Castillo casts aside Royals; KC loses 3-2

It’s going to be tempting to lay this loss at the feet of Royals starting pitcher Alec Marsh. After all, he walked a pair and gave up a pair of home runs in only 5.2 innings, including one of those walks in front of one of those home runs.

Don’t get bogged down by that.

Marsh pitched a pretty good, though far from perfect game. In the end, he only allowed eight baserunners and struck out nine. Usually, if you strike out more guys than you allow on base, you’re going to have a good day. He finished one out shy of a quality start. And sure, quality starts aren’t guarantees of wins, but when you earn them you generally have kept your team in the game. Alec Marsh may or may not develop into a top-of-the-rotation starter, but if he regularly pitches like he did today, his floor is as a backend starter, and there’s still value in that role.

No, the fault for this loss lies with Luis Castillo, ace of the Mariners. The big righty swamped the Royals with six strikeouts and only allowed two baserunners in seven innings - both in the second inning. Were it solely up to him, the first home run against Marsh would have been enough to give Seattle the win.

The Mariners did have to go to their bullpen and first they asked former Royal Gabe Speier to try and get things done. The left-hander the Royals let leave town for absolutely nothing has been quite good this year. But you wouldn’t have known it by today’s appearance. Michael Massey collected a single before Nelson Velázquez arrived to the plate, the sole righty Speier would be asked to face today. Then, just as Ryan LeFebvre bemoaned the fact that after setting a Royals record with four home runs in his first five games, Velázequez had only a single on the entire road trip, Speier left one up for him.

The Royals would add two more hits and a stolen base in the inning, but an exceptional defensive play by third baseman Eugenio Suarez robbed Kyle Isbel of a chance to tie things up when he corralled a hard-hit groundball down the line to get a forceout at second. Salvador Perez came to to the plate with two on and two out but struck out. Then Andrés Muñoz struck out the side in the ninth to complete the Mariners’ sweep.

In more positive news, John McMillon continues to look like a dude in the bullpen. He struck out two in a perfect eighth inning. He has made four appearances so far in his big league career and struck out a pair in each of them. He has not yet walked a batter and he’s only given up one run, a homer in his debut.

The Royals return home tomorrow to face the Pirates in the first of a three-game set. Zack Greinke will resume his starting duties for the Royals. Johan Oviedo will go for the Pirates.