Sports
Olney: How the Mariners’ plan unraveled in Game 4 — and what it means for Game 5
SEATTLE — Luis Castillo‘s smile was small and tight as he heard Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson tell him on the mound that he was being replaced. It was the third inning of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, with the Mariners trying to hold off the Toronto Blue Jays, who had already won one game on the Mariners’ home field. Castillo, who had thrown fewer pitches than he had in any of his 247 starts in the major leagues, nodded in assent — if not agreement — and handed the ball to his manager.
What happened before Wilson’s decision was bad; what occurred after was worse. The Mariners’ relievers failed to contain the Toronto offense, in an 8-2 loss, and with the series tied at two games apiece, Seattle will go into Game 5 with its pitching options even more complicated by how Wilson’s choices played out.
Every postseason decision is evaluated through the prism of the result, which is not always fair but is October reality.
“You make decisions,” Wilson said after the game, “and you have to live with them.”
What the Mariners’ staff had talked about going into Game 4, Wilson explained, was that Seattle wanted to be aggressive in going to the bullpen. When Toronto blew out the Mariners in Game 3, Wilson was able to hold back all of his best relievers: Gabe Speier, Matt Brash and Andres Munoz. Additionally, Bryan Woo — who had been Seattle’s best pitcher before getting hurt Sept. 20 — would be available out of the bullpen, if Wilson found a suitable opportunity.
Castillo is a three-time All-Star, the most accomplished of the Mariners’ vaunted rotation of starting pitchers, known for his sturdy reliability. He has also had a year of diminished stuff, with his swing-and-miss rate the lowest of his career; Toronto had scored eight runs in 10 innings against him during the regular season.
In the first two innings Thursday, Castillo threw crisply, attacking the strike zone with a fastball that reached 95 mph. But in the third inning, everything changed. Isiah Kiner-Falefa pulled a double down the third-base line, and with a 3-2 count, Andres Gimenez pulled a slider into the right-field stands, giving the Jays a 2-1 lead. Relievers began stirring in the Seattle bullpen, and as Nathan Lukes and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled, Speier quickly warmed up. Too many pitches in the middle, Cal Raleigh would say later.
Alejandro Kirk drew a walk to load the bases. Wilson’s options in that moment: stick with Castillo, or summon Speier, a lefty, to face left-handed hitting Daulton Varsho.
Wilson emerged from the dugout and didn’t immediately signal to the bullpen; rather, he spoke to Castillo, telling him he was intending to call on Speier. Castillo had thrown only 48 pitches, the fewest in his nine-year career. He returned to the dugout and watched the rest of the inning play out from the top step.
“It’s a tough decision,” Wilson said, “and it was not an easy one to tell him. But that’s what we went with.”
Varsho fell behind 1-2 in the count, but he fouled off two pitches and worked the count full before drawing a walk. Toronto’s lead was 3-1. Speier struck out the next two hitters to avoid further trouble, and Castillo met him with a high-five as he stepped into the dugout.
In the next inning, Speier pitched himself into trouble again. After a Kiner-Falefa single and a sacrifice bunt, right-handed hitting George Springer batted next.
Wilson had three options in that moment:
He could have summoned Brash, his best set-up man, to face Springer. He could have effectively compelled Speier to pitch around Springer. Or, with the left-handed hitting Lukes on deck and Guerrero set to follow, he could allow Speier to face Springer.
Wilson went with the third option, and Springer ripped a double into the left-field corner, extending the Jays’ lead to 4-1. By the time Lukes grounded out, Speier — the best left-handed option in the Seattle bullpen — had thrown 32 pitches, more than any outing in his career.
Wilson summoned Brash into the game with the Mariners down by three runs — probably not the situation the manager envisioned at a time when his team was leading the series. Seattle’s bullpen had to cover 20 outs Thursday.
Bryce Miller starts Friday, in the Mariners’ final chance to win a championship series game in front of their home crowd. This series is guaranteed to return to Toronto — but whether it does with a Seattle lead is up to Miller and a bullpen that was used heavily in Thursday’s loss.
“We did use bullpen guys tonight, but they were very well rested again,” Wilson said. “So I think that we’re still in good shape in terms of our bullpen and also, we have Bryan down there as well, and we’ll utilize him when the time is right.”
It is unclear how Castillo felt about all of this. In his time with the Mariners, he has been known for consistently sticking around to answer questions after his starts, good or bad. But by the time reporters were permitted into the Mariners’ clubhouse after Game 4, Castillo was gone.
Sports
OutKick attends Dodgers-sponsored awards show honoring trans swimmer Lia Thomas: Here’s what happened
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HOLLYWOOD – Trans swimmer Lia Thomas has resurfaced after largely disappearing from public view.
On Thursday night in Los Angeles, the former UPenn swimmer, born William Thomas, arrived at the Serra on Vine, wearing a purple dress and stilettos — standing about 6-foot-5 — to accept the “Voice of Inspiration Award” at the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards.
The event, organized by the nonprofit Rainbow Labs, was sponsored in part by Los Angeles sports organizations such as the Dodgers and LA Football Club.
