SEATTLE -- If it truly is the end for the Mariners’ piggyback, at least for now, it went out with a bang.
Bryce Miller and Luis Castillo paired up for the third time this season in the Mariners’ series finale against the D-backs, and both did their jobs yet again -- this time for 10 innings -- before Victor Robles’ walk-off infield single gave Seattle a 3-2 win.
The victory pushed Seattle’s winning streak to six games.
Miller worked the first five innings on 71 pitches, holding Arizona scoreless and striking out six. His four-seam fastball was 1 mph slower than his season average, but he got seven of his season-high 17 whiffs with it.
Castillo took over in the sixth and immediately ran into traffic, allowing the D-backs’ first run on a wild pitch with two outs, but working out of the jam before Arizona could take a lead. He allowed another (unearned) run in the eighth after Josh Naylor committed an error on a sacrifice bunt attempt to put two runners in scoring position with no outs. But Castillo got out of it with the game still tied, thanks to a leaping grab by Cole Young to end the frame.
Then, in the 10th inning -- facing an inherited runner for the first time in his 10-year career -- Castillo got out of a first-and-third jam with one out, striking out Adrian Del Castillo and getting Ketel Marte to ground out weakly to end the threat and set Robles up to be the walk-off hero.
Looking at the three piggyback games collectively, the starters combined to go 14 2/3 scoreless innings, with four hits allowed and 17 strikeouts. The relievers combined to allow all six runs.
The Mariners are set to move on from the piggyback situation for this next pass through the rotation, switching things up to a six-man rotation with 13 games in the next 14 days.
That’s not a development either Castillo or Miller are likely to be upset about. For all of its results, the saga of the piggyback has been as much about its developments off the field as on it. The first iteration saw Miller visibly frustrated as he left the field in the middle of the sixth inning against the White Sox in what ended up being a 2-1 loss, when Castillo allowed two runs in his first experience pitching in the ninth inning since Sept. 11, 2020. Then in West Sacramento last Monday, Castillo was the one to get an early hook after four scoreless innings, and after a long conversation with Wilson was seen throwing his glove into the bench.
On Sunday -- perhaps because of the setup’s impending conclusion -- there was none of that. On Sunday, it all ended with smiles, and a mob on the field.