Friday was exactly why the Seattle Mariners gave up three of their top prospects at the trade deadline to get Luis Castillo. The hard-throwing righty rolled into the Rogers Centre and absolutely carved up an electric Toronto Blue Jays lineup, tossing 7.1 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing just six hits while striking out five.

In the process, Castillo set a franchise mark, becoming the first Mariners pitcher ever the throw 7+ innings in the postseason and not surrender a single run.

Via Alex Mayer:

“Luis Castillo is the first pitcher to throw 7.0+ scoreless innings in Mariners postseason history.”

Quite an impressive feat, even though Seattle hasn't been in the playoffs since 2001. Nonetheless, it just shows how special Castillo really is. He's undoubtedly the ace of the M's staff, putting his best foot forward every fifth day.

Seattle did a tremendous job of inducing tons of ground balls early on in the start with his fastball that sat consistently in the high 90s, even touching triple-digits on numerous occasions.

Offensively, the Mariners didn't do a whole lot, but it was enough. Eugenio Suarez put them ahead in the first inning with an RBI double after Julio Rodriguez was plunked by Alek Manoah. Cal Raleigh, the man who sent the M's through to the playoffs last week, then slugged a two-run bomb to right field.

Between Luis Castillo dealing and the offense coming up with some timely hits, the Mariners are now just one win away from an ALDS date with the Houston Astros. Robbie Ray gets the ball in Game 2 on Saturday against his former team.