Seattle Mariners Rally Falls Short in 7-6 Loss to San Diego Padres

That score remained pat until the bottom of the fifth inning. Castillo threw 34 pitches in the first inning, but was able to hunker down and prevent the Padres from growing their lead. He finished with six strikeouts, three walks and five earned runs on as many hits (one home run) in five innings pitched. He finished with 87 pitches.

"I think it's just part of the game," Castillo said. "I mean, you go out there and you continue battling. But, for me ... you kind of limit those pitches. It's those little errors. I think it's just one or two pitches that I was (misplaced). ... Sometimes those kind of cost you the game."

Seattle made it a whole new ball game with two big hits in the bottom of the fifth.

Left fielder Randy Arozarena hit a three-run homer to left field to cut San Diego's lead to 5-3. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez hit his own three-run home run to put the Mariners in front 6-5.

The Mariners' lead was short-lived.

In the top of sixth, the Padres were able to put two runs on left-handed Seattle reliever Caleb Ferguson for the eventual final of 7-6.

With two runners in scoring position and no outs, San Diego second baseman Jake Cronenworth tied the game 6-6 with an RBI single. Freddy Fermin followed with a sacrifice bunt that brought home Laureano.

The Mariners had runners on the corners with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and a runner on second in the bottom of the eighth, but failed to score in either situations. They finished 2-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left six on base.

"Our guys, the way they approached their at-bats tonight, and the way they battled through it, was outstanding," M's manager Dan Wilson said in a postgame interview. " ... In some ways, you know you're battling and you know you're fighting. I think coming back there, getting the two three-run homers after creating some traffic and getting on the base and getting the big blows and continuing those at-bats even after that — we didn't come out on top of this one, but we're ready to come back out tomorrow."

Seattle dropped to 71-62 on the season with the defeat. The club still trails the Houston Astros by 1.5 games in the American League West. The M's have a three game lead for the final AL wild spot over the Kansas City Royals.

The Mariners will look to take the series against the Padres in the rubber match at 1:10 p.m. PT on Wednesday. Bryan Woo will start for Seattle and Yu Darvish will start for San Diego.