PEORIA, Ariz. — The 7,123 fans in attendance Thursday at the Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Ariz., came for a Cactus League baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres.

Instead, they were greeted with a score more indicative of a football game.

The Mariners lost to the Padres 27-6 on Thursday. It was a unique contest that had high winds and saw several outfielders lose balls in the sun.

Even with those factors and it being a spring training game with many major leaguers missing for the World Baseball Classic, there's still few positives to take away from a blowout of that nature.

Little, but not nothing.

Here's a pair of takeaways from Seattle's gridiron-esque loss to San Diego:

The Mariners' downturn Thursday started with a disappointing outing from starting pitcher Luis Castillo.

The three-time All-Star allowed six runs (five earned) on six hits (one home run) in 1.1 innings of work. He struck out two and walked one.

Castillo's six runs allowed accounted for half of a 12-run second inning for the Padres.

If there was one positive for Castillo, it was the velocity on his fastball.

"The Rock" threw 39 pitches in his second start of the spring. His four-seam fastball accounted for 20 of them. Both of his strikeouts were via the heater, which he also generated three of his six whiffs with, per Baseball Savant.

Castillo averaged 95.4 miles per hour with his fastball, slightly up from his 2025 average of 95 mph. His average velocity for the other pitches he offered — his slider, changeup and sinker — were all above his '25 average.

Castillo's two-seamer (sinker) saw the biggest uptick. He averaged 96.3 mph on three offerings, up from his '25 average of 94.8 mph. He threw the sinker for a strike twice.

"That's kind of a good showing of all the work we did (this offseason in the Dominican Republic)," Castillo said via interpreter Freddy Llanos after his start Thursday. "All I can do is continue to keep working here and keep putting in the same amount of work I put in the D.R. to keep the velocity rate. ... I think (the secondaries) are in a good spot. I think the most important thing for me is having the confidence with my secondary pitches to throw them in any situation, no matter the count during the game."

When Seattle signed first baseman/outfielder Rob Refsnyder this offseason, the expectation was he would be a platoon player against left-handed pitching — a role he's excelled at in the past.

It took several games, but Refsnyder got his first homer against a lefty Thursday. He hit a solo home run off Padres reliever JP Sears in the bottom of the fifth inning. The long ball had a distance of 441 feet with an exit velocity of 109.6 mph.

That homer was one-of-four for the Mariners. San Diego had eight in the game.

Refsnyder has a slash line of .250/.250/.500 with a .750 OPS in six games this spring. He's hit a double and his aforementioned homer with two RBIs in 16 at-bats.

Seattle will face American League West rivals, the Texas Rangers, at 12:05 p.m. PT on Friday at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Ariz.

Kade Anderson (No. 21 MLB Pipeline top 100) will start for the Mariners.

Remember to join our MARINERS on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Mariners fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!