Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Luis Castillo Comes Through, Seattle Mariners Offense EXPLODES in Series-Clinching Win

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Ty and Colby react to the Mariners' 8-3 win over the Astros, which featured a nice bounceback from both Luis Castillo and Seattle's offense. Click to learn more about the Everydayer Club! Join the Ahoy, Sailors Discord server! Check out our Patreon! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Follow the show on Bluesky: @lockedonmariners | @tdg | @mlbcolby Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! 5-Hour ENERGY The funfetti flavor is BACK on https://5hourEnergy.com or Amazon, crack open Confetti Craze 5-hour ENERGY®️ shot today! Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast KALSHI For a limited time, download the Kalshi app and use code LOCKEDONto get ten dollars when you trade ten. Kalshi. Trade on anything.  HIMS To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit https://Hims.com/LOCKEDONMLB. Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel.Right now new customers can bet just five dollars and get one-hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets if your first bet wins.Visit https://FANDUEL.COMto get started — Play Your Game.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The mayor has had a lot of questions, a lot of concerns on the pitching side of things going into today's game. But Luis Castillo was pretty good. And the offense exploded once again to secure a series dub down in Houston. Let's talk about it. Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

Ahoy, Sailors, it is Thursday, May 14th, 2026. My name is Tiding Azales, and I'm joined as always by my co-co's Colby Patnode. Marys beat the Astros 8 to 3 this afternoon to secure a 3-1 series. Victory could bounce back from the offense after a rough one last night. We'll talk about them in a bit. But let's start with Luis Castillo Colby. A lot of questions about him going into this game. How many innings would he give you?

Would he be able to give you quality innings? Would he actually give you a chance to win this game, especially with a short staff bullpen? And the answer was yes. Yes, he did. Four hits, three runs, six strikeouts, three walks on 108 pitches through five and two thirds. Two of those runs coming off a chief. cheap double that head off the wall of the Crawford boxes had an expected batting average of just 100. That's why he wasn't able to go a full six in this one.

What did you make of his day? Well, it didn't start out great. It was concerning. It was hard to watch. It was- He didn't give up any runs during those first couple of innings, to be fair, but- But for the grace of God, to be fair. Yeah, it was it was some late stage Felix stuff.

And you're sitting there like, oh, this is, you know, you had the nice three nothing lead. And it did not seem like they were going to keep that lead for very long. But something happened in the third. And yes, he gave up the home run to Yordon, which is an insane home run. I mean, now, to be fair, the pitch was piped. It was a pipe fastball down the middle of the plate. But like dead center field in Houston, that is insane. Like Yordon finally went off.

thankfully, you know, came in a day where you, the two guys sitting ahead of Yordon went 0 for nine with four strikeouts. So nobody on base for Yordon to, to drive in, which is basically the best you'd hope for. But besides that, yeah,

he struck out the side there. And he really kind of cruised in third, the fourth, and the fifth. And then, you know, ran in some problems in the sixth. He was clearly gassed. He was clearly running on empty towards the end there. And he's still in pretty much any other ballpark

in baseball probably goes a full six with allowing just one run. But the Crawford Foxes give it, then they take it away at times. But yeah, it was really interesting from Luis de Velo was up. He averaged 95.7 today, so 96. But we saw some 97s,

quite a few of them. In this one, we saw 96 in the last inning of this game. So it was pretty interesting pitch mix-wise, too. It was much more of a kitchen sink method. He actually threw the change-up. a lot today, which is a pitch that he's kind of gotten rid of more or less since coming to Seattle. And, you know, he doubled up on his usage of it today. It was on the year, it's 11% usage.

Today it was 22%. And it was effective. He got three whiffs on it on nine swings. So that's a nice number there. He got three called strikes as well on that pitch. And so, yeah, the change up was a legitimate offering. Two of his six strikeouts came on the changeup. And then again, the slider was mixed in at roughly the same rate as was a sinker.

