Best Pitcher: Luis Castillo
6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 2 K
Castillo had an uncharacteristic outing against the Orioles but he did enough to avoid damage and come away with the quality start. He usually relies a lot on strikeouts and is in the top quartile of all pitchers for strikout rate (26.8%). He was only able to punch out two hitters and had just five swings and misses over his six innings of work. His four-seam fastball also struggled to find the zone a bit, being thrown for 12 balls and just four called strikes and two swinging strikes. Nonetheless, because he gave up just two earned runs, Seattle was able to escape with a narrow 4-3 win.
Mariners pitchers did not have the greatest time in Baltimore. Both George Kirby and Bryce Miller gave up at least four earned runs in their starts and struggled to strike out more than three batters. The Orioles have the fourth-best offense in MLB with a team OPS of .752 but have a strikeout rate of 21.6%, so they should've been vulnerable to Seattle's excellent pitching staff.
Honorable Mention: Eduard Bazardo
2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
Bazardo hasn't pitched much for the Mariners since being traded from the Orioles in August 2023, throwing a total of just 18.2 innings since then, only five of which have been in 2024. He was placed on the injured list right before the season due to a right rotator cuff strain but he was activated at the beginning of the month. He entered the first game in the seventh inning after Kirby Snead had a disastrous outing where he was unable to record a single out.
He took on the final two innings of relief and kept things scoreless, although the game was already out of reach at that point with the Mariners down by seven runs heading into the eighth inning. Bazardo is a particularly interesting bullpen piece since he hasn't pitched more than 16.1 innings in any season of his major league career but he seems to have plenty of potential.