Inside The Mariners

Timely Hits Lead Seattle Mariners to 3-2 Win in Series Finale Against Detroit Tigers

Victor Robles and Dylan Moore provided the offense and Luis Castillo put together a quality start in the last game of the first homestead of 2025.
Teren Kowatsch|
Right fielder Victor Robles hits a two-RBI double during a game against the Detroit Tigers on April 2 at T-Mobile Park.
Right fielder Victor Robles hits a two-RBI double during a game against the Detroit Tigers on April 2 at T-Mobile Park. | Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images

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SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners fell prey to respective first inning showcases from the Detroit Tigers lineup the last two games. The Mariners avoided another similar situation and rode a quality start from Luis Castillo to a 3-2 win against the Tigers on Wednesday. Seattle avoided a sweep and closed out the first homestead of the season 3-4 with the win.

"Excellent ballgame today," Mariners manager Dan Wilson said in a postgame interview. "Got to hand it to (Castillo), just a really gutty performance today when we really needed it. Seven (innings) strong, just really handled that lineup very well from the first pitch all the way through. Just an outstanding effort. Gave us what we needed."

Detroit scored eight combined runs in the first innings the first two games of the series. It had a chance to add another to that total Wednesday after Riley Greene, who had two home runs Game 1 and 2 against Seattle, hit a one-out double. He was left stranded.

Victor Robles, who had the only hit for the Mariners on Tuesday, brought home Dylan Moore and J.P. Crawford with a two-RBI double for a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second.

Robles finished the game 1-for-4 with the two aforementioned RBIs. Moore added another score in the fourth with a solo homer to right field that gave Seattle its third and final run of the game. Moore finished 1-for-1 with that homer, an RBI, two runs and two walks.

The Tigers got to Castillo in the top of the fifth. Trey Sweeney hit a solo home run to right field and Greene brought home Zach McKinstry with an RBI groundout. Those two runs resulted in the eventual final of 3-2.

Castillo earned the win and finished with five strikeouts in seven innings pitched. He walked two batters and allowed two earned runs on five hits (one home run). He outdueled the defending American League Cy Young winner (and Seattle University alum) Tarik Skubal.

Skubal finished with eight strikeouts in 5.2 innings pitched but walked three and allowed three earned runs on six hits (one home run).

"For me, I always come with the mentality of just going out there, doing my job," Castillo said postgame via translator Freddy Llanos. "Trying to dominate the other opponent. ... But when you do face someone like that, like Skubal, a former Cy Young guy, you do get a whole other set of emotions. Just because you see the comparison or get the comparisons when it's someone who obviously won the Cy Young."

Gabe Speier held the lead in the eighth and retired the side in his second consecutive appearance. Andres Munoz got out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the ninth to earn his third save of the year. Munoz struck out two, walked two and gave up a hit.

"(Catcher Mitch) Garver did a really good job over there trying to give me a breath. It was a weird day for me," Munoz said postgame about his two walks. "Normally I am able to fix those things right away. Today it took me a while to fix that. I don't know. I'm going to keep working on it and hopefully that doesn't happen again. The important thing is that we got out of the inning (and) we win. That's the most important thing."

The Mariners' win on Wednesday gives them a 221-4 record since 2022 when entering the ninth inning with the lead — the best mark in baseball over that stretch.

Seattle will have an off day Thursday before playing its first road series of the year against the San Francisco Giants on Friday at Oracle Park. First pitch is set for 1:35 p.m. PT.

Bryce Miller will start for the Mariners and Justin Verlander will start for the Giants.

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Teren Kowatsch
TEREN KOWATSCH

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