He threw his four-seeing fastball 41% of the time. And then his other three pitches came in at, sorry, 38% of the time for the four-seamers. His other three pitches came in at 22%, 20%, 20%, 19%. So it really was more of a mix. 10 whiffs, nothing really to write home about, 28% whiff rate on the forcing fastball. It's a good number. It's not great for Luis, but it's a good number for just about anybody else. seven called strikes on the four seamer, eight called strikes on this on the slider.

He was using the slider to steal strikes. And then he was putting guys away with the fastball. So it was kind of a unique look to Luis today. And again, after that second inning, he really just started to dial it up. And he was throwing crossbody, you know, like he does. But he was actually landing it on the outside corner or glove side, his glove side, with pretty much regularity in those last three innings, three plus innings, let's call it.

And then, yeah, once he started to wear down a little bit, once he got, you know, 95 plus pitches, the command started to wane a little bit. And he was really trying to grit through and give the Mariners six full innings. And again, any other ballpark he probably would have. But so it goes sometimes. But yeah, Louise looked, this is easily his best start

since the first one against the Yankees. the Velo was maintained. You know, the first inning, basketball was 95.4. And the last inning, it was 95.6. The Velo on the sinker was the same in the sixth as it was in the first. So, yeah, it was kind of an interesting mix. We'll see what the change up, if that's an evolution.

Or we'll see if it's matchup base. Now, we're not 100% sure what Luis is going to look like role-wise going forward. We know that they're going to. to piggyback. We don't know if he's going to start the game. And Bryce is going to piggyback him or if it's the other way around. I don't think we know that yet. And then after that, we don't know. We don't know. Are they going to do six man again?

Are they going to, you know, is he going to go to the bullpen? We just don't know. So there's a lot of, you know, questions about Luis's future. But for tonight or today, rather, he looked pretty good, all things considered. And definitely his best start since, you know, start number one. And the VILA was good. The change up was a weapon today. Actually got some value out of that changeup.

And, you know, the slider was a pitch that he was not just trying to get whiffs with. He wasn't trying to expand the zone with that. He was throwing it for strikes. And it was a legit pitch that they had to recognize and they had to respect. 68% zone percentage on that slider. He was throwing it in the zone. And he used the change up to try and get his chase in this one. So really nice day for Luis again.

First couple of innings kind of skew the whole thing. And then the double in the 12th or the 12th. the double in the sixth to kind of, you know, into his day was kind of fluky. So the stat line, it's kind of one of those weird things where it's like, it's not as good as it looked because those first two inings were rough, but it's not as bad as it looks because he should have gone six innings and one run ball.

And so overall, it was a very solid start for Luis, definitely. Yeah, I mean, if those two runs, you know, occur maybe in the first two innings and that's his final stat line. And that's how it kind of goes. You feel like,

right, that's, that's how, that's about how it felt, you know. But yeah, overall, I thought he was, he was really good. And, you know, this game went a lot like Tuesday's game where you have a lot of concerns about the pitching side of things. Today, I mean, you know, with Ferrer being reinstated from the paternity list, they only had six guys in the bullpen because he's still in Seattle, Ferrer. And maybe they only had like four guys who were truly available all the bullpen. I would pitch three of the last four.

He was probably not available unless there was an emergency. Munoz had pitched two of the last three. So, yeah, and again, they still have to play two more series before they get an off day. Yeah. It really was getting dire out there. Yes. So I was curious to see how far they would take it with Luis. And if you remember, I think this was last year in Houston.

I think it was a day game in Houston. Dan had Luis throw 115 pitches. Yeah, something. Yeah. And that was like fairly early. Yeah, that was like fairly early on in the season as well. Yeah, it feels like every time they go down to Houston, they have some sort of like bullpen issue that they have to manage. It's kind of weird fluky thing.

