CLEVELAND — Well, on the bright side for the Cleveland Guardians none of their pitchers punched the mound or any other objects in anger in yet another loss to the Mariners.
Though the frustrations for Cleveland are somewhat understandable when it comes to playing Seattle.
With a decisive 6-1 victory that didn’t feel even that close, the Mariners have defeated Cleveland four times in their last five meetings.
The Guardians were dealing with the repercussions of that aggravation on Friday night in a less-than-full Progressive Field. Right-handed pitcher Zach Plesac, who was scheduled to start for Cleveland, was placed the injured list about five hours before first pitch with a fracture in his pitching hand.
While Plesac told Cleveland reporters that he wasn’t sure how he suffered the fracture, manager Terry Francona intimated that the injury occurred when Plesac punched the pitcher’s mound of T-Mobile Park after serving up a massive solo homer to Jake Lamb in the one game Cleveland has won in the season series.
With Plesac unable to go, pitching prospect Cody Morris was called up to make his MLB debut in what was expected to be a bullpen game.
The Mariners scored three runs off Morris in his two innings of work with Mitch Haniger ripping a pair of RBI doubles off the rookie and Cal Raleigh added his first of two homers on the night.
But Raleigh broke the game open in the sixth inning, smashing a three-run homer to deep right-center to make it 6-0.
Facing the Guardians in back-to-back outings, Mariners starter Luis Castillo delivered another outstanding outing. And this time his teammates had provided enough run support and the bullpen didn’t blow the game late.
Castillo pitched six scoreless innings, allowing four hits with a walk, four strikeouts and a hit by pitch to improve to 2-1 with the Mariners. In the back-to-back starts vs. the Guardians, he’s pitched 12 innings, allowing one run on eight hits with two walks and 14 strikeouts. A year ago, he made two starts vs. Cleveland, giving up 12 runs on 14 hits with five walks and four strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings pitched.
In six starts since being acquired at the trade deadline from the Reds, Castillo is 2-1 with a 2.39 ERA, including nine walks and 43 strikeouts. The Mariners are 4-2 in his starts.