SEATTLE — After coming home with a huge advantage in the American League Championship Series, the Seattle Mariners quickly squandered it on the mound.
Luis Castillo turned in Seattle’s second consecutive shaky start and the Toronto Blue Jays pounded Mariners pitching again in an 8-2 victory that tied the best-of-seven ALCS at two games apiece.
Seattle starters have given up 11 runs and 13 hits in 6 1/3 innings over the past two games, and the entire staff has allowed 21 runs, 29 hits and seven homers in 18 innings.
“They’re a good team,” Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh said. “When you leave pitches in the middle, they usually take advantage. So we’ve just got to do a better job of executing.”
After winning twice on the road in Canada, the Mariners arrived home to sellout crowds needing two wins in three potential games in their own ballpark to reach the franchise’s first World Series.
It seemed an ideal setup.
Now, no matter what occurs in Game 5, they’re going to have to travel north of the border once again to try to close out the series in Toronto.
“This is two good teams going at it,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson said. “This is what the Championship Series is all about. We will make our adjustments and continue to do the things that we do that make us successful as well.”
The winning formula for the AL West champion Mariners this year has been no secret to the rest of the league: They had strong starting pitching and a stingy bullpen, and their lineup is stacked with home run hitters.
Seattle hit three homers in Game 3 and another in Game 4, but the pitching staff has flopped at T-Mobile Park.
Mariners starter George Kirby was rocked for eight runs and eight hits — including three homers — in four innings of a 13-4 loss. The 32-year-old Castillo didn’t even last that long. He left with the bases loaded and was charged with three runs and five hits on 48 pitches in 2 1/3 innings.
No. 9 batter Andrés Giménez homered off Castillo — the second two-run shot for Giménez in two days.
Left-handed reliever Gabe Speier walked in a run and gave up an RBI double to George Springer, who scored on Matt Brash’s wild pitch to make it 5-1 in the fourth.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. connected off Eduard Bazardo in the seventh for his fifth postseason homer.
“They’re a good hitting team, and we’re aggressive with our pitches,” Speier said. “They got us in the last two, for sure. We’re going to continue to attack. We need to play a little bit better, throw a little bit better pitches. But other than that, keep attacking.”
Wilson also insisted the Mariners will keep going right at Blue Jays hitters with strikes.
“On the mound, we attack the zone, and we just need to continue to get back to that,” he said. “That’s what we do well, and we’ll get back to that tomorrow and bounce back in the series.”
Josh Naylor hit an early solo homer off 41-year-old Toronto starter Max Scherzer and finished 3 for 3 at the plate, but the rest of the Mariners went 2 for 26 combined. And their best chance at a comeback was thwarted when Naylor made a baserunning blunder to end the sixth, getting thrown out at third base on an RBI single by Eugenio Suárez.
Seattle shortstop J.P. Crawford, the longest-tenured player on the Mariners roster, said the plan for Game 5 is simple: flush the bad feelings from the last two games and get ready to play.
“Our game is tomorrow,” Crawford said. “Be ready for that. Get some good sleep and be ready to compete tomorrow.”
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