Mariners swept by Royals as offense goes quiet again

Adam Jude, The Seattle Times on May 3, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE — Luis Castillo was (a bit) better. The Seattle Mariners’ offense was not.

Playing without injured star Cal Raleigh for the second day in a row, the Mariners’ offense offered little thump in a 4-1 loss before 39,408 at T-Mobile Park and were swept by a Kansas City Royals squad that came into 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 the Puget Sound.

All four of the Mariners’ hits were singles.

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 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 Braves team that owns the best record in baseball at 25-10.

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. His velocity was up to 98.1 mph, his fastest-thrown pitch in any game since May 2024.

But the Royals loaded the bases with no outs off Castillo in the fourth inning and came away with three runs, the third of which came after veteran catcher/DH Salvador Perez deftly slid around a tag from new Mariners catcher Jhonny Pereda on a three-hop throw home from Julio Rodríguez.

The Mariners took 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.

Pereda, called up from Triple-A Tacoma on Saturday, made his Mariners debut behind the plate Sunday. He caught all nine innings and went 0 for 3.

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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