“To me, it’s kind of a big testament,” Castillo said through translator Freddie Llanos. “It’s a lot. I’ve been in this league for seven years, and 1,300 strikeouts, that’s a lot.”

As the shadows’ impact lessened, the Mets began to make harder contact, but a diving grab by Randy Arozarena helped Castillo get through the fifth inning unscathed. That stretched the Mariners’ scoreless streak -- dating back to the final four innings of their finale against the Tigers on Thursday -- to 27 innings, their longest since June 9-13, 2004.

Seattle pitchers tossed 23 consecutive scoreless innings to open the series, the second-longest such streak to start a set in franchise history. The streak was snapped an out shy of one more inning when McNeil tagged Castillo for a solo home run with two outs in the sixth -- the only run Seattle allowed all series.

“That’s a credit to our pitching being aggressive, being on the attack, getting your secondary pitches in play, not getting in bad counts,” manager Scott Servais said. “All of those things have to add up -- and on top of that, you’ve got to play outstanding defense.”

And for the second straight game, the Mariners’ bats followed the momentum from the field with a knockout blow.

Dominic Canzone, making his first start since coming off the injured, led off the bottom of the fifth with a double. Two batters later, Arozarena chopped an infield single that shortstop Francisco Lindor couldn’t handle, bringing in a run and extending the inning for Raleigh. He promptly blasted the first pitch he saw out to right field for a two-run home run to make it 4-0.

Raleigh added another first-pitch home run a frame later -- capping a six-run sixth -- and finished his day 3-for-4 with a walk and five RBIs.

Of Raleigh’s 26 home runs this season, six have come on the first pitch and 14 have come within the first two pitches of the at-bat.

“When he’s up there, he’s hunting pitches,” Servais said. “He’s got all kinds of power. And if you make a mistake and leave the ball in his happy zone, we’re really happy, because he’s got so much power.”

Jorge Polanco added a three-hit day, including his 11th home run of the season. Canzone marked his return with a two-double night. At the top of the order, Victor Robles and Arozarena both drove in a pair of runs.

And following Castillo, Collin Snider and Austin Voth both put down scoreless frames, before 22-year-old Troy Taylor got the chance to make his Major League debut on the grandest regular-season stage Seattle’s seen in two decades -- and learn the Mariners’ win dance on the fly.

For a team that’s in a dogfight with the Astros atop the AL West standings, going into a pivotal nine-game road trip, the spirits in the clubhouse are arguably as high as they’ve been all year.

“Fun day for our guys,” Servais said. “Our guys were enjoying it and having a good time. And they should; we’re playing good baseball.”