After an unexpected night off on Friday due to bad weather, the Seattle Mariners changed their pitching plans for the series opener against the Colorado Rockies in Denver, now scheduled for Saturday.
Friday’s game was scuttled after snow began falling in the afternoon and was forecast to go through the night, while temperatures were expected to dip into the 30s. That game will be made up Sunday as part of a day-night doubleheader.
The Mariners’ scheduled starter for Friday, right-hander Emerson Hancock (1-2, 7.98 ERA), will be pushed back to the second game on Sunday. Instead, right-hander Luis Castillo (0-4, 5.82) will go Saturday after five days’ rest.
Castillo, the ace of Seattle’s staff coming into the season, will have a tough act to follow after four pitchers combined on a one-hitter in a 5-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday.
“We are driven by our pitching staff and playing really good defense, and I think that’s the thing that stood out for me here over the last probably week or so is we have played much cleaner baseball,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said.
The Mariners gave up just five runs while sweeping the three-game set against the Reds, and they have won five of their past seven games.
“This pitching has been keeping us afloat,” designated hitter Mitch Garver said. “We’ve been winning some tight games. If we can continue to lay off the balls, hit the strikes, we’re in a good spot.”
Castillo is coming off the best of his four starts this season, when he surrendered three runs, two earned, on seven hits and no walks in six innings against the visiting Chicago Cubs on Sunday. He struck out nine but still took the loss when the Mariners could muster only five hits and fell 3-2.
In four career starts against the Rockies, Castillo is 1-3 with a 7.59 ERA over 21 1/3 innings. Coors Field has been especially troublesome for him: 0-2 with an 11.57 ERA in two starts.
The gloomy weather conditions loom as an apt reflection of how things are going for the Rockies.
Colorado has lost five in a row, and its four wins this season are tied with the Miami Marlins for the fewest in the National League. The Rockies were shut out twice as they went 1-5 during their just-concluded road trip. The trek ended with a sweep in Philadelphia.
Colorado is focusing on small victories, such as rallying for five late runs in a 7-6 loss to the Phillies on Wednesday.
“That’s our group. That doesn’t surprise me,” Rockies manager Bud Black said of the near comeback. “This is a great group of competitors. We’re falling short right now, but they won’t melt. They’ll keep fighting, and these things will turn.”
Right-hander Dakota Hudson (0-3, 4.15 ERA) will oppose Castillo on Saturday. Hudson, who signed a one-year contract with the Rockies after six seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, is coming off his shakiest start of the young season. At Toronto on April 13, he surrendered five runs on five hits and three walks in six innings en route to a 5-3 loss.
Hudson has never faced the Mariners.
Colorado will be without Kris Bryant until at least Wednesday. The 2016 NL MVP has experienced back stiffness after crashing into the wall in Toronto on April 13, and he was placed in the injured list, retroactive to Sunday.
The Rockies also announced that starter Kyle Freeland, who was originally scheduled to start a game in this series, was placed on the 15-day injured list with a left elbow strain.
Freeland made clear to reporters on Friday that the injury occurred in his start at Toronto on April 13 and not when he was pinch-running and collided with Philadelphia pitcher Jeff Hoffman at home plate on Monday.
Speaking about critics who blamed the injury on his baserunning exploits, Freeland said, “Those kinds of people need to get their facts straight before they spin a narrative off into social media.”
–Field Level Media