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Penn Quakers swimmer Lia Thomas finishes eighth in the 100 freestyle at the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 19, 2022. (Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports)
Leading up to Thomas’ speech, a mention of the Dodgers’ sponsorship drew light applause from the crowd, though no one from the team spoke during the program.
LAFC, Dodgers Among Those Backing Thomas And LGBT Activists
After mingling with the crowd and two drag performances, Lia Thomas took the stage to accept the Voice of Inspiration Award and proceeded to double down on finding purpose in trans activism.
But before that, a video montage played about Thomas, tracing the path from competing on the men’s team as William Thomas, to entering the women’s competition in 2022 as Lia Thomas.
Thomas was portrayed as an athlete fighting for acceptance while facing backlash.
“Incredible shout out to everybody at Rainbow Labs for bringing me here and everybody and putting this all together,” Thomas started.
Thomas, 26, accepted the “Voice of Inspiration Award” at the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday night. (Alejandro Avila/OutKick)
“It makes me very emotional because I remember all too well not that long ago being 18 and just realizing that I’m trans.”
Thomas, 26, continued, “And feeling so excited at the prospect of being able to be who I am, but feeling so terrified to take those steps because I didn’t know any other trans people. I didn’t — I barely knew what being trans meant.
“Being open and out in myself felt like this impossible mountain to climb, and I didn’t know if I had the strength to do it.”
Thomas credited having trans mentors who helped the swimmer reconcile a trans identity with athletics.
Thomas said, “It’s only because of so many amazing, amazing trans mentors that I was able to find that strength and that courage to go out and be myself and finally reconcile my ‘transness’ and my swimmer identity and be able to compete as a now trans woman.”
Lia Thomas Calls Trans Platform ‘My Purpose’
After Thomas joined the competition, female athletes, including OutKick’s Riley Gaines, spoke up to denounce men playing in women’s sports.
During the 2024 campaign trail, then-President-elect Donald Trump proved to be a big supporter of Gaines and other women, raising concerns about competing against men.
Their influence led to Trump’s executive order banning biological males from competing in women’s sports.
The president even paused federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over allowing Thomas to compete with women, though eventually UPenn became the third school to reject the president’s funding conditions.
“And I’m so grateful for them — for those people and those mentors — and I’m so happy that organizations like Rainbow Labs exist,” Thomas added, saying people reached out on social media with “messages of violence.”
Thomas, 26, accepted the “Voice of Inspiration Award” at the 2025 Violet Visionary Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday night. ( Alejandro Avila/OutKick)
“If I had had an organization like that as a kid to give me the knowledge and language to describe my transness, how important that would have been. Because I faced a lot of harassment. I got a lot of messages of violence against me in my Instagram comments and DMs. I didn’t know what to do.”
Speakers throughout the night cast LGBT Americans as living under oppression and celebrated transgender-identifying people as the event’s heroes.
Nearly 70 percent of Americans oppose transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, and Thomas’ inclusion has also sparked controversy over allowing men to share women’s locker rooms.
Thomas remains undeterred, even after all the controversy, calling a platform as an influential trans figure “my purpose.”
EX-UPENN SWIMMER LIA THOMAS TO RECEIVE ‘VOICE OF INSPIRATION’ AWARD AT DODGERS-SPONSORED EVENT
Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas speaks to her coach after winning the 500-meter freestyle during an NCAA college swimming meet with Harvard at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Jan. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
“But I owe so much to those mentors before me that it sort of was clear that I had to be that next beacon in a line of torches going back hundreds of years of trans people. That was my purpose. That was what I was here to do,” Thomas stated.
“And so to be able to be that next light for people is an honor I can’t describe. It means more than anything. And I’m so grateful for the opportunity to do that. And so thank you all so much.”
Since Thomas’ inclusion in collegiate women’s swimming (presided over by the NCAA), women’s rights activists like Riley Gaines — having competed against Thomas — have called out the loss of opportunities and awards for women due to the inclusion of trans athletes, which networks like ESPN have promoted.
Lia Thomas Was Quiet, But Won’t Go Away
As more people spoke up against Thomas and similar cases, like trans volleyball player Blaire Fleming, Thomas started to lose some of the favor awarded by the media.
The tone of the evening reflected an effort to move mainstream American culture toward a fuller embrace of LGBT identity and activism.
Also speaking at the event, on behalf of an LA Football Club group, spokeswoman Daisy Chavez shared a commitment to supporting “queer folks” within the Los Angeles community.
“We are a community of queer fans, local leaders, supporters, and activists of the Los Angeles Football Club. And if you don’t know, we follow sports because we’ve always been here. We’ve been athletes, we’ve been fans, we’ve been lovers of the sports.
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“And so our presence with this club reminds not just the club, the community, but the world that we’ve always been here. And so we cheer, full of joy and love for our local community, but also we represent for our queer folks, and we’re so proud of being there every step of the way.”
Once all the awards were presented — one also went to a gender-nonconforming trans female named “Alok” — the event ended with a stripper show.
For an evening devoted to inspiration, the show’s final acts offered a strikingly different kind of message.
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