Mariners denied sweep as Marlins’ young phenom shuts them down

SEATTLE – Following back-to-back victories in which they scored eight runs and made life miserable for Miami Marlins starting pitchers, the Seattle Mariners’ recent offense “surge” over the past five games was suppressed by a 20-year-old phenom.

Right-hander Eury Perez, the Marlins’ top prospect and the No. 6 prospect in baseball, tossed six scoreless innings to set the tone as Miami beat the Mariners 4-1.

At 20 years, 60 days old, Perez was the second-youngest pitcher to appear in a game at T-Mobile Park. The youngest was Felix Hernandez.

Standing 6-foot-8 on a lanky frame that’s primarily arms and legs, Perez used a fastball that averaged 97.4 mph and three solid off-speed pitches to keep the Mariners off-balance.

Called up on May 12 and working on a strict pitch count, Perez pitched into the sixth inning for the first time in his seventh big league start.

He allowed just two hits – a two-out double to Teoscar Hernandez in the fourth and a one-out double to Cal Raleigh in the fifth – but never really seemed in trouble. The Mariners did hit a handful of balls hard to the warning track that were caught, but they also struck out six times.

It was quite the opposite of the outing of Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo, who had a weirdly inefficient and yet relatively effective outing.

Despite having mechanical issues that led to minimal command of his four-seam fastball and tying a career high with six walks, he was still one out away from a quality start. His final line: 5⅔ innings, two runs allowed on two hits, six walks, six strikeouts and a wild pitch.

Perhaps it was a sign of things to come when Castillo walked Luis Arraez and Jorge Soler to start the game. He came back to strike out Bryan De La Cruz and Garrett Cooper and ended the first inning scoreless by getting Jesus Sanchez to ground out to second base.

But he didn’t find consistent command.

In the third inning, he gave up an infield hit to Jonathan Davis and then surrendered a one-out walk to Soler.

He could’ve escaped the inning scoreless when De La Cruz hit a hard ground ball to second, but Jose Caballero struggled to get the ball out of his glove and couldn’t get it to shortstop J.P. Crawford fast enough for a double play. With Davis on third, Castillo uncorked a wild pitch that got past Raleigh for a 1-0 lead.

The Marlins’ other run off Castillo came in the sixth when Soler stayed on a 97-mph fastball on the outside half, sending a homer into the “No-Fly Zone” seating area for his 20th homer of the season. The solo blast made it 2-0.

With two outs in the sixth and Garrett Cooper on first base thanks to a walk, Castillo walked one-time Mariner Jean Segura on four pitches, which isn’t easy to do, ending his outing.

Matt Brash came in and struck out Nick Fortes to end the inning.

Castillo’s six walks in the game tied the same amount of walks he’d issued in his previous four games combined (25 innings pitched).

The Marlins tacked on two more runs in the eighth off reliever Justin Topa.

Down 4-0 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Mariners managed to load the bases with one out off lefty closer A.J. Puk thanks to the Marlins’ defensive miscues. For brief moment it looked they had tied the game when Eugenio Suarez launched a fly to right field.

Jesus Sanchez made a difficult catch look relatively easy, robbing Suarez of a grand slam with a leaping grab at the wall. The Mariners settled for a run on a sac fly. Raleigh lined out to right field to end the game.