Like, yeah. And then obviously last night's game goes to extras. Yeah. Thankfully, we don't have to spend too much time talking about last night's game. We will talk about Bryce Miller. Yeah, we will talk about Bryce Miller tomorrow along with Cal Raleigh, more in depth. but yeah yeah

but it worked out very well for us Ty remember what I said at the beginning of the series like hey win three out of four and if you're going to lose a game lose that game on Wednesday because we're not going to be able to talk about it we're doing yeah so yeah we we had a discussion off air that we were like if they could win three or four

at least and the one loss would be that Wednesday game because we don't have to do a show after it like that would be the ideal and that's that's exactly how it played out so yeah now they have a four three road trip could have easily been six and one and probably should have been if they had played halfway decent baseball. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

From a selfish perspective, if you told me they were going to win three out of four, worked out perfect. So worked out great. Worked out great for specifically you and I. Yes. But yeah. Not so much for Anders. But again, like, like Tuesday, you know, you wound up not having to use really anyone of

consequence out of the bullpen. I got to give a huge shout out to Nick DeVila. Again, you know, not getting strikeouts, not really getting whiffs or anything like that, but he's finding ways to induce weak contact consistently. And he's getting, he's gotten some big outs for this club. He's a strike. He probably been down a lot of their, a lot of their big arms. So shout out to Nick DeVila.

And then Domingo Gonzalez was able to go to in this one, gets a couple of strikeouts. Good for him. You know, he's been in this organization for a while now. And he's finally getting an opportunity. And he's, and he's looked. solid in his first two outings. So good for Demand Paulus.

One of these guys is going down at some point. We know that. Matt Brash begins his rehab assignment tonight. I imagine he's only going to need one outing, maybe two. So unless there's a setback, you're going to see Brash at some point on this homestand, which is great. And obviously, you'll see for rare on Friday.

So you're going to get two big arms back and that'll help. But yeah, you got to give credit to the guys like DeVila. Or as Dan Wilson called him in the postgame, show today, Davila? It's like, have we been pronouncing this wrong the entire time? Or is Dan I'm doing a funny or does he just know? Growing up, growing up, I had a friend named Danny DeVila. So I'm going, I'm going off of that. I'm going off of DeVila. Yeah. So. Uh, I thought it was DeVila, but. Well, I think, I think someone released a pronunciation for it. Uh, I forget if it was

Alex May or someone, it was someone on Twitter. Uh, maybe it was out of Jude. Yeah, Jude, I think you posted. I'm pretty sure it's Devila or Davila. Yeah, I thought it was Devila, but whatever. Dan said Davila at the post game or whatever. And it's like, uh, an name or like, whatever, but, uh, he just doesn't know his name, which fine. But yeah, him and Gonzalez, obviously, you know, they're not going to be available for the

next day or two. And by then, one of them will probably be sent back down for Matt Brash, but they were huge tonight. And you were able to save the rest of the bullpen. and you wouldn't have been able to do that if the offense hadn't continued to play add-on, which is something they also did on Tuesday. Today's game and Tuesday's game, very similar. It's the stuff in the middle of the sandwich that made it, you know, very aggravating to watch.

But other than that, yeah, it was a relatively stress-free series. And just like on Tuesday, you got a big offensive performance that also put things out of reach and allowed you to, you know, to comfortably use Domingo Gonzalez for two innings of this one. So we'll talk about those guys in just a moment. But first a reminder of this episode of the longtime airs podcast is brought to you by Rocket Money and Fandul. If you've ever opened your bank account and thought, where did all my money go? You're not alone. Keeping track of subscriptions, spending, and bills can get overwhelming fast.

