Mariners' slide gets salt in the wound as Luis Castillo goes off for White Sox

The trade that sent Luis Castillo to the Chicago White Sox was the closest thing to an amicable breakup as the Seattle Mariners could have hoped for. They ditched his contract and gained a real prospect, and Castillo got a fresh start with a contender. But if it's now a question of who's going to get the last laugh, the ol' Magic 8 Ball says the signs point to Castillo.

He made his second start for the White Sox on Wednesday, and his first in front of his new home crowd at Guaranteed Rate Field. The results: seven innings of shutout ball in which he allowed one hit and two walks, with 10 strikeouts.

There's nothing wrong with cheering for this. The Mariners deemed Castillo one of their 50 greatest players for a reason. He was both a great pitcher and a culture-changer, and everyone loved the guy even as his performance sunk to sub-replacement-level.

Yet it's also fair to frustratedly ask why "La Piedra" couldn't do for the Mariners what he just did for the White Sox. He didn't merely draw a season-high 22 swings and misses. He also got eight of those whiffs on the changeup, something he never did with the Mariners. They effectively had him shelve that pitch, so one's eyebrows naturally perk up when he says it's "about time for me to start having confidence in that pitch."

The Reds are the only team in MLB with a batting average lower than the Mariners', so maybe Castillo's big night will prove to be a one-off. But since the changeup is what he was known for prior to arriving in Seattle, perhaps he really does feel like himself again.

Meanwhile, Bryce Miller continues to be part of the problem for a skidding Mariners team

As Castillo was dominating the Reds, Bryce Miller labored through six innings of five-run ball against the New York Yankees. He was handed leads of 3-0 and 5-3, but couldn't keep either before the bullpen came in and failed to bail him out.

Another bad loss, in other words. That's now six in a row to drop the Mariners nine games under .500. A playoff spot is still only 4.0 games away in the standings, but might as well be on another planet.

Miller's spot in the rotation has become another major fault to go with the ones the Mariners have scoring runs and fielding balls. He's now posted a 6.12 ERA in his last six starts, all of which have resulted in Ls for Seattle. He said Wednesday night that he threw the ball well enough, but just couldn't execute. Fair enough. Still a drag, though.

Maybe it sounds like we're implying the Mariners traded the wrong guy, but nah. The Mariners do the Castillo trade 1,000 times out of 1,000 even if all they're getting is payroll relief. The fact that they also got a red-hot prospect in Boston Smith feels like a miracle. And as shaky as Miller has been lately, he still has a 116 ERA+ and 1.6 rWAR for the season.

It's just remarkable how nothing is going the Mariners' way right now. Every day feels like a disaster waiting to unfold. Every development elsewhere feels like salt in the wound. It's a setup for either an incredible comeback, or just a series of punchlines in a joke that won't end until September 27.

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