The Seattle Mariners announced Monday that RHPs George Kirby and Luis Castillo will start Game 3 and Game 4 of the American League Championship Series respectively. The announcement comes on the heels of Bryan Woo throwing his simulated game on the field in Toronto, lining the righty up to be ready for Game 5 on Friday.
The alignment is identical to the way Seattle has set up Kirby and Castillo in the ALDS, seeking to utilize their more contact-dependent flyball pitchers in the contact graveyard that is T-Mobile Park, aka the anti-Coors Field. Against a Toronto Blue Jays ballclub that strikes out less than any other team in MLB, managing contact is absolutely essential, as Bryce Miller managed to do beyond all expectations in Game 1.
There’s a hint of disappointment that Woo won’t be going sooner. However, given both the effectiveness and rest calendar for Kirby and Woo allowing both a fairly sizable recuperation period, particularly with the relatively lower pitch counts they’ve ultimately used despite the stress levels therein, it’s difficult to complain. By the time Woo (hopefully) is able to go in a Game 5 that Seattle theoretically could make unnecessary, it will have been two day shy of a full month since pectoral tightness pulled Woo from his last game outing in Houston.