SEATTLE -- The piggyback experiment between Bryce Miller and Luis Castillo nearly worked to perfection on Tuesday night, even if it made the entirety of T-Mobile Park watch through their fingers at the very end.
The Miller/Castillo tandem had the club on the cusp of what would’ve been its most dramatic victory in this up-and-down 2026 season. But instead, the tight rope that those two tried to walk snapped from under them in the ninth inning. And it culminated with maybe the most agonizing defeat -- a 2-1 loss to the White Sox -- in this campaign in which the Mariners are clearly still trying to find themselves.
“It feels like we've given games away multiple times,” said Miller, who carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning. “And the season is still early. And luckily, the division has been pretty bad. So we've still got plenty of time. But I don't know. I feel like at this point, we very easily could be five to 10 games up on the division and separating.”
Andrés Muñoz surrendered the game-tying and go-ahead runs on consecutive one-out singles, after taking over that fateful ninth for Castillo, who issued a leadoff walk to Munetaka Murakami and hit Miguel Vargas.
Wilson opted to stick with Castillo to the finish line, after he escaped the game’s biggest jam up to that point one inning prior. As such, Muñoz -- who typically needs a more extended warmup period and is accustomed to entering with a clean inning -- was not seen warming until the ninth began.
After the first two batters against Castillo reached, the Mariners initiated a mound visit -- but from pitching coach Pete Woodworth, not Wilson. It was an effort to allow Muñoz more time to warm, because immediately after Woodworth returned to the dugout, Wilson then attempted a pitching change but was denied by home-plate umpire Ryan Blakney.
“You're not allowed to go back out,” Wilson said. “And that’s on me.”
That part proved mostly moot, as Castillo zeroed in and struck out Colson Montgomery. Then came the call to Muñoz, who on his second pitch of the game was the victim of a double steal that put both inherited runners in scoring position.
The immediate jam presented somewhat unfamiliar territory for Muñoz, who’s entered with none on and none out in 72 of his 75 outings before extra innings since ‘25.
“We talked about, before the game started, that different scenarios exist in this piggyback situation,” Wilson said, explaining the decision-making of sticking with Castillo at that point. “And 'Rock' had gotten in there a little bit later. We felt really comfortable with ‘Rock’ out there, especially the way he was throwing the ball. And it just didn't go our way there in the ninth.”
This was an even more novel night for Castillo, who’d only once pitched in relief over his 10-year career -- during last October’s 15-inning marathon that clinched the American League Division Series. Per Elias, he became just the eighth pitcher since 1900 to make his first career relief appearance after at least 250 career starts.
Castillo began warming in the sixth, just after Miller’s 17th batter connected for Chicago’s first hit of the night.
Wilson first went to José A. Ferrer, who got out of the sixth by striking out Murakami, before giving Castillo a clean seventh.
“They told me I'd probably be coming in somewhere around the sixth, seventh inning,” Castillo said through an interpreter. “So for me, it was just getting prepared, getting ready for whenever they called me.”
Miller, meanwhile, expressed more visible frustration than at any point in his career on the mound when pulled after 72 pitches and when speaking postgame.
It was a rare sight for maybe the roster’s most affable player, who was making his second start off the IL. Yet, his body language and remarks spoke to where Seattle stands when zooming out amid a 23-27 record, and where the rotation goes from here with this piggyback strategy.
“It's a tough situation,” Miller said. “I mean, we have six guys that are really good starters. So it's, somebody has to do something. And at the end of the day, we want to win, and however we need to do that, we'll do it.”
The piggyback is still very much in beta. Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto suggested during a midgame interview with Mariners.TV that it’s possible Castillo starts the next turn through and Miller follows. But that’s written in pencil.
Aside from the decisive ninth, the truest culprit amid the Mariners’ maddening turn of events was that they had just one hit from their 34 plate appearances.
And it came from their second batter of the game, when Julio Rodríguez chipped a single that led to a bases-loaded opportunity. But it yielded only one run, via an RBI forceout from Patrick Wisdom, their No. 5 hitter who was appearing in just his second game.
“We weren't able to get traffic and get the ball going, and it's frustrating for sure,” Wilson said.