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Thank you so much for making us your first listen for all things, Mariners. And also thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. Don't forget to check out the Every Day or Club for ad-free episodes and access to a group with me and other listeners of the show. Tap the link in the description or go to locked-on, Marriors.com to learn more. And if you want to hear from me and Colby even more

and help support the show, we have a Patreon. It's called Control the Zone. And on there, we talk, Marys, Seahawks, all the good stuff. For more information, go to patreon.com forward slash control the zone link in the description of this episode. So big day for the Mariners' offense, eight runs on 11 hits. Brennan Donovan flirted with the cycle,

first Mariners cycle in a very long time. Unfortunately, he fell a Homer shy of that. But started the game off with a double, then hit a triple later on, and then singled in his third at bat of the game. So he had two opportunities to go yard and just wasn't able to do it. So he finishes the day three for five,

but three hard hit balls for Donnie. Good to see from him. Luke Rayleigh with another Homer on this road trip, three run blasts there in the first inning. He finishes the day. two for five with those three RBI. A couple of hits for J.P. Crawford. He later played some ad on in this game.

Nice to see the mayor's offense play some add on in this one, especially, you know, with the uncertainty around this pitching staff today and all that. You know, they had that frustrating moment early on in the game where Donovan hit that triple and they weren't able to bring them in. And, you know, you're thinking, oh, God, it's going to be one of those days, right? But later they were able to make up for that and then some and were able to play add on two-run RBI, two-run two-out RBI from Cole Young, another two-out RBI from Cole. It seems like he just, that's prime time for Cole Young, really is two-outs and runners in scoring position continues to come through.

And then Mitch Garver, kind of the big story in this one, because obviously we get the news before the game that Cal Raleigh finally hitting the IL with his oblique thing. So Mitch Garber, he's going to be the everyday catcher essentially for this club for the first. seeable future. And he gets off to a nice start. You know, had a nice day behind the plate and hit his first homer of the season, two run blast to make things five to one. A nice little response there after,

Yordon went yard to make a three to one there. So yeah, overall, you know, pretty good day for the offense. But again, a very important first game as the everyday catcher for Mitch Garver there. And,

you know, I tweeted this earlier. I feel like Garver, even though he entered today with like, I think a 77 WRC plus. I think he's done some pretty good things this year and that backup catcher roll. And I feel like, look, it's never a good position, you know, when you lose your, you know, the guy who finished second and MVP voting last year, no matter how much he struggled this year. Like, that's never going to be a good position to be in.

But with Garver and what he's done so far this year and, you know, Pareto looked pretty good in his cup of coffee last week, I feel like there are worse situations that the mayors could find themselves in with their catching spot right now. And again, you know, a nice little first step here for Garver. Yeah. We'll dive into the catcher situation going forward more tomorrow. But yeah, obviously, you know, you're going to need Garber to step up regardless of, you know, if they make an outside acquisition or what have you.

Like, Garver's going to be the main guy, you know, and Parada is going to have to play because Garver's 34 years old. He can't catch on the same schedule that Cal. caught on. I don't think you want anybody to try and do that. So yeah, for Garver to come out and have a really good day. Also had a good day behind the plate. One a couple of key challenges. And I think he's 12 with 14, they said on the broadcast today. It challenges this year. That sounds about right. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's some, you know, and it's not like he's challenging obvious strikes either. Two of his challenges today were just like slivers of the baseball in the zone. So he had three hard hit balls

in this one, obviously the big home run as well. And again, he continues to work well. The pitchers like throwing to him. And so regardless of what the defensive metrics say, the pitchers do trust Garver. And he's been fine. He's been totally playable beyond the plate. I think he's at bat.

He usually gives you a quality at bat. It doesn't mean it's always going to end in a hit. In fact, it's rarely going to end in a hit. But when he does make contact, it's probably pretty loud. He probably works the count. He's always a threat to draw a walk. And obviously, he's always a threat to hit a home run, too.

So Garber is a very good catcher to have in this particular situation. Obviously, you'd rather have a healthy cow, but you saw what unhealthy cow look like for about the last two weeks. Don't need that. That's not helping anybody. So, yeah, it was a big day for Mitch, especially when he needed it. And it was really a big day for the bottom of the lineup. It's pretty funny. The Mariners, we saw probably Julio's two worst games in like the last month.

and in those two games, the Mariners scored 18 runs. I mean, now part of that is that the Houston Nashville's pitching is terrible. It is God off. Really bad.

