Mariners' piggyback strategy under scrutiny again after loss to Red Sox

Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on Jun 20, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE — Finding a specific reason or aspect to blame for any loss can be complicated in baseball. The variables for potential success or failure are numerous. And so often they coincide with each other or have causal effects, giving merit to the oft-used philosophy that one player or one play didn’t decide the outcome of a baseball game.

Friday night’s disappointing 6-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox in front of a sellout crowd of 45,775 at T-Mobile Park can be looked at many ways.

Seeing Luis Castillo ride Bryce Miller’s solid start right into a noncompetitive game by giving up four funs in the seventh inning, gave plenty of fodder for those questioning the Seattle Mariners continued usage of the “piggyback philosophy.”

But others could simply look at the tepid offensive output from the Mariners, including a zero in the run column for most of the game, and believe that even if the piggyback had worked — as it had done in outings past — or had Miller been allowed to continue on after five solid innings, Seattle still would’ve lost.

Not only did the Mariners get held without a run for the first eight innings, but they also were no-hit for the first six innings by Red Sox starter Ranger Suárez.

And a more pragmatic fan might look at the whole mess and think, if Miller had been allowed to continue, the Mariners might have only had to rally from being down one instead of trying to rally from a five-run deficit with three innings to play.

And then the complications grew when Julio Rodríguez smashed a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth. His 14th homer of the season might’ve had far greater effect or consequences to the outcome if not for Castillo’s one bad inning. Of course, it’s also not necessarily fair to assume the Miller and the leverage relievers would’ve held Boston to just one run in the game, though the Red Sox have one of the worst offenses in MLB.

So many layers of blame — one outcome.

Logically, the one thing that went right in the opener of the three-game series vs. Boston was Miller’s outing.

The right-hander worked five innings, allowing just the one run on Caleb Durbin's homer along with a pair of singles while striking out seven and walking none. He threw 66 pitches with 46 strikes, including 15 whiffs on pitches. It’s also important to note that his fastball velocity dipped by about 2-3 mph by the fifth inning, which isn’t alarming but something to monitor.

He gave way to Castillo, following the piggyback plan agreed to by all six starters a week ago on the road trip in Washington D.C.

The veteran right-hander worked a quick 1-2-3 sixth inning, including striking out the first two batters he faced.

But his outing fell apart in the seventh. He gave up a leadoff double to Ceddanne Rafaela and things started to spiral. After getting his first out on a lineout to center, Castillo uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Rafaela to race home. Castillo then allowed four consecutive singles to Wilson Contreras, Jarren Duran, Durbin and Marcelo Mayer that led to three Boston runs. The second out was a sacrifice fly off the bat of Carlos Narvaez that made it 5-0.

Any other pitcher would’ve been pulled well before such carnage, but with Castillo needing to get his pitch up, the Mariners were somewhat obligated to keep him in the game. He put up a scoreless eighth inning but then allowed another run in the ninth.