The Seattle Mariners suffered a doubtlessly crucial loss on Sunday, as veteran beginning pitcher Luis Castillo departed his begin towards the St. Louis Cardinals with what the staff later termed a left hamstring pressure.
Castillo exited after three innings of labor wherein he allowed two earned runs and struck out three towards one stroll (SEA-STL GameTracker). This season, the 31-year-old Castillo has pitched to a 3.64 ERA over 30 begins. Whereas no timeline has been disclosed by the staff but, it is attainable given the late date on the Main League Baseball calendar that Castillo may miss the rest of the 2024 season if he wants an IL stint. That may be a notable loss, even in gentle of Seattle’s enviable rotation depth. Castillo mentioned after the sport that he’ll get exams in Seattle on Monday.
On one other degree, although, the lack of Castillo for any size of time most likely would not alter the Mariners’ arc this season. Coming into Sunday’s contest, the M’s had a report of 72-71, and so they trailed the first-place Houston Astros within the American League West by 5 1/2 video games. On the wild-card entrance, the Mariners had been 4 1/2 video games out of the third and remaining spot and behind each the Kansas Metropolis Royals and the Boston Purple Sox in that race. Framed one other method, the Mariners got here into Sunday tied with the Detroit Tigers within the playoff chase. Not surprisingly, SportsLine provides the M’s only a 13.1% probability of constructing the playoffs.
These are disappointing straits for a staff that as just lately as June 18 was 13 video games over .500 and had a 10-game lead within the division. Extra peculiar play by Seattle in tandem with a reassertion of Houston’s authority undid all that work, and now the M’s are more likely to miss the postseason for a second straight yr. That trajectory already value Scott Servais his job as supervisor, however president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto could also be secure even when the Mariners miss the playoffs. Given the membership’s present spot within the standings and the lack of one in every of their rotation stalwarts in Castillo, Dipoto may have each ounce of no matter job safety he has.
