Even without his best stuff, Luis Castillo managed to carry on one of the best stretches of starting pitching in Mariners history.
Castillo scattered just two hits over seven scoreless innings Sunday, Luke Raley homered for the second day in a row and the Mariners completed a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels, 5-1, to finish off a successful homestand at T-Mobile Park.
“I genuinely enjoy going out every day knowing that our starting pitching is going to keep us in the game and give us an opportunity to win every single day,” said Raley, the Mariners’ first-year outfielder. “It’s just a lot of fun playing here.”
Raley hit a line-drive home run that just cleared the wall in right field in the fourth inning against Angels starter Griffin Canning, and the Mariners (34-27) moved to a season-best seven games over .500 to maintain their four-game lead atop the AL West.
Castillo had one of his best starts since Seattle acquired him at the trade deadline two years ago. He allowed just a two-out double to Taylor Ward in the first inning and a broken-bat single to Kyren Paris in the third inning.
He walked three, struck out six and induced 21 swings and misses.
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Following Bryan Woo on Friday and Bryce Miller on Saturday, Seattle’s starting pitchers combined to throw 19 scoreless innings in the series, allowing just eight hits with 17 strikeouts.
It’s the first time in franchise history that Mariners starters have not allow a run in any three-game series.
“Every day when I come to the ballpark, I feel we’re gonna win,” manager Scott Servais said. “Our starting pitchers are gonna give us a chance; they’re gonna keep us in the game. Everybody in that room knows it. We’re gonna have a chance to win every game.”
The Mariners lead the majors with 37 quality starts, and they improved to 30-12 when their starter pitches at least six innings.
The Mariners, now 21-11 at home, closed out this homestand winning six of seven against the Astros and Angels.
“Being at home is probably the best advantage any athlete can have in any sport,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “But being here, especially in this ballpark, with the fans that we have, they really do transfer that energy that we have and it does make us want to go on the mound and pitch for them.”
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Castillo (5-6, 2.99 ERA in 13 starts) needed just 33 pitches to get through three innings, but he labored through a 30-pitch fourth inning, eventually working around two walks by getting Jo Adell to fly out to Julio Rodriguez in center field.
That would be about the only real threat Castillo would face.
Early in the game, Castillo’s fastball velocity was down a tick, and his slider wasn’t particularly sharp. Once he got through the fourth, he heeded advice from pitching coach Pete Woodworth that helped him settle in for the next three innings.
“He told me that I was going a little fast — to kind of find a pace and maintain that rhythm,” Castillo said. “And that’s what I did after that.”
On Friday night, Adell provided the Angels’ only previous runs of the series when he hit a pinch-hit grand slam off the Mariners’ bullpen in the seventh inning.
Mariners pitchers held the Angels scoreless for the next 19 innings.
A day after their most comfortable victory of the season — a 9-0 romp over the Angels powered by a J.P. Crawford grand slam — the Mariners returned to form Sunday to sweat out another low-scoring slog.
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That is, until Canning finally exited and the Mariners lineup, as it has done so often lately, did some damage to the bullpen.
Leading 1-0 going into the eighth, the Mariners scored four runs —all with two outs — to put the game out of reach.
The Mariners did benefit from an error on Angels shortstop Zach Neto on a slow grounder off the bat of Ty France with two outs. That loaded the bases for Raley, who was plunked in the backside on a 95-mph sinker from Luis Garcia, scoring Josh Rojas from third base to give the Mariners a 2-0 lead.
Mitch Garver was then rewarded for a patient at-bat, turning on a 95-mph sinker from Garcia and sending it into the left-field corner for a three-run double — 105.6 mph off the bat — to extend the Mariners’ lead to 5-0.
Garver was 2 for 4 Sunday to bust out of an 0-for-20 skid.
The Angels (21-38) have lost eight of their last nine games. Yes, they’re the last-place team in the AL West. Even so, Servais said he has liked the offensive approach in three games since the club fired offensive coordinator Brant Brown on Friday.
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“I think we’re more aggressive,” Servais said. “We look like we’re attacking the baseball and not so defensive at the plate. That’s what stands out for me. … Up and down the lineup, guys are just more on the attack. Let’s be the hunter instead of the hunted. And that’s what it looks like to me in the last few days.”
Ryne Stanek worked around Luis Rengifo’s one-out single in the eighth inning to pitch a scoreless frame, and Mike Baumann closed it out in the ninth, allowing one unearned run after a rare Crawford error.
It was the Mariners’ second sweep of the season, after taking three games from the Cincinnati Reds at home in April.
The Mariners open a three-game series in Oakland on Tuesday, following a rare day off Monday — their first after a stretch of 17 games in 17 days since May 16. They went 10-7 in those 17 games, which included a 4-6 road trip to the East Coast.
“The guys in that clubhouse are super competitive. And we talk about it all the time — just keep competing,” Servais said. “You can say all that, you can compete as hard as you want, [but] you also need talent — and we have talent. And it’s starting to get on a little roll here.”
Adam Jude: ajude@seattletimes.com; Adam Jude covers the Mariners and other teams for The Seattle Times.
