Mariners vs. Orioles: Dylan gives fans Moore, Castillo cooks up some soft contact, Julio flashes his gold glove

Seattle had a rough start to their road trip after getting outclassed by the Orioles over three games. To the team's credit, they did manage to pull out a close win in the second game of the series but were still outscored 18-9 over the course of the series.

Best Hitter: Dylan Moore

12 PA, .444/.583/1.111, 4 H, 3 2B, 1 HR, 4 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP

Dylan Moore continues to be an invaluable piece of the Mariners lineup and one of the more underrated players in baseball right now. He struck out just once against Orioles pitching and accumulated four extra base hits, including a home run off of John Means in the fifth inning. It was a 405-foot no-doubter that had an exit velocity of 104.3 mph, a great piece of hitting against a slow but painted 89.6 mph four-seam fastball.

Heading into the season, there's little chance that most would've correctly guessed which players would have the greatest offensive contribution at this point in the season. One of those pleasant surprises has been Dylan Moore who is currently the second-best qualified hitter on the Mariners by OPS+ (128). His season slash line of .229/.333/.450 is a good illustration of his three-outcome playstyle but it has been working. Combined with his impressive defensive flexibility, I wouldn't be surprised if he stuck around for the entire season and managed to cobble together 500+ plate appearances.

Honorable Mention: Luke Raley

12 PA, .417/.417/.583 5 H, 2 2B, 2 R

Raley has been on an absolute tear in the past few weeks and he stayed hot over the weekend. While the Mariners struggled as a team to make hard contact (they had 11 extra base hits in total), Raley managed to collect two more doubles over the three games. He also excelled at putting the ball in play, accumulating five hits and no strikeouts or walks.

His May continues to be an excellent month, posting a 1.097 OPS over his 48 plate appearances so far. However, his hot streak stretches back into the end of April, with his slash line for the last 28 days ending up at a .344/.382/.531. He's clearly made some necessary adjustments after a frigid March/April saw him post a .505 OPS. Hopefully these changes to approach will stick around for the long haul as he's currently the third-best qualified hitter on the Mariners with an OPS+ of 125.

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.