14,160 people went to Target Field on a Sunday - I feel like most of them thought they were going to a different Target and just stayed.
Mariners at Twins
Luis Castillo threw five innings. He allowed seven earned runs on seven hits. He struck out three. He gave up two home runs. Kody Clemens - a man whose most famous relative threw baseballs considerably harder - hit a three-run shot off him in the third. Byron Buxton added a two-run homer in the fourth. By the time Castillo walked off the mound in the fifth, the Mariners trailed 7-0 and the game had the competitive tension of a car alarm nobody’s coming to turn off.
The kid on the other side, Connor Prielipp, a guy making the major league minimum in his first career win, held the Mariners to one hit through five. One hit. So you’ve got a rookie out there dealing and your $108 million arm is getting shelled by a guy named Kody with a K. Nobody on the broadcast is going to say it so I will: that’s a breach of contract. Not legally. Spiritually.
Cal Raleigh hit a two-run homer in the eighth to make it 8-4 and for about forty-five seconds it felt like something. Then Minnesota scored three more in the bottom of the inning. The final was 11-4. Nine men left on base. Five total hits. The Mariners showed up to Target Field, got punched in the mouth before the third inning was over, and then spent six innings just sort of being there.
AROUND THE DIVISION: The AL West Standings
Let me just read you the AL West standings and you tell me if this sounds like a real professional baseball division. Oakland: first place, 15-13. Texas: a game and a half back. Seattle: two games back. The Los Angeles Angels: four back, on a four-game losing streak. The Houston Astros: four and a half games behind the Oakland Athletics.
Houston. Four and a half back of Oakland. Yordan Alvarez hit a three-run homer yesterday and they beat Kansas City 7-3 and they are still eleven and eighteen. The Astros won a World Series three years ago. Now they’re chasing a team that held its own relocation press conference in a minor league parking lot.
The Angels lost to the White Sox yesterday. The Chicago White Sox scored seven runs in the seventh inning to beat them 8-7. The White Sox. Everyone in the AL West is just taking turns being the worst version of themselves. First place is available to whoever wants it least.
THE FARM REPORT: Bryce Miller’s Rehab in Everett
Tacoma had the night off. But let me give you two pitching lines and you tell me the punchline. Line A: 3.0 IP, 0 R, 6 K, 47 pitches. That’s Bryce Miller, rehabbing in High-A Everett on Thursday, not yet cleared to return. Line B: 5.0 IP, 7 ER, 3 K, 2 HR. That’s Luis Castillo, the Mariners’ number one starter, pitching in an actual major league game last night. Miller’s still working his way back. He’s in Everett facing kids. And he looked more like a big league pitcher on Thursday than Castillo did against the Twins on Sunday. I’m not saying rush him back. I’m saying the bar is on the ground and a guy on a rehab assignment just tripped over it.
Fourteen and sixteen is not a record, it’s a relationship you know you should leave but the lease isn’t up until October.
Bobby Bunt