PHILADELPHIA -- The Mariners couldn’t get out of town quick enough on Wednesday afternoon.
An 11-2 loss to the Phillies that capped a three-game sweep at Citizens Bank Park trip was the latest gut punch on Seattle’s 2-7 road through the East Coast.
They hung around despite a grind of an outing from their starter, remarkably made it a one-run game late but were ultimately plagued by a few critical bullpen decisions that allowed Philly to deliver multiple daggers in a runaway seventh inning.
That said, the final score was more indicative of how things had played out for most of the game, as Philly finished with 20 hits to bring their series tally to 48.
“I feel like the key is how we respond as a team,” said Julio Rodríguez, who put the Mariners on the board with a first-inning homer. “It's easy to go through a time when it's easy, when everybody's playing good and all that. But it's how do we respond in this situation?”
Clinging to a 3-2 deficit, Tayler Saucedo -- among the roster’s lowest-leverage relievers -- was deployed to face the bottom of the order. But he wound up recording just one out while surrendering five runs among seven batters faced.
Saucedo walked Brandon Marsh on four pitches then hit Harrison Bader in a 1-1 count with one out, but things turned for the worse via red-hot Bryson Stott, who punched an opposite-field, RBI single past Eugenio Suárez, who’d moved back to cover third base on contact.
Trea Turner followed with a chopper that went over Saucedo’s head and off of Cole Young’s glove in front of second base, then Kyle Schwarber yanked a single past Josh Naylor and generated a wide throw to the plate from right fielder Luke Raley.
And Bryce Harper went for the jugular with an opposite-field grounder past J.P. Crawford, who was shaded towards second base, to cover Schwarber and protect a shift.
It was at that point that Dan Wilson -- who was managing in his 162nd career game -- relieved Saucedo for Sauryn Lao, who was selected from Triple-A Tacoma on Tuesday.
“This has been a series where they've swung the bat, and you’ve got to give them a little bit of credit,” Wilson said. “It seems like they hit some balls hard, but a lot of what they didn't hit hard also found holes and just made it difficult.”
There was a lot to unpack from that fateful seventh, but it was set up by preceding pitching decisions. And much of the bullpen’s burden fell on Luis Castillo lasting just four innings after 85 pitches, though he surrendered only three runs despite allowing 22 baserunners. And his velocity was down 1.1 mph on each of his fastballs.
“But I was able to tick it up as the game went on,” Castillo said through an interpreter while reiterating that he’s fully healthy. “But I've always said, it's a long season and you're not always going to come out and throw your fastest. Sometimes, you're just going to have some of these days.”
The seventh likely would’ve been reserved for Matt Brash, but Brash was called on with two on and one out in the sixth to work out of a jam that began with Caleb Ferguson. Brash was at only 10 pitches but he also threw 22 pitches on Tuesday.
Wilson then opted for Saucedo instead of Gabe Speier, conceivably, to deploy Speier against Schwarber and Harper. Speier was seen warming, but by the time those sluggers came up, it was a three-run game.
“He's thrown the ball really well for us since coming back [from Tacoma on Friday],” Wilson said of Saucedo, “and particularly against the lefties, getting some contact, and a lot of it on the ground. But again, a lot of their stuff was finding holes.”
Aside from Speier and Lao, who was in mop-up duty, the only other options for the seventh would’ve been Carlos Vargas, who was unavailable after covering three innings on Monday, and Andrés Muñoz, who would’ve been used in the eighth or ninth.
“Those are tough calls there,” Wilson said. “And it seemed like they were able to add on just a little bit too much there.”
Beyond Castillo, it’s been a rough stretch for Seattle’s rotation, which is intact for the first time all season after Bryce Miller returned from the IL on Tuesday. During their first turn through, that group had a combined 8.42 ERA as part of a season-worst-tying five-game losing streak.