Mariners swept by Royals as offense goes quiet again

Luis Castillo was a bit better. The Mariners offense was most decidedly not.

Playing without injured star Cal Raleigh for the second day in a row, the Mariners offense offered no thump and no fight in a 4-1 loss before 39,408 at T-Mobile Park and were swept by a Royals squad that came into the series with one of the worst records in baseball.

Kansas City left-hander Kris Bubic held the Mariners to one run on four hits over seven sharp innings, a second straight sleepy performance from Seattle's offense on a picture-perfect spring weekend around Puget Sound.

All four of the Mariners' hits were singles. They are now 4-7 against left-handed starting pitchers.

We'll make the adjustments that we have to," M's manager Dan Wilson said, adding: "Baseball is about consistency, and that's what we want to get to. Right now, it seems like we're going through some swings back and forth."

After a promising stretch in which they'd won six of seven to climb back to .500, the Mariners (16-19) came home and lost three straight for what was supposed to be a feel-good weekend built around Randy Johnson's number retirement.

Instead, the Mariners placed top reliever Matt Brash on the injured list Friday, learned of Raleigh's side injury Saturday and then got swept Sunday.

On Monday, the Mariners will play host to an Atlanta team that owns the best record in baseball at 25-10.

Bainbridge native JR Ritchie, Atlanta's 22-year-old rookie right-hander, is scheduled to start Monday's series opener against the Mariners' Logan Gilbert.

Castillo was sharp early, throwing three scoreless innings to open Sunday's game.

The 33-year-old right-hander was up to 98.1 mph early. It was his fastest-thrown pitch in any game since May 2024, an encouraging bounce-back after his fastball had dipped to an average of 93.5 mph last Monday in an 11-4 loss in Minnesota, played in some dreadfully wet conditions.

Castillo credited the warm weather - 75 degrees at first pitch - for helping him feel better on the mound Sunday.

"In Minnesota, we had to battle some the weather (and) we weren't able to get too comfortable," Castillo said, via team interpreter Freddy Llanos. "But based on this weather, I was able to get that velocity (back), and definitely happy that I saw that velocity tick up."

The Royals broke through with three runs in the fourth inning against Castillo, after loading the bases with no outs.

Castillo walked in a run to give the Royals a 2-1 lead.

Salvador Perez, the Royals' veteran catcher/designated hitter, deftly slid around a tag from new Mariners catcher Jhonny Pereda on a three-hop throw home from Julio Rodríguez to make it 3-1.

Castillo managed to complete six innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts on 101 pitches.

It was, yes, a better showing from Castillo after a rough April in which he had an 8.06 ERA in five starts, sparking uncertainty about his place in the rotation with the impending return of Bryce Miller (oblique strain) at some point in the next two weeks.

"I'm about nine years in the league ... (and) same routine, same preparation from one start to another," Castillo said. "Sometimes there are obstacles that happen throughout the season and there's bad luck. But it's not going to last the entire season. So just continue working, preparing and good things will come."

The Mariners had taken a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Leo Rivas worked a leadoff walk, advanced on a first-to-third sprint following a Rodríguez single and then scored on a Josh Naylor fielder's choice grounder to first base.

That would be it for the M's offense.

"We just weren't able to barrel anything today, Wilson said.

Pereda, called up from Triple-A Tacoma on Saturday, made his Mariners debut at catcher Sunday. He caught all nine innings, threw out one of two runners attempting to steal second base, and went 0 for 3 at the plate.

Raleigh said he tweaked his side during Friday night's game against the Royals, then woke up Saturday feeling particularly sore. The Mariners haven't ruled out a potential IL stint for their All-Star catcher, but the club is optimistic he'll need only days, not weeks, to recover.

Mariners right-hander Nick Davila, called up from Double-A Arkansas on Saturday, made his major-league debut in the ninth inning. He worked around a leadoff walk to escape with a scoreless inning when the Royals' Kyle Isbel was thrown out on an 8-4-2 relay to the plate.

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This story was originally published May 3, 2026 at 4:55 PM.