Mariners drop series to Rangers after rally falls short

SEATTLE – They’ve tried changing up the messaging and the pregame routines. They’ve changed their personnel, bringing in different bench players to fill the margins. They’ve made minor tweaks to the lineup and batting order in recent weeks and made a major change before Wednesday’s game. Heck, they’ve even changed up their uniform choices in search of some consistent success.

Perhaps the Mariners can find some sort of consistent offensive production, particularly from their expected producers, in some place other than T-Mobile Park.

On a sunny afternoon in Seattle, where it was warm in the sun and cool everywhere else, the Mariners again mustered below-average offensive production. And on a day when starter Luis Castillo wasn’t quite as dominant as expected, that simply wasn’t going to be enough for a win over the Texas Rangers.

With a disappointing 4-3 loss in the series finale, the Mariners dropped two of three in a series that they would’ve swept with even an average offensive performance. Mariners pitchers held the Rangers to six runs over 27 innings. That should have been good enough to at least win the series.

Instead, they will fly to Detroit with a day off Thursday before opening a three-city, nine-game road trip on Friday vs. the Detroit Tigers.

“That’s not the way I was hoping to end the homestand,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Coming off (Tuesday) night’s game and the momentum I felt that we had going, we just weren’t able to carry it into today’s game, certainly offensively.”

A 3-3 record on the homestand felt anything but satisfying.

“We had a chance for it to be a really good homestand,” Servais said. “It leaves a little sour taste in your mouth today. I think it’s a ballgame everybody feels we should have won. We just didn’t do enough offensively.”

Castillo pitched five innings, allowing three runs on eight hits with no walks and nine strikeouts.

“He gave us a chance and our bullpen did the job again,” Servais said. “Offensively, on days like today, you’ve got to figure out a way to kind of scratch and claw and put some (runs) up there. We had some opportunities late, but not enough.”

After working a quick 1-2-3 first inning and getting a 1-0 lead thanks a Rangers throwing error, Castillo’s pitch count rose quickly over the next two innings. He needed 25 pitches to get through the second inning after he hit a batter and allowed an infield single with two outs to load the bases before striking out Josh Smith.

The third inning ended up being worse. After getting ahead of Marcus Semien 1-2 on three pitches, Castillo threw two wayward sliders into the other batter box to run the count full. His sixth pitch of the at-bat and the inning – a 95-mph fastball down the middle – was deposited off the T-Mobile sign above the visitors bullpen for a solo homer. It tied the game at 1.

Over the next 31 pitches, the Rangers scored two more runs on three hits, including run-scoring doubles from Nathaniel Lowe and Jonah Heim, before Castillo got the third out. A 37-pitch inning after a 25-pitch inning was less than ideal.

“It affected us, and it affected me a lot,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “We battled and battled, and I think the team fought well.”

Castillo reeled the outing back in slightly, working the next two innings scoreless on 28 pitches.

“If you look at the totality of the outing, that’s really the one inning for me it stood out in that he didn’t control counts,” Servais said. “He got behind in the count a little bit. He gave up the leadoff home run to Semien after a long at-bat. He leaves a 3-2 pitch in the middle of the plate and there were some longer bats in that inning. The 0-0, 0-1 counts got away from us a little bit in that inning.”

Facing right-hander Dane Dunning, who was making his second start in place of the injured Jacob deGrom, the Mariners scored just two runs in six innings. A base-running mistake by Ty France after they had just scored on a throwing error in the first inning loomed costly. They got the leadoff hitter on base in the second and fourth inning and didn’t put them in scoring position.

The Mariners cut the lead to 3-2 in the fifth inning. Julio Rodriguez, batting somewhere in the order other than leadoff for the first time since last August, dropped a single into right field. He scored when J.P. Crawford, who took Rodriguez’s spot at the top of the order, pulled a single into right field.

The Rangers got the run back against Castillo’s replacement, Matt Brash, in the sixth inning.

Ezequiel Duran’s ground-ball leadoff single just past a diving Kolten Wong started the problems. Duran advanced to second on Josh Smith’s soft ground-ball single through the left side and score on Semien’s ground-ball single into left field.

Jarred Kelenic, the Mariners best offensive player this season, continued to produce. Facing lefty Brock Burke in the eighth inning with two outs, he sliced a triple into left-center that scored Jose Caballero from first base to cut the lead to 4-3.

“Really good game again by him,” Servais said. “He had two hits with the huge hit there late in the game after he just pulled a home run foul off a really good lefty. He stayed on a heater up and away. It’s been fun watching him swing the bat and see the adjustments he’s made.”

With Kelenic on third, the Rangers called on right-hander Jonathan Hernandez, who walked Eugenio Suarez to put the go-ahead run on base. But Hernandez was able to win a nine-pitch battle with Cal Raleigh, striking him out to end the inning.

Rangers closer Will Smith worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his sixth save, striking out Rodriguez and Teoscar Hernandez.