Mariners’ Luis Castillo makes spring debut in loss to Diamondbacks

D’Backs 3, Mariners 1 at the Peoria Sports Complex

Notable

Luis Castillo made his first start of the spring, pitching 1 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on four hits with two strikeouts. He worked an easy 1-2-3 first inning. He opened the game with a swinging strikeout of Jordan Lawlar on a 96-mph fastball. He got a little help from left fielder Rhylan Thomas, who made a ridiculous diving catch on a pop-up near the warning track in foul territory for the final out of the inning.

“Pretty phenomenal play,” manager Dan Wilson said of the catch. “I wasn’t sure if he was going to get to it. We saw him make a big catch out in center field yesterday after a long run. When he came up briefly last year for us, he made a nice play in Texas down the line. Defensively, he’s able to run the ball down.”

In the second inning, Castillo allowed back-to-back singles and then left a 3-2 fastball up in the zone that A.J. Vukovich sent over the wall in right-center.

“The important thing was going out there and feeling healthy,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “I was pounding the strike zone.”

The seven relievers that followed Castillo combined to work the rest of the game scoreless, allowing five hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

The Mariners lone run came in the seventh inning when Cole Young hit a ground ball to second base, scoring Brennen Davis on the fielder’s choice.

Player of the game

Jose A. Ferrer made his third appearance of the spring and looked dominant, working a 1-2-3 fifth inning with a strikeout. Ferrer threw 14 pitches with 10 strikes.

Quotable

“He’s got two pretty good off-speed weapons — the slider, and then that changeup too. We wanted to get some confidence in both of those and he threw a lot of them tonight. I thought they looked really good. When you can throw 98 mph with some sink and then counteract that with a couple of good off-speed pitches you are going to get a lot of people out.” — Wilson on Ferrer

On Tap

The Mariners will be back at the Peoria Sports Complex on Saturday afternoon but as the visiting team when they face the San Diego Padres. Kade Anderson, Seattle’s first-round pick in 2025 (No. 3 overall) will make his first start of any sort in a Mariners’ uniform. Also scheduled to pitch for Seattle are right-handers Emerson Hancock, Randy Dobnak, Blas Castaño and lefty Jhonathan Díaz. The Padres will start lefty JP Sears. First pitch is set for 12:10 p.m. PT. The game will be live streamed on Mariners.com and MLB.TV.