Blue Jays-Mariners Wild Card Game 1 Starting Pitching Review

The Toronto Blue Jays welcomed playoff baseball back to the City of Toronto, with game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Seattle Mariners hosted at the Rogers Centre. As previously mentioned, pitching was going to be the end game.

As former Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion chucked the ceremonial first pitch, current Blue Jays powerhouse ace, RHP Alek Manoah, took the bump. There was no better option for the Jays in game 1 than to throw a complete bull-dog competitor in such a tone-setting environment.

The Mariners went with fire-baller right-hander Luis Castillo, a new addition to the Seattle rotation. This matchup was one for the books, in one sense, and one to grow on in another. The Seattle Mariners took a huge win in the opener of this series, with a 4-0 win over the Blue Jays. What exactly happened?… or didn’t happen?

Blue Jays-Mariners Game 1 Starting Pitching Breakdown, Analysis, and Key Notes

Alek Manoah accepted the rubber tonight, leaving the “pressure” in his “tires”. The beginning of the game was rough; there were clear signs of frustration from the big right-hander, with some struggle to pound the zone. Manoah was consistent velocity-wise but had minimal fastball command. Manoah depended on his 2-seam fastball along the sinker, which was poorly located, despite Kirk’s setup. These two pitches worked up and in on the right side to both sides of hitters, plunking Julio Rodriguez twice, who came in to score both times, for two of the four Mariners runs.

The Mariners put up a three-spot in the first inning alone, inclusive of a homerun by Cal Raleigh. Needless to say, the storm came early and did the damage; the rest of the game was calm, despite the Mariners tacking on the 4th run in the 5th inning. It seemed that after the second inning, Alek was cruising. His back-door changeup and his slider were starting to work the corners, off the zone but were called on both sides; every pitcher in the building knew the umps were giving those outside corners like candy on October 31st. Unfortunately, with absent offense and Manoah’s 79 pitches in 5.2 innings, that was the end of his night.

Luis Castillo was absolutely dominant. Castillo took the hill in a jam-packed Toronto dome, completely silencing one of the most dangerous lineups in the Major Leagues. It’s easy to describe what we saw from Luis; pounded the zone, utilized the outside corners, heated up the radar gun, worked high and in, high and away, changed speeds, and worked low. Many Toronto hitters rolled over on off-speed, jammed, or fanned late at his consistent 99-100mph offerings. Castillo was calm and composed, like a day on the beach, trusting his stuff. He finished at 7.1 innings only giving up six hits, with no allowed runs, striking out five and putting the Blue Jays lineup to bed.

What did we see from Castillo? Pure art in late-bite and darting form. His fastball is his out pitch, touching 100mph consistently with a 26.4% put-away rate this year, keeping hitters at a .152 batting average against the heater.

His sinker is another gem, also coming 97-99mph, painting corners, and locating for strikes, away from the wheelhouses of big sticks. This pitch has a 2163 spin rate with a 13.7% put-away rate. Luis was dominant and the talk of this match, as the Mariners take game 1.

Game 2 will show Kevin Gausman for Toronto, and former Blue Jays LHP Robbie Ray for the Mariners.