When the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays meet Tuesday night in the middle game of a three-game series, both clubs will be looking to get right-handed starting pitchers back on track.
In the series opener on Monday in St. Petersburg, Fla., the Rays rallied for three runs in the eighth inning and emerged with a 4-3 win. Red-hot Yandy Diaz chopped a two-run single to right field to drive in the tying and go-ahead runs.
The Rays outhit Seattle 11-3, and two of the Mariners' hits were homers by Cal Raleigh and Mitch Garver. Even so, Tampa Bay improved to 16-7 in one-run games this year and 11-5 in its past 16 meetings with Seattle.
Now batting .273, Diaz stretched his hitting streak to an active American League-best 17 games.
Diaz said Jose Caballero drawing a two-out walk to load the bases before him was crucial to the rally.
"That was the at-bat of the game," Diaz said through a translator.
In the middle game of the series, Seattle manager Scott Servais will turn to three-time All-Star Luis Castillo, who has been far short of performing at a level worthy of the Midsummer Classic.
Castillo (6-8, 3.63 ERA) has been out of sorts over his past three starts, resulting in a 1-2 mark and a bloated 6.75 ERA. In that span, he allowed 12 runs in 16 innings to go along with 18 hits, three of them home runs.
In Cleveland on Thursday against the American League Central-leading Guardians, Castillo surrendered a two-run home run to Andres Gimenez and a solo shot to Will Brennan. Castillo yielded five runs on eight hits in five innings.
"When they're hitting like that -- in their ballpark -- it's going to be tough to beat them," Mariners manager Scott Servais said afterward of the Guardians. "Every inning is a battle. They're scrappy and they just keep coming."
Castillo, an artist with the changeup, has made three career starts against Tampa Bay, and the results have been strong: 1-0 with a 2.37 ERA. Across 19 innings, the 31-year-old has yielded five earned runs on 15 hits. He has struck out 22 and walked five.
Though he is coming off his best start in a month, Rays right-hander Zack Littell (2-5, 4.20 ERA) has struggled in June. He is 0-2 with a 6.63 ERA across four starts this month, having allowed 15 runs (14 earned) and 31 hits, including five home runs, in just 19 innings.
However, his outing on Thursday against the Minnesota Twins, the first team he pitched for in the majors, was an encouraging step in the right direction.
Littell, 28, tossed five innings and yielded two runs and five hits at Minneapolis in a contest the Rays ultimately won 7-6 in 10 innings.
The Burlington, N.C., native has a history with the Mariners.
Seattle selected him in the 11th round of the 2013 draft out of a North Carolina high school, but after signing and playing within the organization's farm system, he was traded to the New York Yankees after the 2016 season.
In one start and one relief appearance against the Mariners, Littell is 0-1 with a 1.00 ERA. In nine innings of five-hit ball, he has registered six strikeouts and one walk.
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