Yeah. But what are you going to do? That's the opponent. You know, you still have to hit them, and they didn't hit them last night, despite being terrible. So, like, you know,

what are you going to do? That's the reality of the situation. But the offense, very good tonight. Again, Julio didn't have a very good game. Randy did walk a couple times, but he wasn't a huge factor like he had been in the previous handful of games either. So it really was, you know, that bottom half of the lineup.

It was Luke and it was Dom and JP. And obviously, you know, the guys at the bottom there, Garber and Cole Young. So, yeah, it was a very good night. And it kind of looks like Luke is kind of, as we talk about, he's a very streaky hitter. Looks like he's turned the corner and he's setting back in the opposite direction, which is fantastic timing because the Mariners are going to need some guys to step up. particularly in the power department without Cal Raleigh going to be in the lineup for, I imagine at least a month before Cal comes back, probably longer.

But again, we'll talk about that in more detail tomorrow. But yeah, the office was very good today. Well, you're going to need someone to, you know, hit for power in this lineup because, you know, we talked about this going into the season, all the home runs that you lost with the departures of Palanco and Suarez. And obviously, Cal's not going to hit 60 again. Well, now that expected number on Cal is going to go down even further. you're going to need Luke Rayleigh. You're going to need Dom-Cand zone to bring more power to this lineup.

And yeah, Rayleigh had a fantastic road trip specifically with putting balls over the wall. So hopefully he keeps that going once the club gets back to Seattle tomorrow. But yeah, you know, Garver, again, like, you know, he came into this game hitting a buck 67 and slugging a buck 88, right? Like, that's not good. But he has done some nice things this year. You know, right now after today's game, he's running a 21 and a half percent. walk rate. That's great. Like that helps. It's not like, you know, he can do a lot on the base pass for you, but still,

he's getting on base. Cool. Great. Not making out. This is the whole job of a hitter. So walks are good. Yeah. And then, you know, coming into today, he was running a 53.3% hard hit rate. It's fantastic. Honestly, I understand it's not a high bar to clear. So, but I think this is the best he's looked at the plate in a Mariners uniform is how he's looked this year. Again, not a high bar. of clear, but I think he's more often than not, he's giving you a quality app at bad every time he comes up there. And when he does make contact, he's sitting the ball hard with regularity. And so, again, he's going to be an important player going forward, at least in the short term.

But I'm actually reasonably confident that the Mariners catching situation, while no longer a plus, not that it really has been this year, but, you know, in general, is not going to be a black hole. So, yeah, and obviously games like today, they really do help because you want to get off to a good start and all that. And, you know, Mitch certainly did. But yeah, obviously lots of help up and down the lineup today. It's just kind of funny. Like your two hottest hitters over the last month or so, your most consistent hitter on top of that. Didn't really impact this game offensively at all.

And you still scored eight. And that's without Cal. That's without Julio contributing at all. and that's without Randy getting his normal three hits. You know, so good on the Mariners to really. And again, we see the depth and the length of this lineup. If they can ever all get healthy at the same time and stay healthy, you know, this is a fierce lineup, particularly against right-handed pitching.

Left-handed pitching, they got some work to do. But right-handed pitching, there's not a lot of breaks in this lineup. All right. Well, that is going to do it for our show. Thank you so much for joining us here on the lockdown Marrists podcast. part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day. And once again, if you never miss an episode, it's time to make it official. Join the Lockdown Every Day or club and get out of free audio, access to our members-only Discord and more, all built for our most loyal fans.

For Colby Pat Nogh, I'm Tad-Azalus. Be sure give us a follow on Twitter at L-O underscore Marrars. You can follow me at C-Pat-E-1-1. We're also on Blue Sky. You can follow me at TDG, Colby at MLB Colby and the show at Lockdown Mariners. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok at Lockdown Mariner's. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day and we'll see you next time. Peace.

Thank you.