SEATTLE — The normally cool facade that Luis Castillo operates with on the mound was interrupted at times Thursday night. There were second glances at home plate umpire Larry Vanover following unfavorable calls on borderline pitches. And more than a few frustrated head shakes at pitches that simply didn’t go to their intended locations.

It became apparent in the second inning that this outing wasn’t going to be anything like last year’s opening day brilliance where he was basically unhittable for six innings.

Instead, Castillo gave up four runs in five innings of work, the Mariners’ middle relievers allowed two more runs and Seattle’s offense couldn’t keep up in a 6-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox to open the 2024 season.

A sell-out crowd of 45,377 shrugged off the chilly weather to celebrate in the opening-day festivities that featured a guy spinning a flaming trident, Ichiro presenting Julio Rodriguez with his Silver Slugger award, Nelson Cruz throwing out the first pitch to Felix Hernandez and then signing a one-day contract to retire as a Mariner and an in-game salmon race.

They also got to see the Mariners’ seven-game winning streak on opening day end. It was just their second loss in the last 12 opening day games.

It could have been so much more with Mitch Haniger smacking a two-run homer in his first game back as a Mariner and Dylan Moore launching a rare pinch-hit two-run homer.

But the Mariners offense failed to keep up with Boston.

Of course, Seattle’s success in season-opening games has largely been based on their starting pitching, with Felix Hernandez often dominating those starts.

Castillo, perhaps the closest pitcher to Hernandez in terms of talent and stuff, just couldn’t locate with any sort of consistency. Of the 24 batters he faced, he threw first-pitch strikes to only 13. Red Sox hitters swung at 41 pitches from Castillo, fouling off 19 and whiffing on just six. His only clean inning was the top of the first when he retired the top of the Red Sox lineup in order, including strikeouts of Rafael Devers and Trevor Story.

The Red Sox grabbed a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Emmanuel Valdez led off with a single. It looked like Castillo might escape the inning unscathed, retiring the next two hitters. But Devers, Boston’s best hitter, took advantage of an 0-1 sinker that leaked back on to the outer corner of the plate. The left-hander put a simple swing on fastball away, sending it into the Mariners bullpen for a two-run homer.

Boston pushed the lead to 3-0 in a pitch-filled fourth inning. With Tyler O’Neill on third, Ceddanne Rafael hit a ball down the third base line. Josh Rojas made a nice backhand stop, but only had one play — throw it home. The throw hit off O’Neill’s helmet and bounced away allowing him to score.

Haniger’s two-run homer to right field off Red Sox starter Brayan Bello in the bottom of the fourth cut the lead to 3-2 in the third inning.

Boston got another run back against Castillo in the fifth on a fielder’s choice with runners on second and third. In the fifth inning, Rafaela tripled into the left field corner off lefty Tayler Saucedo. He later scored when Connor Wong somehow singled to right on a pitch that was eight inches off the plate.

Moore was called on to pinch-hit in the seventh inning with Joely Rodriguez on the mound and Haniger on first base.

He launched a fastball over the wall in center to cut the lead to 5-4.

But again the Red Sox added to their lead. O’Neill, a one-time Mariners prospect, hit a solo homer off Cody Bolton in the eighth inning. It was the fourth straight season where O’Neill homered on opening day

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