Mariners' piggyback strategy backfires in loss to Red Sox

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 Red Sox in front of a sellout crowd of 45,775 at T-Mobile Park can be looked at many ways.

Tough, tough ballgame tonight," Mariners manager Dan Wilson said.

It was tough seeing Luis Castillo jump on and ride Bryce Miller's solid start right into a noncompetitive game by giving up four funs in the seventh inning, which gave plenty of fodder for those questioning the Mariners' continued usage of the "piggyback philosophy."

But others might find it tough to watch a 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.

"He made it difficult on us offensively tonight," Wilson said.

He wasn't the first lefty starter to make it tough on the Mariners, and he won't be the last. Seattle will see lefties in each of the last two games of the series.

And a more pragmatic fan might look at the whole mess and think, it's tough not to think that if Miller had been allowed to continue into the sixth, the Mariners might have only had to rally from being down one or two runs instead of trying to rally from a five-run deficit with three innings to play.

It got even more tough to analyze 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 impact or consequences to the outcome if not for Castillo's one bad inning.

A look at Baseball Reference reveals that teams have scored exactly two runs in a game 323 times this season coming into Friday night - only 45 times did they come out victorious. The Mariners are 2-5 when they score two runs.

And one could point out that Rodríguez wouldn't have been facing Tommy Kahnle in the ninth inning of a close game but fireballer closer Aroldis Chapman instead.

It's also not necessarily fair to assume that 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. But Seattle has held teams to one run or fewer in 17 games while Boston has scored one run or fewer in 17 games this season.

Confused yet?

So many layers of blame - one negative outcome.

The piggyback philosophy isn't the only reason the Mariners lost the game, but it certainly didn't help them win. The difficulty is this - it's a strategy with longer-term goals and benefits that can't be measured immediately or with traditional stats while fans live in the moment and look to the stat of "win now, dammit."

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.

"I thought Bryce threw the ball extremely well," Wilson said.

But not well enough to disrupt the predetermined pitching plan. Miller tried to be diplomatic.

"It's never easy coming out of a one-run game, especially when I felt like I was rolling," Miller said. "But it was the plan going into it, so not really much that I can say to change anybody's mind. I just did my five innings and threw some plyo balls against the wall to keep the pitch count up. When there's a preset plan, there's not really much arguing that you can do. It's like, 'this is what we're doing.'"

Counting Miller's outing, there have been 27 starters work exactly five innings and allow one run or fewer this season and throw under 75 pitches. Miller has two of them in the piggyback and Griffin Jax, who was being piggybacked with the Rays as he converts from reliever to starter has four of them. Only twice - Miller and Jax - have been saddled with a loss in them.

Miller gave way to Castillo after five innings, 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 Willson 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 Narváez that made it 5-0.

"Just a bad inning," Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. "I was able to put some pitches where I wanted to, but they were able to hit them and find holes in the defense."

Any other pitcher would've been pulled well before the inning could snowball to such levels, but with Castillo needing to get his pitch count 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.

Castillo said the plan is for him to start a game the next time the rotation turns.

"Even in a situation like this, nothing changes for me," he said. "Everything remains the same. The only difference is when I come into the game.

BOX SCORE

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 11:43 PM.